Ginger and Treacle Spiced Slice

It’s Mel again! I love Ginger. I love Treacle. I saw this recipe for Ginger and Treacle Spiced Tray Bake from Mary Berry’s 100 Cakes and Bakes and I knew I had to make it. I quite like Mary Berry from the Great British Bake Off which I’m not ashamed to admit I love.

The ingredients: Self Raising Flour, Treacle, Stemmed Ginger, Light Muscovado Sugar, Milk, Butter, Eggs, Mixed Spice and All Spice. I did forget to include the baking powder in this photograph.

Mary suggests that to weigh the treacle on the sugar to minimise mess. I only had 75g of Muscovado sugar, which quite expensive and only available in specialist stores, so I substituted with brown sugar.

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All the ingredients are combined in a large bowl and are beaten until combined. The mixture is a glorious caramel colour. Once combined transfer the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

While the slice is cooling you can make the icing. I prefer my icing to be a little runny to I added a little extra water in addition to the ginger sugar syrup.The ginger is chopped finely and used to decorate the slice.

The slice was quite delicate and little difficult to cut at first. I would recommend chilling it before cutting and serving. It was however delicious. It tasted like gingerbread which I found wonderful. I found the treacle complimented the ginger and didn’t overpower the slice (but as I mentioned I do love treacle so I’m sure this is subjective).

It was also simple to make. I love that all the ingredients are combined in the bowl and you don’t need to first cream the sugar and the butter. It was also a quick recipe I had the recipe made, cooked and iced in the time it took me to watch the latest Torchwood episode. I think I’ll definitely be making this again.

Ginger and Treacle Slice*

Slice Ingredients
225g/8oz softened butter
175g/6oz light muscovado sugar
200g/7oz black treacle
300g/11oz self-raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground all spice
4 eggs
4 tablespoons milk
3 bulbs of stem ginger from a jar finely chopped

Icing Ingredients
75g/3oz Icing Sugar
3 teaspoon stem ginger syrup from the jar
3 bulbs of stem finger from a jar, finely chopped to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/355F. Grease a tin (Mary recommends a 30×23 (12x9inch) tray bake or roasting tin). Then line the base with non-stick baking paper

2. Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until blended.

3. Place the mixture into the greased tin and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

4 .While the slice is cooling make the icing by combining the icing sugar and ginger sugar syrup. I found the mixture was too dry for my liking so I added some water.

5. Once the slice is cool, ice the cake and decorate with the finely chopped ginger.

*Mary Berry, 2011. 100 Cakes and Bakes: My Kitchen Table. Edition. BBC Books