Ginger Crumb Cake

This recipe comes from a book titled The World in Your Teacup by Lisa Boalt Richardson and Lauren Rubenstein. The publisher I work for published this book (although I'm fairly certain it's out of print now) and I was told that a reader complained about this particular recipe, so I thought I'd try it and see where the trouble was. I won't keep you in suspense--there wasn't any trouble, except that the amount of baking time needed to be longer than what was in the book. A lot longer. But aside from that little difficulty, it's a delightful, quick and easy cake recipe, and I recommend you give the recipe a try.

Here's what you'll get to eat:

Ginger Crumb Cake

Yum!

Here's the recipe, not exactly as it's written in the book, but very close.

Ginger Crumb Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulate sugar
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
2 T. dark molasses
1 tsp.  vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8-inch baking dish; set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter until mixtures resembles coarse cornmeal. Take out 1 cup of the mixture and set aside for topping.

Add baking soda, salt, egg, molasses, vanilla, and buttermilk to the remaining mixture. Mix well using a large wooden spoon or electric mixer. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture evenly over the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until the cake is set. (I baked mine for 32 minutes and it came out great.) Serve warm with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.