Cook this: Lori's great-grandmother's gingerbread from Food, Culture, Place - National Post

Lori McCarthy's family enjoys ginger cakes year-round and this recipe 'has brought a lifetime of memories to cherish'

Author of the article:

Laura Brehaut

Lori's great-grandmother's gingerbread from Food, Culture, Place. Photo by Marsha Tulk

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Not just for Christmas, Newfoundlander Lori McCarthy’s family enjoys ginger cake year-round.

“It’s that thing that you throw together last minute when you forget that people are coming,” says the founder of culinary excursion company Cod Sounds , laughing.

Her co-author, photographer Marsha Tulk, adds: “Throw together a gingerbread. It’ll be done in an hour.”

Molasses, specifically Crosby’s brand, was a staple in many Newfoundland homes, they say. And this “very English” recipe, passed down from McCarthy’s great-grandmother, is the oldest in the collection on her maternal side.

The recipe may have originally come from the Crosby’s container, McCarthy writes, but she’s always known it as “great-grandmother’s gingerbread.”

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“That recipe has been around forever … It’s that smell that you come home to. The reason Mom made that so often — we had it all the time — was because it was so cheap to make,” she says. You didn’t need raisins; only pantry staples like white sugar, all-purpose flour, baking soda and dry spices, one egg and molasses.

“If you had even Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, you could still make a gingerbread cake. And it feeds a crowd.”

In Food, Culture, Place, Lori McCarthy and Marsha Tulk take readers on a year-long journey collecting, cooking and eating in Newfoundland. Photo by Boulder Books

LORI’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER’S GINGERBREAD

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup hot water

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mix the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Melt the shortening and put it in a large mixing bowl. Stir the brown sugar into the melted shortening and then add the molasses and egg. Beat well. Add the dry ingredients and hot water alternately. Pour into a well-greased and floured tube pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Test with a long skewer to make sure that the middle is cooked.

Don’t forget the love.

Recipe by Alfreda Baker

Recipe and image excerpted from Food, Culture, Place: Stories, Traditions and Recipes of Newfoundland by Lori McCarthy and Marsha Tulk. Published by Boulder Books. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

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Cook this: Lori's great-grandmother's gingerbread from Food, Culture, Place - National Post
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