Miss Emily’s Gingerbread

servings
4 servings
prep time
15 minutes
cook time
30 minutes
Slice of gingerbread cake on a white plate with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Recipe Image

Makes one 23 cm (9-inch) square cake

Ingredients

  • •113 grams (½ cup) butter, plus butter for greasing pan, at room temperature
  • •360 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour
  • •5 ml (1 teaspoon) baking soda
  • •5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt
  • •15 ml (1 tablespoon) ground ginger
  • •118 ml (½ cup) cream
  • •About 237 ml (1 cup) molasses, or as needed
  • •Whipped cream or confectioner’s sugar, for serving

Preparation

  1. Warm the oven to 177°C (350°F). Butter a 23 cm (9-inch) square cake pan. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and ginger in a bowl.

  2. With an electric mixer, beat the cream until thickened but not stiff. In another bowl, cream the butter with electric mixer until it’s fluffy. Blend the cream into the butter.

  3. With your mixer set on its lowest speed, add the flour mixture. Add the molasses. Transfer the batter to the pan. It may need to be pressed into the pan because of its density.

  4. Bake the cake until the top springs back when pressed gently, about 35 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, or glaze it, as Emily is said to have done, with a mixture of confectioner’s sugar and water.

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breaddesserts & sweetsvegetarian

About the author

Children’s author, Burleigh Mutén is a tour guide at The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA and the author of Miss Emily, a middle-grade verse novel, in which Emily Dickinson invites the children in her neighborhood to join her at midnight to watch the circus train arrive in town. Muten lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. You can find out more about her at burleighmuten.com.

Courtesy photo

Burleigh Mutén

Burleigh Mutén

Burleigh Mutén is a children's author and tour guide at The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.

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