Recipe: White Gingerbread

Weekend Cooking is a weekly event sponsored by Beth Fish.  Anyone can participate and it is a lot of fun (plus a great way to find new recipes to add to a familiar repertoire).

I know many of you know JoAnn of Lakeside Musing, but did you know that she and her daughter have started another blog devoted to cooking?  It is called, appropriately, Lakeside Kitchen and I think it is great that two generations can work collaboratively on such a fun project.  Last week they posted about some new cupcake cookbooks received and the impromptu purchase of a mini-muffin tin.  I can't tell you what memories this brought back for me!

When we were still living in Connecticut (circa 1989), my husband was a branch manager for a local bank.  One day he said that he would like to do something for his regular customers who drop in on Saturdays, but he wasn't sure what.  He thought maybe donut holes, but for some reason I piped up and suggested mini muffins.  Well, that one suggestion provided about 5 years worth of Molly's Muffins.  If I didn't bake muffins for the bank, I was baking them for women's Bible study or some other social gathering.

I would typically make about 3 different varieties each week, about 6 dozen of each variety (a double batch of each recipe).  I think I had a rotating group of about 20 or so recipes, so that people wouldn't eat the same muffin twice in one month.  I thought it might be fun to post a couple of these recipes for this weekly meme over the next couple of Saturdays.

Today's recipe is actually a coffee cake of sorts.  I am not sure where the recipe originated, as my mom made it while I was in high school and then I absconded with the recipe after I married.  I adapted the measurements to suit the mini-muffin tins, but typically I make it in a 9x13 Pyrex dish.  This is a very good, basic, rather bland cake that goes well with brunch fare, an elegant luncheon, or just a mid-afternoon snack with a cup of tea.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family has over the years.

White Gingerbread

Ingredients:

• 4 cups sifted flour
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon soda - dissolved in milk
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

1. Crumb together the flour, sugar and butter.  Reserve 2 cups
2. To remaining crumbs, add eggs, milk, soda, and spices.  Mix well.
3. Grease a 9x13 pan.  
4. Sprinkle half of the reserved crumbs (approximately 1 cup) on the bottom of the pan.
5. Spread batter over these crumbs (batter will be thick - so I normally place 1/3 at either end and 1/3 in the middle and then spread that way)
6. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25-30 minutes - or until tests done.