"At The Sign of the Tea Kettle and Tabby Cat."
The Wenham tea house in Wenham, Mass. was one of my very favourite places. By tea-room standards, the place was somewhat spartan, but the tea was excellent, the sandwiches strange, and I spent many happy afternoons there. Before we moved, I dragged Mr. ETB up there to purchase a copy of the tea room cookbook. A decade later, I still hadn't baked anything from it. Today, I did.
The tea house was a project of the Wenham Improvement Society, and has been in operation since 1912. As far as I know, it is still there, but if it is not, please don't tell me.
This is a very substantial gingerbread. I ended-up using a mixture of full-flavour molasses, Blackstrap molasses, and Golden Syrup because I thought all Blackstrap would be inedible. I also took the step of frosting it with a cream cheese frosting which offset the strong flavour. The strange thing is-the boys loved it. Dense, strongly flavoured, and rich with spices, I didn't think they would go for it. Shows how much I know. The cake is large, so I froze half (unfrosted) and plan to use it with a ginger custard at some point as a trifle. This seems like a reasonable cake to have on hand through the holidays. You could obviously skip the frosting and just dust it with icing sugar before serving.
You Will Need:
5 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
4 teaspoons ginger
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups molasses (I used 1 cup Blackstrap, 1/2 cup Golden Syrup, and 1/2 cup Full Flavour molasses-use what your tastes dictate)
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups boiling water
Sift flour, and spices together. Cream butter and sugar until light. Add molasses, and mix well. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each. Stir in baking soda and boiling water. Add flour mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 45-55 minutes. Cool before frosting, or dusting with icing sugar. Makes a very large cake.
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