Ginger - my favourite spice!

I must admit that there is still the scent of ginger in my home, and I love it. The cookies are all in tins ready to go to the various folk on the list. Some think that this is a 'special' thing that I do, but I have done it for many years and the recipients always seem so grateful. I like to make sure that the people who make our lives easier know that I appreciate their efforts. Baking cookies is easy when you do it my way - no rolling and cutting and then decorating for me! One person asked about the Three Ginger Gingerbread or Ginger Cake recipe. Well here it is and you don't even need to pull out your mixer. Put the dry ingredients in a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl - make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the wet and give a good stir. I spray a large angel-food pan with a baking spray and in goes the batter. It usually takes about 1.25 hours to bake and your kitchen will smell heavenly. It keeps well, if you can keep human hands off it, for a very long time. That is probably due to both the sugar and molasses. Enjoy!

Three Ginger Gingerbread or Ginger Cake


3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup fancy molasses or table molasses
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp minced, fresh gingerroot
1/2 cup chopped, crystallized ginger

~ In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, ground ginger and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, molasses, eggs, gingeroot, crystallized ginger and water. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients. When mixed thoroughly, place in a well greased bundt or angel food cake tin or any pan that will hold batter. It will rise a fair bit!

~ Bake in the centre of a 350F oven (180C) for about 1.25 hours or until cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Give the cake a bit of a shake - not earthquake type of shake, but a little shake to be sure it is loose and then invert on rack to cool. Enjoy!

NOTE - I also use heaping measuring spoons of the spices and also heavy on the crystallized ginger. I never put the little bit of spice in any cookies or cake that are called for - I like a bit of spice in my life!

Now I did finish off a bit of knitting last evening, as I found out who killed the poor girl in the story I was listening to. It was a book called "Dark Tort" by Carolyn Mott Davidson. The gal who tries and mostly succeeds in solving the crimes is also a caterer, so her books are laced with cooking! They are an easy read and not something that will keep you awake at night. I also watched a show on TV with some of the folk who had managed to survive the tsunami in South East Asia. I could not believe that that happened almost two years ago. However, yesterday was the 17th year anniversary of the killing of the 14 wonderful engineering students in Montreal. Both situations so sad, but as one survivor from the tsunami said, "How do you deal with Mother Nature?"

Here is the 3rd Tweedy Beret. I used a Berroco Ultra Alpaca and two strands of the beautiful viscose I got from Jo of Celtic Memory Yarns. I have used up every bit of the viscose, Jo, as the last seven stitches were cast off in only the alpaca. I will wear it with the viscose scarf and my black coat. The viscose alone would, I think, have been too drapey for a beret, but maybe not. Anyway, I am happy with the beret I made. Now on to some baby cardi knitting!!