Soft Gingerbread

A bare ingredient list in the style of its day, with no method, pan or oven given. The proportions are sound; everything else has to be supplied by the cook.

• Oven and panNo oven, pan or time is given. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits a soft gingerbread; the quantity is large enough for a 9x13-inch pan, greased and floured, and will likely need something in the region of 35 to 45 minutes. Test with a skewer in the centre.
• Order of workCream the butter with the sugar, beat in the eggs, then the molasses, then the flour and milk alternately, with the baking powder and spices sifted into the flour. Molasses batters are slack and pour rather than spread.
• The leavening is lightOne teaspoonful of baking powder to four cupfuls of flour is meagre by modern standards, and the two cupfuls of molasses are acidic. Saleratus (baking soda) was commonly paired with molasses in this period precisely because the acid activates it; a half teaspoon of baking soda alongside the powder will give a lighter crumb.
• MolassesUse unsulphured light or dark molasses, not blackstrap, which is far more bitter than the table molasses of the period and will dominate the spice.
• Spicing to tasteFor this quantity of batter, start at two teaspoons ground ginger and half a teaspoon of cloves, and go up from there. Gingerbread recipes of the period that do specify often call for more ginger than a cautious modern hand would add.
• CupfulsThe size of the cupful is not stated and period cups were not standardised; if you take it as the modern eight-fluid-ounce cup, four cupfuls of flour is about 500 g. Scoop-and-level rather than packing, or the crumb turns dry.
• Yield and keepingAbout sixteen squares. Like most molasses cakes it improves on the second day, wrapped once fully cool; the moisture redistributes and the spice settles.