Elsie's Gingerbread

This is the kind of gingerbread cake your great-aunt baked every Sunday between Halloween and Easter, the soft, square, buttermilk-tender kind, not the hard cookie-cutter cottage variety. The recipe has a clever trick built in: scoop a third of a cup of the dry-and-shortening mixture before adding the wet ingredients, and that becomes the streusel-like crumb topping with no extra ingredients required.

Molasses is the soul of this cake. Three tablespoons may sound modest, but combined with the buttermilk and ginger, it delivers that deep, slightly bitter, warm-spice flavor that defines proper gingerbread. Use unsulfured molasses, not blackstrap, which is too bitter and overwhelming for a cake of this style.

The Pam-sprayed measuring spoon trick the directions call out is genius. Molasses is sticky enough to coat the spoon and lose half a tablespoon to the bowl. Spraying the spoon first lets every drop slide cleanly into the batter.

The baking soda foaming up in the buttermilk is the cake’s leavening signal. Stir it in the moment those bubbles form, then add to the batter and bake immediately. Wait too long and the gas escapes, leaving you with a flat, dense cake.

Pro Tips

• Use butter or even bacon fat in place of vegetable shortening for richer flavor. The recipe is old enough to default to shortening, but butter wins on taste.
• Do not overmix once the buttermilk goes in. A few flour streaks are fine; they vanish in the oven. Overmixing develops gluten and makes the cake tough.
• Sprinkle the reserved crumb topping evenly across the batter just before baking. It bakes into a slightly crisp, sweet ginger crust that contrasts beautifully with the soft cake below.
• Test for doneness with a toothpick in the center. The cake should spring back lightly when pressed.

Variations

• Add ½ teaspoon ground cloves and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg for a deeper, mulled-spice flavor.
• Stir in 2 tablespoons of finely chopped crystallized ginger for chewy hot spots throughout.
• Serve warm with a dollop of whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or a spoonful of warm baked apples.