A school Fall Festival. Now, doesn’t that bring back some memories? Seems like we baked for days. I always brought in cookies, or brownies, or your Rice Crispy Squares, and I am sure you know why. I just couldn’t compete with the fancy cakes. Yes, I know that I make some really excellent homemade cakes. It’s that whole decorating thing that eludes me.
I keep saying that I should take a Cake Decorating Course and learn to pipe on little flowers, and names, and such. But, let’s face it, I would probably fail Cake Decorating I. I have illegible handwriting, does anyone think that I could do better with a pastry bag? The poor instructor would not doubt take me aside after a few disasters and offer to refund my money.
It was little consolutation that my cakes tasted great, and that I knew some of those beautifully decorated things were really straight out of a box. Mine just were not eye catching. Okay, they were eye catching, but for all the wrong reasons. So I stayed with safe cookies.
Which sort of brings me to one of my all time favorite cake recipes: Old New England Gingerbread. “Old New”? Anyway, Max, you know what I mean.
The first cool fall days and I begin to think of making Gingerbread. I loved it as a kid, AND you don’t ever decorate it with frosting!!
This has to be one of my oldest recipes. It dates back to our early days when all I had was one of those weak little Portable Electric Hand Mixers that would barely beat eggs. I remember distinctly that it struggled to even mix a box cake.
Somewhere in those first years, I came across this recipe, and I wrote down in my Cooking Notebook that, “This authentic New England recipe came from the “Boston Post Newspaper.” It was first published in the 1930’s and is still there most requested recipe.” Of course, that was in the 1960’s. Who knows if New England ladies are still making Gingerbread?
My notes go on to say that, “There is NO ginger in this recipe, and that all the early Gingerbread recipes did not include ginger.” Wonder if that is true?
Anyway, I made this a lot in those pre-decent mixer years as you can mix it all by hand. It is at its best served warm (Bless you, Oh microwave) and with a hot Lemon Sauce.
Old New England Gingerbread:
1 cup sugar
½ cup solid shortening
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup real molasses
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 cup boiling water
Beat the eggs slightly in a large mixing bowl with a hand whisk. Add everything else but the boiling water and stir until shortening is in small lumps. Pour on the boiling water and stir by hand until the shortening is completely blended in the batter.
Pour into a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan that has been well buttered. Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes. Test as for any cake.
Serve with a hot Lemon Sauce.
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