Martha Stewart's Gingerbread

My mother-in-law has the best gingerbread recipe and, of course, I can't find it.  Hopefully, one of my sister-in-laws has it.  So I figured if anyone had a good gingerbread recipe, it had to be Martha!!

For this recipe, you might have to run to the grocery store because you are going to need to buy molasses and dark brown sugar.

Ingredients:
8 T (1 stick) of unsalted butter - it needs to be unsalted
1 cup water
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 cup unsulfured molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting finished cake

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spray with Pam or something similar.

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add baking soda — it will foam up!   Kind of cool!!

Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in butter until melted. Whisk in dark brown sugar and molasses 

Mixture is usually just lukewarm by now, but if it still feels quite hot to the touch, set it aside to 10 to 15 minutes to cool further before using.  After it cooled down, I poured this into a larger mixing bowl.

Place flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and baking powder in a fine-mesh strainer or sifter so that you can sift them over the wet ones in a minute.

Whisk in eggs until just combined. Sift dry ingredients over wet, then stir the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

Transfer cake to a wire rack and let cool completely. 

Once fully cool, cut around cake to make sure no parts are sticking to the side and invert cake out onto a rack, then onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares.  (If I remember correctly, my mother-in-law's recipe, you iced it with cream cheese icing - boy, does that sound good!!)

Serve with whipped cream - YUM!!

VERDICT:

My husband loved it!  I thought it was good, but not like my mother-in-law's recipe.  Hopefully, one of my sister-in-laws will come through for me and I will post her recipe.  The cake was very moist and spongy.  As I said, my husband loved it.  So for the time being, this is a keeper recipe.

Entire Recipe:

Martha Stewart's Gingerbread

Ingredients:

8 T (1 stick) of unsalted butter - it needs to be unsalted

1 cup water

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup unsulfured molasses

2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spray with Pam or something similar

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add baking soda — it will foam up!   Kind of cool!! Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in butter until melted. Mixture is usually just lukewarm by now, but if it still feels quite hot to the touch, set it aside to 10 to 15 minutes to cool further before using.  After it cooled down, I poured this into a larger mixing bowl.

Place flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and baking powder in a fine-mesh strainer or sifter so that you can sift them over the wet ones in a minute.

Whisk in eggs until just combined. Sift dry ingredients over wet, then stir the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Once fully cool, cut around cake to make sure no parts are sticking to the side and invert cake out onto a rack, then onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares.  (If I remember correctly, my mother-in-law's recipe, you iced it with cream cheese icing - boy, does that sound good!!)

Serve with whipped cream - YUM!!