Southern Spicy Gingerbread

Mom brought me some recipes so I can contribute to the Cupboard Project. I looked through them and picked out some to start. In the recipe collection there was a booklet from Brer Rabbit Molasses. I chose to make the Southern Spicy Gingerbread.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

• 2 eggs

• 3/4 cup BRER RABBIT Molasses, light or dark (I used dark, but I think light would be better)

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 2 tsps. baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 tsps. ground ginger

• 1 1/2 tsps. ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 cup boiling water

In bowl, with electric mixer, beat shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in molasses. Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Add flour mixture alternately with water to molasses mixture, blending well after each addition. Spread into greased 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack. Makes 9 servings.

I only give this recipe three stars, but it might need to be made again to get a fair rating. It wasn't one of my best cooking attempts. One major problem was that I only had a very small amount of ginger, and that's a problem when you're making gingerbread. Honestly, we couldn't taste the ginger at all. The bread also sunk in the middle, maybe because I opened the oven to check on it after 30 minutes. The edges cooked faster than the middle, so it was dry on the outside. The middle sunken part was nice and moist. Maybe if I had more ginger and adjusted the cooking instructions it would be a four star recipe.