Make Me Bake Golden Honey Gingerbread

I baked my Make Me Bake challenge yesterday afternoon when I was home on my break. (I know! What am I like! I just can't stop cooking!) This Warm Honey Gingerbread is a recipe from, once again, my Old Blue Binder. It smelled heavenly when it was baking in the oven . . . all fragrantly spicy and homey . . . cinnamony and gingery. It is not a dark gingerbread, in that it's sweetened with the goodness of honey instead of molasses, but let me tell you . . . you just cannot go wrong with a warm square of this.

I made a sauce to spoon over top of it . . . just some ginger jam and a bit of fruit juice warmed up and then I topped it off with a lovely dollop of clotted cream. Todd really enjoyed it and thanks you from the bottom of his heart for voting for it! He says . . . "Ta very much!"





*Warm Honey Gingerbread*
Makes one 9 by 13 inch pan

This delicious gingerbread is moist and full of the lovely spicy flavours of ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. It smells so wonderful when it's baking it's all you can do to wait for it to finish before you tuck into it. Be sure to beat the eggs until they are almost as thick as whipped cream before you add them to the rest of the batter. This is the secret to it's wonderful texture.

2 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup of soft light or dark brown muscovado sugar
2 large free range eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup boiling water

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Butter a 9 by 13 inch nonstick baking pan and set it aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg together into a bowl. Set aside.

Put the butter into a large bowl and cream it until it is light and lemon coloured. Add the brown sugar gradually, creaming it in after each addition until it is light and fluffy.

Break the eggs into a separate bowl and beat them with an electric whisk until they are almost the texture of whipped cream. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature as it will not take as long.

Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture in three parts, beating it well after each addition until it is well blended together. Add a fourth of the flour mixture, beating it in until well blended. Beat in the honey until it is smooth. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and finally add the boiling water, stirring until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve warm, cut into squares with some sauce and whipped cream if desired, or a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The leftovers are lovely warmed up and sliced, and then spread with some butter and ginger preserves for breakfast the next day. Deeee-licious!!