Thursday, November 5, 2020

Guy Fawkes Day Gingerbread Cake, Gluten Free

 As the former American colonies of the British Empire are mired today in sluggish presidential election results amidst a backdrop of grotesquely partisan national discord, perhaps we in the USA could take a break by looking more closely at the celebrations of our former colonizers. Today is Guy Fawkes Day in the United Kingdom. What's this holiday you say? Precisely. It involves celebrating the failure of a plot by Catholics to blow up the House of Lords, kill the king and reinstate the Roman Catholic church in 1605. Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators who was captured, gave away the plot after two days of torture, and then was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. Today this holiday is celebrated with lots of bonfires and fireworks, symbolic of the gunpowder that was to be used in the attack. Straw effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned. On the whole it seems like a rather barbaric holiday.* 

The total weirdness of the origins of this holiday aside, I for one am all for a cozy bonfire and some fireworks on an otherwise dreary, dark November evening. Throw in the prospect of some English cider, Scottish whisky, and homemade gingerbread and I would even burn a straw effigy to join in. Having lived through two London Novembers I can say that every person on that island reaaaaally needs this holiday to get through this month when the sun never shines.  Especially this year. I hope my English friends that you find a way to get your bonfires and camaraderie while in lockdown. And if you can't... well try my gluten-free gingerbread. It's delicious. Hugs from across the Atlantic. 






Guy Fawkes Day Gingerbread

I found this recipe in my all-time most useful and trustworthy cookbook, the 2006 edition of the cannon of American cookery, The Joy of Cooking. It is listed as "Guy Fawkes Day Cake" but the note says it is also called "parkin" and that it is a classic of northern England. It is delicious served warm from the oven with freshly whipped cream. If you do not need a gluten-free cake simply substitute 1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour for the buckwheat, brown rice flour, and psyllium husk. If you are using all-purpose flour make sure you mix only until the dry ingredients are moistened and not any longer so you don't end up with a tough cake due to overworked gluten (a problem that gluten-free cake bakers do not have!)


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2/3 molasses (or black treacle)

2/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

60 grams buckwheat flour

60 grams brown rice flour

1 tsp psyllium husk

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp lemon zest (from 1 large lemon)

2/3 cup whole milk (room temperature)


Preheat the oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch square or round cake pan. 

In a small saucepan melt over low heat the molasses and the butter and stir together. Remove from the heat when melted.

In a large bowl whisk together all the remaining ingredients except the milk. Stir in half the melted butter mixture, then half the milk, then the remaining butter mixture and milk. 

Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes, until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes away clean. Do not overbake! Let the cake cool in the pan set atop a cooling rack.



* However as a citizen of a nation that built its wealth and power upon the backs of millions of enslaved Africans and has neither apologized to nor compensated the descendants of said enslaved, I don't think I can fairly judge another nation's barbarism.



No comments:

Post a Comment