the gingerbread lady
Laura Ingalls Wilder was famous for her gingerbread (chocolate frosting adds to the goodness!), and I've seen her recipe calling for 1 cup molasses in some publications, 1/2 cup in others. Cyberbessie always uses a full cup (and sprinkles her gingerbread with powdered sugar instead of going for the chocolate goodness). Cyberbessie loves ginger, so here are a few ginger recipes with a decided "Little House" flavor to them.

Mrs. Power's Ginger Snaps:
One-half cup butter (scant), one-half cup lard (scant), one cup white sugar, one cup molasses, one teaspoon soda dissolved in one tablespoon water, one egg, one tablespoon ginger, a pinch of salt. Flour to mix quite stiff.

Mrs. Boast's Ginger Cake:
One cup sugar, one cup molasses, two-thirds cup butter or lard, one cup sweet milk, two eggs, teaspoon soda, one of ginger and one of cinnamon and cloves. Flour to make little stiffer than layer cake. For molasses fill cup with brown sugar, then pour water until it comes to top.

Mrs. Loftus's Soft Ginger Cake:
Beat together one-half cup each butter and sugar, add one well beaten egg and one cup New Orleans molasses (not black strap); sift together two and one-third cups flour, two teaspoons ginger and one of cinnamon. Put one teaspoon soda into a cup with boiling water; add the flour and hot water in small quantities alternately. Bake in well buttered flat pans fifteen minutes, or a little longer if baked in one.

These recipes were included in Kitchen Echoes, the 1909 cookbook compiled by the Aid Society of the First M. E. Church, De Smet, South Dakota.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:36 PM