Gingerbread Cake (borrowed from Bless Us Oh Lord"

Thanks Barbara...this one's a keeper


Amazing..amazing..oh so delicious I am shoveling it in right now as I type..

Gingerbread Cake
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1.5 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour one 8-inch square baking pan.

Cream butter and sugar till fluffy, add egg and molasses and beat. Sift together flour, salt , baking soda, ginger and cinnamon. Bring water to a boil. Add with flour mixture to creamed mixture alternatively beating well after each addition. Pour batter into cake pan. Bake 34-40 mins.

- i put a little bit of oil in my 1/2 cup befor adding the molasses and they came right out easily.

- it baked just fine at 35 mins, it oculd not have gone longer in my oven.

- I did what barbara did and made a cream cheese frosting...A---MAZING CAKE. I am licking the plate.

Gingerbread Cookies!!!

i LOVE making gingerbread cookies, or maybe I just love gingerbread anything. Here is a recipe that I remember my mom using since I was ..well..young enough to remember. It's from the 1974 edition of Betty Crocker cookbook.

Gingerbread Cookies (actually labeled "gingerbread people")

1.5 cups dark molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup cold water
1/3 cup butter (that's 3 tbsp, as labeled on the butter package)
7 cups flower
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix molasses, brown sugar, water and butter. Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hrs.

Heat oven to 350. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on floured board. Cut with floured gingerbread cookie cutters. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation occurs. About 10-12 mins Decorate as desired.

Makes about 2.5 dozen cookies

SOME NOTES:
-My mom taught me this trick: pour a little bit of olive oil/or any oil..into the cup for the molasses and use your finger to coat the cup. The molasses will come right out.

-I didn't grease the cookie sheet, instead we used wax paper. Less mess. Works just as well.

-I forgot about carry over heat, so I kept baking my cookies util they were practically hard, and they kept baking after I took them out, so some of mine were overdone. I was cooking them for about 18 minutes!! tooooolongggg...but bear in mind that every oven is different.

-To frost them, you can do whatever your like, but I just mixed 2 tbsp water with 2 tbsp powdered sugar/food coloring, and it MAKES A MESS!! So I decreased the amount of water. The recipe suggests Decorator's frosting, but I liked this better..I like mine smothered in frosting as you can see in the picture.