Old-fashioned Gingerbread (Barefoot Contessa)

Hi everyone! I'm back!

The past two weeks of our holidays have been cruising off fast. We enjoyed and missed our Phuket and Singapore trip and also strangely like the fact that we are back to our normal routine.

Now back to blogging...

When I first saw this old-fashion gingerbread recipe, I know our ginger-cake loving auntie J and K will love this cake and so I have baked and brought a couple of these gingerbread to Singapore for them.

This recipe originates from Barefoot Contessa being gingerbread cupcakes with orange icing and exact replicates are also found in Food Network at either here or here, showing that this recipe can be baked in forms of cupcakes or old-fashioned loaves.

Nice to know that both recipes mentioned at Food Network at here and here are highly-rated and reviewed. Reading these reviews is interesting and beneficial and these are the tips that I have learned:

• Surprise! Surprise! This cake contains NO eggs and added white sugar. I have stick on to this recipe and my egg-less cake has turned out to be amazingly moist and delicious. A few reviews mentioned that they were skeptical baking this recipe with no eggs and added three eggs in theirs and strangely, their cakes with eggs turned out well too.
• This versatile cake can be baked with many substitutions such as extra ginger, dried cranberry, walnut, lemon, cardamon and more...
• Yes that this cake is the moist, syrupy and dense kind. Please do not bake this cake if you are not a fan of cakes with compact texture.

And these are tips that I like to share with everyone:

• Yes that this gingerbread contains orange zest. I reckon that this addition is a must as it makes the cake extra fragrant.
• The raisins used can be pre-boiled with either rum or water. Instead, I have used Marsala (an Italian sweet wine) and it works very well for me.
• It is not difficult at all to mix this cake batter and all you need is a hand whisk and moderate arm strength to mix.
• The finial cake batter can be firm and difficult to mix but remember not to over-mix.
• The moisture of the cake develops with time and become moister on the next day.
• The cake can be more compact, stickier and sweeter when it is stored in the fridge and served without resting at room temperature. So, do remember to warm up your cake after removing it from the fridge.

I have baked two loaves and added minced fresh ginger in one specially for auntie J and K.

Surprise! Surprise! Yes that we are very surprised!!! ... that this fully packed dense ginger cake is actually very delicious. Surprise that my boy and the non-ginger-cake-loving me are loving it too! As suggested, the cake can be served with either orange frosting or orange icing but an old-fashion-grandma-like me was enjoying one slice of this cake with my favourite orange-scented yogurt.

Knowing that this cake is definitely good, I'm not surprised at all that both my aunties said "shiok!" (meaning "wow" in Singapore and Malaysia context) when they were enjoying these cakes. *smile*

A beautiful Gingerbread recipe by Barefoot Contessa

These cakes were made with crystallised ginger and I have added fresh ginger on only 1 loaf.

I boiled mine longer to fully vaporize the alcohol content.

This recipe uses only molasses and no other sugar.

At this stage, mixture looks creamy but with specks of orange zest.

Mixture becomes firm and harder to mix.

My cake batter has rough surface!

Not much difference, isn't it?

This is the loaf that I baked with minced fresh ginger.

Freshly baked gingerbread - It tastes like a fruit cake with soft and moist brownies texture.

Here is the recipe from Barefoot Contessa or Food Network at here and here
(with my note and modification in blue)

1/4 cup dark rum or water
(I used Marsala)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 stick unsalted butter
(I used 125g)
1 cup unsulphured molasses
(I used the blackstrap one)
1 cup (8 ounces or 250g) sour cream
1 1/2 tsp grated orange zest
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
(replaced with baking powder)
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
(I didn't add this)
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup minced dried crystallized ginger (not in syrup)

Preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C or 160°C fan forced). Grease an 8 by 8-inch (or 15 x 25 cm) cake pan and line with parchment paper or line a 12-cup muffin tray with paper liners.

Place the rum (or Marsala) and raisins in a small pan, cover and heat until the rum (or Marsala) boils. Turn off the heat and set aside. Place the butter and molasses in another small pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Pour the mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or just a mixing bowl). Cool for 5 mins, then mix in the sour cream and orange zest.

Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking soda (or baking powder), ginger, cinnamon, cloves (I didn't add this), and salt together in a small bowl. Mix with your hands until combined. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the molasses mixture and mix only until smooth (My son and I whisked the cake batter with a whisk by hand). Drain the raisins and add them and crystallized ginger to the mixture with a spatula. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35 mins for bread size or 25-30 mins for cupcakes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely. If it is a gingerbread, cut and served.

When the cake/s are coled completely, they can be served with either orange frosting (recipe from here) or orange icing (recipe from here). I like to enjoy mine with orange scented yogurt (recipe from here).

Note: Using double amount of this recipe, I have baked two loaves of gingerbread using one 20 x 20 cm square pan and 15 x 25 cm loaf pan. Both were baked at 160°C fan forced for 30-35 mins (30 mins for the 15 x 25 cm loaf and 35 mins for the 20 cm square cake)

Happy Baking
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