Gingerbread Marathon

A Gingerbread marathon

It was going to be easy - just make a big batch of gingerbread mixture, cook it in 12 nonstick cardboard cases - and then 'hey presto' - 12 festive little Christmas presents. But as often is the case when I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing - winging it a bit - my hey presto turns into a late night marathon. Starting at lunch time and ending up with my helpful husband working round me, trying to make us eggs on toast for supper and put away the washing up, while I fiddle about in a strop with how to wrap the final results which are the best of my four batches.

First I research recipes.....settle on Nigel Slater's Light Gingerbread....like the chopped stem ginger in it...but I fill the cases too full ( never used them before) - and the gooey mixture herniates out over the edges and burns on the baking tray.

I decide it doesn't look dark and sticky enough to be Christmas gingerbread......go out to Morrison's, buy tins of black treacle....and make a batch of Katie Stewart's Old Fashioned.....which cooks much quicker than Nigel's and although the stars end up looking like my idea of gingerbread, I know they will be dry and dull.

So I cut up one of the first herniated stars, taste it, decide it's a good flavour and texture ......make another batch of Nigel's recipe ....only half fill the cases....but the tops still split open and ooze......so make a syrup with fresh grated ginger and spoon it over while they are still warm.

Still not enough stars I'm happy with so I make another batch but this time the flour is different and they don't rise very much.....but I've run out of ginger and stamina .....and my perfectionist tiara is slipping over my nose.....  decoration/presentation is not my forte. So I decide to call it Ginger Drizzle Cake and trust my friends will taste the baked-in love - whatever it looks or tastes like.

As I write this I remember I have a really good recipe for Gingerbread that I wrote and perfected  myself a few years ago....I often made it for my father's birthday in November as he was a great ginger fan. I keep thinking about him and his last Christmas....missing him.