Baking Gingerbread has never been a family tradition for me...well not yet, anyways. As a self-proclaimed pom-pom waving foodie, I have been known to get an ever so teensy bit obsessive about certain food items. Like my spice collection. One of my (many) current 'obsessions' is finding a gingerbread Cake recipe that has eluded me for eight years now. YES! Eight years. Obsessive/compulsive disorder you say? THHHHHPT! Well okay then, you be the judge.
It all started eight years ago around this time of year, just before Christmas. Dining out a local restaurant, I was offered a special dessert menu for the holiday season. There it was (my soon to be obsession): Warm Gingerbread Cake with Orange Caramel Sauce. Suspecting mediocrity like the rest of the meal, I ordered with skepticism. Now I have had cakes and I have had cakes, but this cake stood out. Dare I say the best cake I'd ever eaten? Well it's a little too early in my life to say 'best' since I've got a lot of living to do yet, however up to this point, it's the best. By far. Bar none. It was almost chewy, spicy but not too much and full of wonderful gingerbread flavour. It had a treacly texture somewhat like my Sticky Treacle Pudding that I have made to rave reviews, but much more complex.
I'm not the type to ask for a recipe, but I simply had to ask this time. Chef returned with a prompt response: sorry! No can do. So I resorted to what every red-blooded Canadian girl would do: I flirted. Shamelessly. Enough to make Gloria Steinham shudder. But a girl's got to do what a girl's go to do! I had to have this recipe! I used every ounce of girl persuasion I knew. I batted eyelids, I smiled coyly, I...well you get the picture. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it's true. I guess I didn't have the effect I was hoping for as Chef responded with a coy smile of his own and a teasing list of ingredients with no amounts, of course!
I have perfected the caramel sauce. So much so that I parlayed it into a rather successful small business venture. But the cake is another story altogether. I have tinkered and tried several dozen recipes over the past eight years. While all of them were good, and some were even excellent, they just weren't exactly what I was looking for. Perfection remained elusive. Until a few days ago!
My quest for this Gingerbread Cake Recipe has taken on a whole new meaning these last few weeks. This weekend my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. They were married in Frankfurt, Germany and on their dessert menu: GINGERBREAD! As I will be hosting the dinner party festivities I want to bring back some of those memories of Frankfurt, December 1965. Why yes of course, now, I must find the best recipe and I must find it NOW!
Behold my bastion of all things food. It comes to my rescue time and again, but why I hadn't found this recipe yet in all these years remains a mystery. So here it is, let the drums roll: the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread. While there was no Guinness in the original list Chef had given me, this dark brew does impart a remarkable flavour and texture to the Gingerbread. While I still have some tinkering to do, this cake is the closest replica of what I had so many years ago. My obssessiveness/compulsiveness has finally paid off: now I can officially start a family holiday tradition. Baking this Gingerbread cake.
But don't think my quest is over. Stay tuned...
