Oh, now that you're a horticulturalist, I think you should try a Meyer lemon tree! I confess, my second year with mine has not been successful, but at least it's still alive and still in a pot on the patio. I think you can even grow them indoors. (In front of a sunny window.) The blossoms smell divine.

oh heidi you are indeed a girl after my own heart, and black thumb. i can't grow a plant (or keep a plant growing) to save my life. most recent victim: cute little basil plant from the farmer's market. dead. dry. gone.
and i do love the idea of the burnt carmel-esque pieces from black sticky gingerbread....yeah! i'm going to post a reworked martha cookie: simple gingersnaps with raspberry jam. so good!

You know, I completely understand where you are coming from. I've owned books on plants and herbs my entire life; I even ended up married to a horticulturist.

Any chance that I could keep a plant alive without him around? Lol- not so much so!

Good luck with the two new additions to your home. Hopefully, this time around, you'll receive so many good vibes that the plants will thrive and grow voraciously.

Oh, and the gingerbread sounds quite enchanting, too! Such sticky goodness.

Oh, congrats on the Meyer lemon tree, Heidi. I'm consideing adding one to my garden, myself.
I just adore gingerbread. In the Sweet Kitchen isn't in my collection yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Christmas.

I have a black thumb too - I am happy to be in such good company - lol! I am thinking of making this Black Sticky Gingerbread for my neighbours as part of their Christmas gift. They laugh at my black thumb; if they see me with a new plant, I have to suffer through many good-natured jokes about how long will it take me to kill it etc. But they have never compained about my cooking!

Love gingerbread and this sounds delicious. I think I will use mesquite honey, which is very tasty. Good luck with the trees!

Heidi,

I'm so happy to see a post about Regan Daley's Book! In the Sweet Kitchen is one of my most cherished cookbooks. Her recipes have never failed to delight me- I actually made the Pecan Caramel Sandwich cookies from her book this weekend, and they were delicious.

Thanks for the inspiration and tips, as always.

This recipe sounds great! I swear by Nigella Lawson's recipe, but have also been a bit put off by the use of corn syrup which I was willing to tolerate being sure it accounted entirely for the moistness. If this recipe compares then I''ll be SO happy to ban the Caros!

Heidi...
This recipe looks great! Especially because my husband loves gingerbread, molasses, shoefly pie and the list with ginger and/or molasses goes on. A couple of times a year my husband's side of the family gets together and we usually have some sort of homemade applesauce cake or stollen bread... the last time we had some sort of chocolate upside down cake that has been in the family for 20 some years- I love cake and most baked goods (how could you not!) but I hated it! So maybe I will use this recipe and start a new traditional cake! Sounds delicious!

Speaking of lemons, try serving gingerbread with lemon curd instead of whipped cream. Heaven!

OK, well... pointers on growing lemons. I've learned that they like water and fertilizer. But I was mistaken about *how much* water they like, and may have been overdoing it.
Sloat Gardens sells a marvelous fertilizer in a little (1-quart-size) plastic canister, called MaxSea, that's very good. At $10, it's also very pricey, but one can will last you at least two years.
Good luck with your trees! I'm thinking about a bay (laurel) tree next.

I've always had a soft spot for liquid sweetness. Even that sulphuric blackstrap molasses. That's a comfort flavor right there.
The color matches my thumb, so I empathize.

I kill mint. Really.

I can hardly wait to try this recipe! I love gingerbread so much. I made Nigella Lawson's gingerbread cake last year, but that is a little lighter, using fresh ginger.

Also, I made Regan Daley's Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake with a Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce twice this month, and it is ridiculously, preposterously good. I've never made anything so universally acclaimed; people were climbing over each other for it. It's boozy and fruity enough to serve as holiday fruitcake, and gets even better when it sits a couple days before serving. I want to eat it for breakfast like she suggests, but there's never any left!

http://www.chefadventures.com/v1/recipes/2001/december/doubleapplecake.htm

This sounds just scrumptious. And I'm pretty sure I could convert it to gluten-free flour fairly easily. This may be another holiday treat in the making.

I have only one plant, and some of the leaves are looking just a touch sickly. But, I've managed to keep it alive since April, an unheard of feat around here!

I'm so glad that you like In the Sweet Kitchen, too, as it's among my favorite baking books. I haven't gotten around to trying most of the recipes I want to, so I'm glad to read here in the comments about ones I should be paying special attention to! As for gingerbread, I'm not sure if I have a recipe to Daley's, but if you've never had David Lebovitz's Fresh Ginger Cake, you must try it now. I first read about it on Epicurious 4 or 5 years ago. It's splendid. As is his blog!

SCORE! everyone forgot all about the plate of this you left in my kitchen, in all the craziness of the huge cooking night.

so i have been snacking on it greedily, the whole plate, it's all mine! muahahaha!

(it's delicious - thanks!)

So I made this last night. It went over very well. I made a couple of changes due to being vegan. It wasn't as sticky, which I think is due to the egg replacement.

The black sticky ginger bread sound really good. I got really inspired reading about it. Thanks for having my glögg on your daily links today.

You guys ought to give plants a serious try. I am currently overwintering a big pot of lemongrass & a couple of bunches of thyme along with two beautiful little rosemary trees. I grow lemon trees from seeds off the cutting board. It's ten degrees outside right now, but I have fresh herbs. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying there are real rewards & with most herbs you just have to give them water--they don't even like good soil. Oh, about that basil? It's an annual so it isn't going to live through the winter no matter what you do, but a few seeds in a pot in the spring will give you basil all summer long. OK, sure, I'm bragging. A little.

Are there any variations that should be made to the gingerbread recipe if I use a loaf pan? What about a round cake pan?

Thanks!

Along the lines of the last comment . . . what size pans did you use for the individual cakes and how long did you bake? I'd love to include minis of this recipe in my holiday goody bags.
(p.s. I'm a big fan of your book, Heidi.)

I tried the recipe using two loaf pans and actually FORGOT to put in the baking powder. Horrifying! Or so I thought, but amazingly the recipe held up to even this abuse! It was almost inedible at first but desperation caused us to try it again the next day w/whipped cream, after leaving it wrapped in plastic at room temp as described in the recipe. It had become e a very dense almost brownie/fudge-like brick gingerbread thingy with an extra chewy edge. Surpisingly good! I"ll be trying the recipe again (*with* leavening), but maybe with half the amount of b.p. since I really liked the density of the "mistake" bread. It smells DIVINE in the oven! Thanks Heidi!

OK - I am making these right now and man they smell good! I put them in tiny gold paper cups - they'll be mini gingerbread bites. I think they are sticking a bit; I wish I would have sprayed some bake spray in the cups first. But the recipe makes A LOT. The advantage of baking them like this is you get even more of the crispy, chewy crust. Very yummy!

Heidi, I ended up leaving the gingerbread you brought over at Brian's house, and he ate it all (as he mentioned above). So I was forced to make my own. I forgot the baking soda too! But it turned out great - with a brownie-like texture, exactly what I've been looking for in gingerbread.

A pan that measures 9 x 9 x 2" isn't a loaf pan.

You are totally right - I don't know why I imagine all gingerbread cakes in a loaf shape. Will strike the term loaf. Thanks. -h

Heidi, is that you in the photo? (I should know this, but I don't recall ever seeing a picture, though surely I have.)

You are exactly as beautiful as I thought you'd be. You look thoughtful and intelligent. Whoever took the photo: lovely. Thank you.

Am I the only one who confuses Shuna with Shauna? I need to train myself: it's like confusing "Tana" with "Tanya." I get that all the time, and say, "The 'y' is silent."

Heidi, one of my little tricks is that I substitute cardamom for cloves. (My Christmas gingerbread cookie recipe is straight from Joy of Cooking, times 4 = 14 cups of flour, and no cloves.) It does add an interesting element.

Hi,
This looks absolutely delicious. I love good gingerbread; the stickier the better. I will be giving this recipe a try over the holidays.

Merry Christmas to you all,

Chef Shane

Heidi:

I've been making Claudia Fleming's Guinness Gingerbread, and it's moist, sticky and amazing. Sounds similar, but with Guinness! It's from her cookbook THE LAST COURSE and a version is also posted on the Sugar In The Raw website:
www.sugarintheraw.com/html/recipes/naturallysimple/gingerbread.html
I sprinkle it with more turbinado sugar while it's cooling, and that crunchy texture is nice.

Can't wait to try this one!
Allen

Well, I tried baking this in an 8x8x1 3/4" pan... came out great, but my oven needed cleaning after the overspill burnt! Those 9x9x2" pans aren't easy to come by. I like the idea of gingerbread cupcakes. Thanks for the recipe.