Ginger Biscuits

I made these for my husband, because ginger biscuits are his favourite. Since we have plenty of ginger in the cupboard now, I didn’t have to buy anything special for the recipe. The recipe is from a hand-written booklet produced by a local church that I bought for 25p. Three cheers for granny recipes!

The Recipe

4 oz margarine

1 Tbs Golden Syrup

pinch of baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

3 oz sugar

6 oz self-raising flour

Method

Grease 1 or 2 baking trays and set oven to Gas 4 (that would be 180C/350F). Melt together to syrup and margarine, then stir in the rest of the sifted ingredients. With wet hands (keep a bowl of water on the table) roll into balls the size of a large marble and place wide apart on the baking trays (they spread). Cook for about 15 minutes or until done.

My Alterations

Well, I didn’t have any self-raising flour, so I took a really lazy short cut and just upped the baking soda to a full teaspoon. It seems to have worked. I kept everything else the same; Americans can use corn syrup or light treacle, if you can get it. The taste won’t be exactly the same, but it will work just fine.

I didn’t sift the ingredients because again: lazy. The whole wet hands thing didn’t seem to matter much, but my fingers got a little bit sticky.

The Result

I mis-read the recipe a bit, and rolled the dough into small marble-sized balls rather than large ones, so I ended up with a ton of itsy bitsy biscuits. They were cute, though, and they cooked faster than 15 minutes; more like 8 or 9 minutes.

They came out lovely. I let them cool for a few minutes on the tray, so they were a bit crisp. Be careful not to overcook them, especially if you make them small.

The Verdict

These were great! They had just the right amount of gingery taste, and the texture was very similar to my husband’s favourite store-bought brand. My kids adored them and we all happily munched on them for our dessert. The recipe was easy to follow, and the biscuits were very attractive when baked. I love their cracked tops.

The Rating

5/5

Not only were they cute and bite-sized, they were very tasty. The recipe was easy, and I liked the fact that my adjustment of throwing in a bit of extra baking soda didn’t ruin anything. We’ll definitely be making these again!

Day 30: Coconut Cake

After baking so many cakes, I was kind of running out of ideas at this point. After surveying my baking ingredients cupboard, I noticed that I had a lot of coconut left over. Thus, coconut cake.

This cake travelled by train and tube all the way to a London park for a picnic with friends. It is an annual get together, and one of our group is expecting a baby, so we created a throw-it-together baby shower as well. I didn’t make the sugar baby, just in case you were wondering.

Recipe found on Sainsbury’s recipe forums, posted by seth25. Thanks!

The Recipe

4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
6oz self raising flour
2oz desicated coconut
Approx 2 tablespoons of milk

Cream butter & sugar till soft and pale, beat eggs and add to mixture. Gradually fold in coconut, then flour. Add milk to give soft dropping consistency. Sprinkle top of cake with coconut and caster sugar and bake at Gas mark 3 for 1 to 1 and a quarter hours.

My Alterations

I was really tempted to add more coconut to the recipe, just because I wanted to use it up. I didn’t, because I was worried about messing up the cake. Normally, I wouldn’t mind taking the risk, but this was going to be on public display, so I played it safe.

The Result

This cake was very easy to put together and bake. It took a long time, which surprised me, but I just kept a close eye on it.

The Verdict

This is a yummy cake! It’s not a strong coconut taste, but it’s very soft and moist. I only managed to eat a small slice, but the others at the picnic seemed to like it.

The Rating

5/5

Easy, simple recipe with great results. Can’t go wrong!