extra gingery gingerbread loaf

I am completely obsessed with this loaf at the moment, I love ginger overload like this – warm, spicy and sweet – just the perfect slice to have with a good cup of tea or strong coffee. For me a smear of butter is essential, and a drizzle of Manuka honey or a little ginger syrup – phwaor so damned delicious! Current state of the nation (haven’t done one for a while!) is that holy crap the salted caramel cheesecake mousses went off like a rocket on Facebook, so that was a bit exciting. In proper news though there is a lot of real stuff happening – this Saturday I am doing my first ever styling and photography presentation for Momento books (an Australian self-publishy recipe book company with a really lovely product) in conjunction with the Auckland Photography Festival. Bloody hell – heart palpitations and sweaty palms, can’t wait until it’s done…!!! Next up Rich is acting in the lead male role of Bonnie & Clyde, his school’s annual musical, so that will be awesome – I am always the dorky mother who goes to every performance and “wooooo hoooo”s for my son at the end! Then, yippeeeee Henry is flying up for a quick couple of days with Josh, can’t wait! And on it goes, after that Nick flies back up to Shanghai, Rich departs for his month in Madagascar with World Challenge (holy sh*t balls – panic stations), Henry will be flying off for a romantic holiday in Melbourne with Josh to celebrate his (Josh’s not Henry’s) 21st – and me? I will be zooming up to Shanghai to join Nick for the first time ever, then we’ll come back to New Zealand via Kyoto and Tokyo.

I guess you could say the next eight weeks are going to be EPIC!!!

So very much in ‘How do you eat an elephant? One mouthful at a time” mode I am just looking at what I have on tomorrow every day, and then I think I can just about cope. In the meantime, I will keep gorging on ginger loaf and zoning out at yoga. Take care, stay warm and dry and I probably won’t see you again here until next week 🙂

2/3 cup chopped crystallised ginger

Grease and/or line a 22cm x 12cm loaf tin with baking paper and preheat the oven 170˚C (335˚F). Put butter, sugar, golden syrup and milk in a pot and melt together over a gentle heat stirring to combine. Don’t boil! Set aside to cool for 10 minutes before whisking in egg. Sift flour, soda and spices into a big bowl. Add wet ingredients and the crystallised ginger, reserving a couple of tablespoons of ginger to sprinkle over the top. Pour into the tin, sprinkling remaining ginger on top and bake for55-60 minutes until cooked through. I turned the temperature down a few degrees for the last 10 minutes as mine was colouring a little more than I wanted at the edges, which worked really well and you might want to do the same. Cool in the tin then slice and enjoy with butter and/or a little honey or ginger syrup 🙂