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Recipe for Grammie K’s gingerbread

Cover story

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

December 21, 2011

Grammie K's gingerbread. (Food styling/Sheryl Julian…)

Makes one 8-inch square cake

Roberta Strack of Westwood makes a cake handed down to her from her late grandmother Mary Evelyn Kimball, who lived in Hyde Park. She found the recipe written on a piece of paper slipped between the pages of “A New Book of Cookery’’ (1912) by Fannie Farmer. The flavor of the molasses isn’t as pronounced in this cake as in the others, and it has a nice, spicy bite.

Butter (for the pan)

Flour (for the pan)

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/3 cup butter, melted and cool but still liquid

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Set the oven at 325 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square pan, and dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl with a wooden spoon, beat the egg, sugar, molasses, and ginger. Slowly add the butter and beat until well combined.

3. Add the flour in three portions, mixing just until blended after each addition.

4. In a separate bowl pour in the boiling water. Add the baking soda - it will foam up - and stir the mixture into the batter.

5. Transfer the batter to the pan. Bake the cake for 40 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed lightly with a fingertip. Cool on rack. Cut into squares.