Tag Archives: Gingerbread

Christmas Gingerbread

Gingerbread House

I do love Christmas traditions.  I am also partial to a bit of kitsch and childish glee. Ticking all those boxes is the gingerbread house and gingerbread cookies for the tree I made this week.  The rustic charm of the house is due in no small part to a few subsidence problems due to my royal icing not setting quickly enough and my gingerbread being a bit wonky – but hey, curlywurlys came into their own as a roof ridge and hiding the gap where the top of the roof didn’t meet properly and jam jars make wonderful scaffolding till all is firm enough to hold its own. Start another Christmas tradition by having a mulled wine whilst you wait then your gingerbread roof will all seem a lot straighter!  Continue reading

Grasmere Gingerbread

My Grandfather fought in WW1. He was in the Royal Artillery. Every Remembrance Sunday in the two minute silence I think of him in particular and all the other soldiers who fought in all our wars right up to the present day.   And every Remembrance Sunday I make this recipe for Grasmere Gingerbread that my mother wrote in our old family recipe book as it was a particular favourite of my Grandad and somehow by making it I feel as though I am bringing him into my home – and yes, the photo is of me on my grandfather’s knee

This recipe is made in a Victoria Sandwich tin  it makes a lovely chewy cookie style slice that disappears from the cake tin in record time even though my mother wrote at the end of the recipe “keeps three weeks”   Goodness knows how she knew that! The addition of crystallised ginger as well as the normal powdered spice gives it a lovely warmth and the raisins, though not necessary, give an added sweet richness   Best of all you can make the Gingerbread in the food processor in a matter of minutes before pressing it into a tin to bake! Continue reading