As our bake sale had a strong International flavour, I wanted to do something vaguely ”Irish” and what’s more Irish than Guinness?

I stumbled upon this recipe on Pinterest, from The Moveable Feasts.  I baked two of these Gingerbreads, one I sliced in to finger-slices and the other I cut in two.  I definitely under priced the slices at only 50c a piece, but they flew off the table.  One of the two larger slabs of cake sold for $3 and the other I sliced into more fingers and sold for $1 a piece, again, they sold quickly.  People didn’t mind paying $1 a slice – don’t under price your goods!

Two people asked me for this recipe, and it’s one I’ll do again when we have another bake sale – possibly in April.  The recipe says to put this in an 8inch-square baking pan, I used a 9×13 pan instead.

Classic Stout Gingerbread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger (if you’re extremely sensitive to heat, lower this to 1 /2 or maybe 1 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
3/4 cup stout
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup molasses
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and center a oven rack in the middle. Grease and flour an 8-inch glass baking dish. In a large bowl, whisk flour, ground ginger, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and the black pepper together in a large bowl; set aside.

Heat the stout in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda–at this point the mixture will foam vigorously and smell a little funny. When the foaming subsides, stir in the molasses, brown sugar and granulated sugar until it dissolves.  Transfer stout mixture to a large bowl and whisk in the eggs, oil and grated ginger until combined.

In thirds, pour and combine the wet stout-molasses mixture into the dry flour mixture, stirring vigorously until completely smooth after each addition.

Pour the batter into prepared pan and gently tap against the counter three or four times or so to get rid of any large air bubbles. Bake until the top of the cake is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on wire rack until closer to room temperature, about 1 1/2 hours.

It was delicious, I highly recommend this cake and, without doubt, I’ll make it again!

I also attempted to make these, Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars, though the chocolate filling stayed way too gooey, it didn’t thicken and didn’t set very well.  They still sold for $1 a piece, but I want to try these again, and fix whatever went wrong with the chocolate goo!