Spiced Ginger Molasses Cake

I went back and forth on what to call this cake. It strongly resembles gingerbread, so gingerbread sounded appropriate right now around the holiday season, but my kids said hmm… I should stick with Ginger Molasses Cake as the flavors of these two are dominant. I digress! either ways this old fashioned holiday cake in my opinion should be served extra warm with a side of whipped cream or ice-cream.

Growing up my mom made this cake during Christmas. Back in those days, the infamous Fruit cake was widely popular in India, I don’t know about now, but Christmas meant fruit cake. My mom never made fruit cake, but made a spiced ginger cake and we loved with fresh cream. I tweaked her recipe a bit, but its largely to the point. Its best served warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

A word on molasses: Dark molasses is more intensely flavored and less sweet than light or mild molasses. I love blackstrap, which is less sweet and has a stronger flavor than dark molasses. But use what you prefer.

Spiced Ginger Molasses Cake Serves 8-10

Ingredients

• 2 ounces ginger, peeled and finely grated, (about 3 tablespoons)
• 1 cup coconut sugar or regular sugar
• 1 cup avocado or any neutral unflavored oil 
• ½  cup dark molasses
• 4 large eggs 
• 11/2 cups cake or all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 leveled teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• Whipped cream
• 1 cup very cold heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 tablespoon confectioner sugar for garnish

1.  Preheat oven to 350 °F. Lightly grease a 9-inch cake pan and dust lightly with flour or line with parchment paper.
2. Finely grate ginger and set aside. 
3. Combine sugar, oil and molasses and mix on low speed. Add eggs one at time to incorporate into the mixture.; continue mixing at low speed until fully incorporated and the batter is creamy. 
4. Combine the dry ingredients; flour, ground spices: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, white pepper, ground ginger and baking powder in another mixing bowl. Add the dry mixture, finely grated ginger to the batter. Fold until just combined, scraping as needed. (the batter will be slightly thin.)
5. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.
6. Best served warm or even a little hot with chilled whipped cream or ice cream.