Cake or cupcake, gingerbread

The King Arthur Test Kitchen’s selected gingerbread is a moist, dense single-layer cake with ginger in its syrup and ground spice mixture. Minced crystallized ginger is an optional third ginger addition, alongside cinnamon and nutmeg.

For the selected homemade syrup, unpeeled fresh ginger slices, sugar and water are brought to a boil and simmered until syrupy. The mixture is strained into a separate container, and a portion of this larger batch is measured for the cake.

Light brown sugar, molasses, the ginger syrup, melted unsalted butter, vegetable oil and two eggs are beaten smooth. Flour, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and table salt are stirred in, with crystallized ginger added if desired.

Boiling water is slowly stirred into the mixture, and the bowl is scraped to incorporate sticky residue. The batter is poured into a greased rectangular pan and baked until a tester comes out clean.

While the cake remains warm, an additional brush of ginger syrup can finish the surface. The cake’s molasses and brown sugar support its strong ginger flavour, with the optional crystallized pieces supplying extra ginger throughout the crumb.