Cook's Illustrated delivers another great recipe with the Classic Gingerbread Cake from the January & February 2011 issue. I was intrigued by the recipe because I don't think I have ever had gingerbread cake — just gingerbread cookies (and I don't think I've tried gingerbread cookies in years!). The recipe also seemed interesting because it called for fresh ginger in addition to the dried ginger that one usually sees in gingerbread (cookie) recipes. I've been buying a lot of fresh ginger lately for my cooking, so trying this cake recipe seemed like a good way to not only use up some leftover ginger, but also have an excuse to finally buy some molasses!
The cake was fairly easy to prepare and bake. My only modification was to decrease the amount of dried ginger to 1 tablespoon as suggested in the recipe note. The flavor and consistency of the cake were both fantastic — well-spiced, just lightly sweet, and moist. I served the cake by itself (without whipped cream), but when I probably make it next winter, I will likely convert the cake into more of a "finished" product by adding some sort of cream or sauce to it.
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