Jan 15 Fresh Ginger Cake

Oven: 350°

• 4 ounces fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup canola or other vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 eggs
• powdered sugar

We hadn't originally planned on making a desert to go with our Christmas dinner. Even though we were inundated with cookies and other holiday goodies, it just didn't seem right to have a big meal without a purpose-made desert, so I decided to try this cake out. Something with ginger sounded nice, and I was thinking this wouldn't be too heavy. It turned out to be a nice ending to the meal.

The step that involved real labor was grating the ginger. Some of the more fibrous parts of the root don't grate very well, and so as I went along I'd wind up with this hairy-looking end on the ginger that was getting tougher and tougher to grate. I found it was easiest to periodically trim the "hair" off the ginger and keep grating. I got all of that work out of the way first and set the ginger aside.

I mixed together the molasses, sugar, and oil in a bowl. In a separate bowl, I sifted together the flour, cinnamon, gloves, and black pepper. I brought the water to a boil and stirred the baking soda into it. I then added the water to the molasses mixture. I gradually stirred the flour into the sugar mixture, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

I poured the batter into a 9" round cake pan that had been buttered, floured, and lined with parchment paper. I was a little suspicious of how full the pan was, so I was careful to place it on a baking dish, and then it went into the oven for about an hour, until it sprang back when touched lightly.

The cake did erupt over one side of the pan a bit, well, quite a bit. That might sound disastrous, but it was actually pretty easy to trim up the sides neatly, let the pan cool slightly, and then invert it on a wire rack to cool further before dusting it with powdered sugar. Fortunately, the baking sheet prevented a rather large mess in the oven, but the next time I make this I will opt for either a springform pan (which is deeper) or leave some of the batter out of the pan.