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A sticky gingerbread served warm – is there any dessert more comforting?

Hot apple crisp comes close but there is something about the texture and spicing of a gingerbread that wraps your up in a blanket.

I have been thinking a lot about an orange spiced gingerbread after reading a novel that featured just such a recipe (Delicious! by Ruth Reichl). The whole time I was reading the novel (an okay novel filled with amazing food writing) I was dreaming about eating a piece of the cake and I was delighted to discover the recipe printed at the end of the book.

Only the recipe didn’t call for molasses, just white sugar, the zest of two oranges and an abundance of ginger, of course.

I can’t imagine a gingerbread without molasses. For me, the bright, tangy flavour of molasses is part of a gingerbread’s character. And molasses is what gives true gingerbread it’s lovely texture.

Orange zest is a lovely addition to gingerbread. It takes the flavour in a whole new direction and works perfectly with molasses and the spices. You decide just how much orange zest you want to add (a little or a lot). The cardamom can be omitted if you don’t have it on hand.

This recipe is an adaptation of a gingerbread recipe found in the wonderful cookbook, Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens (recently reprinted). The spicing is borrowed, in part, from the gingerbread recipe in the book Delicious! by Ruth Reichl.

Orange Spice Gingerbread Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
• Zest of 1-2 oranges
• 2 1/2 cups of flour (spooned in)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger
• ¼ tsp. cloves
• ¼ tsp. cardamom
• 1 cup of hot water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line a 9”x9” pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
3. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar then beat in egg and molasses. Stir in orange zest.
4. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water.
5. Pour into a prepared pan.
6. Bake at 350 until a tester comes out clean, 40-45 minutes.

One more thing…

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Make this recipe delicious with Crosby's Molasses.