I made Ginger-Bread Cakes, as well, for the Big Weekend Event*
at the Israel Crane House this past December. For these, I used
Hannah Glasse’s receipt from her book, The Art of Cookery Made
Plain and Easy (1747). What intrigued me most about Glasse’s
version, and the main reason I chose it, was that she calls for
the use of “Treakle,” and I really REALLY wanted to use that
specific ingredient (more on it later).
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Here is Hannah Glasse’s receipt:
To make Ginger-Bread Cakes.
Take three Pounds of Flour, one Pound
of Sugar, one Pound of Butter, rubbed
in very fine, two Ounces of Ginger beat
fine, a large Nutmeg grated, then take
a Pound of Treakle, a quarter of a Pint
of Cream, make them warm together,
and make up the Bread stiff, roll it out,
and make it up into thin Cakes, cut them
out with a Tea-Cup, or a small Glass, or
roll them round like Nuts, bake them
on Tin Plates in a slack Oven.
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*the Essex County, New Jersey, Holiday Historical Houses Tour
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UP NEXT: Just what IS Treakle?
Carolina,
I am wondering if perhaps this recipe originally used treacle and lard, as my Great Aunt Verna told me the recipe came from way back in the family … certainly to the days before processed vegetable shortening. Just a thought … your gingercakes look very similar to the cookies I made yesterday – but no ginger in mine, which I thought curious too.
Susan
[...] was forced to use molasses instead of treacle. dagnabit. As you may recall, in 2010 I was extremely eager to follow Glasse’s receipt largely because it called for the use of treacle. Those Cakes were a huge hit, so I wanted to make them again. Alas, [...]