gingerbread cake

Have I got a treat for you! This is my go-to fall / winter cake. It is absolutely delicious (a must, of course), super quick to put together (10 minutes), and it makes the house smell incredible. (Yes, there's an abundance of italics. I love this cake!) It's also a perfect vehicle for whipped cream. It's moist and slightly spicy and just plain wonderful. And if you have molasses in your house (I understand that it's not a default item in some places! Craziness!) you probably have everything to whip one up right now. The original recipe is here.

Oh - one more note about molasses in case you don't usually buy it - you're looking for the fancy kind. No, really - it's called "Fancy Molasses". You don't want blackstrap. And heaven forbid you see that 'light' stuff on the shelf. Leave it right there.

Gingerbread Cake

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup hot water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Greased and flour (important!) one 9 inch square pan.
2. Cream together the sugar and butter. Add egg, and beat well. Mix in the molasses.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and clove. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture; add the hot water, and mix well.
4. Pour batter into pan and bake for one hour, more or less. Start checking with a toothpick in the centre around 50 minutes. The top tends to darken quickly, so I always put a piece of foil tented over the top during baking. Allow to cool in pan and serve with copious amounts of whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

channeling jessica fletcher

I know that some of you are giggling to yourselves at my newfound love of Murder, She Wrote. Well, giggle on! I found this working phone online, and it now resides in our bedroom. On the show, Jessica Fletcher had the exact same phone in her Cabot Cove kitchen. You have no idea how much I love the ring. So please, give me a call! Just not when Thomas is napping. It is a bit loud.

pantry

 I never, ever get tired of glass jars. The end.

weekend links!

I love driving Phillip to pre-primary every morning. Yesterday, we left with enough time to spare for a couple of pictures. The light will be entirely different next week, with the time change and all. Speaking of which, don't forget to set your clocks back tonight. I'm looking forward to the earlier light in the morning, not so much the dark-by-5:30 business.

A list of things I've been enjoying lately:

I love this post. Of course it sounds unreasonable to expect so much of ourselves when it's all written out, but it's what we do.

I was so excited that Marisa posted a picture of my quince jelly over at Food in Jars! Have a peek at this post - there are some seriously stunning canned goods. Especially that carrot daikon pickle - it's unlike any other pickles I've seen!

Speaking of pickles, we opened a jar of my first ever dill pickles. And they are kind of AWESOME.

We saw Gypsophilia last night, and they were fantastic! I think you just might love them, too. 

I don't use mouthwash, but if I wanted to, I would try this recipe.

Okay, and now for something amazing and beautiful and worth watching: Murmuration.
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.