Spiced gingerbread

A light and deliciously sticky gingerbread cake, bursting with flavour. Try it with a cup of hot tea and some cheese, as Hairy Biker Si King's aunt used to do.

Spiced gingerbread. Credit: BBC / Hungry Gap Productions

• serves

  20

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  45 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 300 g plain flour
• 1½ tbsp ground ginger (or according to taste – this makes for quite a hot cake)
• ½ tsp cayenne (or more if you want it very hot)
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ¼ tsp mace
• Generous pinch cloves
• 150 g butter
• 125 g dark brown muscovado sugar
• 150 g golden syrup
• 50 g syrup from the jar of stem ginger (optional – replace with more golden syrup or honey if not using stem ginger)
• 200 g black treacle
• 250 ml milk
• 1 heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• Drained and washed contents of a jar of stem ginger (optional), very finely chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a 30 cm x 20 cm tin (I use a straight sided brownie tin)
2. Sieve the flour into a large bowl along with the spices and whisk lightly to combine.
3. Put the butter, sugar, syrups and treacle into a saucepan. To make it easier to spoon out the syrup and treacle, oil a spoon first – it will then just slide off. Melt everything together over a gentle heat.
4. Remove from the heat and whisk in the milk, bicarbonate of soda and eggs. Gradually add the contents of the saucepan to the flour, making sure everything is well combined. You will end up with a very wet, pourable batter. Stir through the stem ginger.
5. Bake in the oven for between 45 minutes and an hour. When the edges have pulled back slightly from the side of the tin and it is springy to touch, it will be done.
6. Cool in the tin for half an hour then turn out onto a rack. If you can wrap and keep for a few days before eating, its stickiness will develop as it matures.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.