How to Make Gingerbread Cake - The Victorian Way

Today we're in for a real treat. Mrs Crocombe is making one of her favourite recipes - a cheap and delicious Gingerbread Cake.

INGREDIENTS
500g flour
200g butter (salted, or add a generous pinch of salt to compensate if unsalted)
200g brown sugar
500g black treacle
10-15g ginger
3 small eggs (or two large)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A little warm milk

METHOD
Start by creaming the butter (stirring or beating the butter until it is a smooth, creamy and a uniform texture). Then, add the sugar and spice, ensuring that you mix them in well. Beat the eggs briefly before also adding to them to the mix.

Add flour a little at a time, mixing well between each handful. Pour in the black treacle as you go. A little warm water can be used to get the last of the black treacle out of the bowl. Then, add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to the warm milk before pouring it into the middle of the bowl and mixing everything together.

Once the mixture is smooth, line a tin with butter and brown paper before pouring the mixture in. Place in the oven for about an hour at 180 degrees Celsius (an inserted knife or skewer should come out clean once the cake is cooked). Once ready, turn out the cake and leave it to cool, then cut into small pieces to serve. For decoration, try dusting with a little plain icing sugar or dipping the cake pieces in some fondant icing.

[EnglishHeritage]

As always, thank you for watching! We’ve answered some of your FAQs below:

WHY IS MRS CROCOMBE USING HER HANDS TO COMBINE THE MIXTURE INSTEAD OF A SPOON? ISN’T THAT UNHYGIENIC?
Assuming they have been thoroughly washed first, mixing by hand is perfectly fine. The Victorians were well aware of food hygiene, even if they hadn't entirely realised what germs were. In fact, many books of the time recommend mixing with your hand as it's easier and quicker than mixing with a spoon.

IS MRS CROCOMBE WEARING A NEW DRESS?

CAN I USE MOLASSES INSTEAD OF TREACLE? DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?
In the UK you can buy dark treacle. Elsewhere, liquid molasses works, though blackstrap is the closest substitute. You can also use a lighter treacle or syrup but the result won’t be as delicious.

WHY DID MRS CROCOMBE TASTE THE GINGERBREAD BUT NOT THE OTHER RECIPES?
Most of the recipes Mrs Crocombe cooks in these videos are for the family, and as a general rule small missing chunks would not exactly further her employment prospects. She generally knows what her recipes taste like (and, in 2019, we cook them regularly as part of the live interpretation in the kitchens) meaning tasting isn’t usually required. However, dishes also needed to be presentable, occasionally leaving small off-cuts that wouldn’t just be left to go to waste.

[toxicperson]

I love how this character became so iconic. They probably thought they were just going to educate people about how servants lived during the 1800s. They never expected to create the shadiest queen on YouTube

[spotellis]

5:37 “Im going to serve this to the top servants table, the one that myself and Mrs.Warwick sit on.”

DANG Ms.Crocombe just flexed hard on all those lower servants.

[PfirsichmuffinxD]

So nobody’s gonna talk about how Mrs. Crocombe is rocking that new dress?! 👀🥰

[MiaLopezdevos]

I just realized that not only is Ms. C cooking for the lord and lady and their guests, but behind the scenes, she also has a whole kitchen she needs to manage to feed the staff of the estate and I think I get why she is so stern and snarky at times haha

[intricatelytangled]

Dang! Only the Top Servants get Ginger Cake?!? The shade continues . .. Lol!

[YoungKim-mzjp]

I always start these videos off like "oh yah, butter, I have that. Milk? No problem!" And then she's like the crushed horn of a unicorn on a full moon and the goddam eyelashes of Quetzalcoatl and I'm like " I- "

[wattenslaafje]

I love love love the small comments inbetween on the society. West/East Indies, the reduxed taxes thing. It adds so much to the immersion and zeitgeist 😍

[samanthawiegel]

"This gets served to the TOP service table, the one I sit on." You get it, Mrs. Crocombe. Deserving that ginger cake, woman!

[sherleystansford]

I see Mrs.CROCOMBE in the thumbnail I click it asap😍!!!

[Janay]

I wonder if there was ever a time where Ms. Crocombe thought:
"If Lord and Lady BrayBrooke do not fancy this meal, they can most certainly, catch these hands" 🤔

[klausoshaunacey]

When I hear her say those glorious words “for this recipe, you will need...” I get excited to be transported back to Victorian England

[inthemixx]

"Eggs from home, sugar from the West Indies, and spice from the East Indies." Meanwhile my eggs came from Dollar Tree, sugar from Walmart, and spice from Save-A-Lot...


*sigh* I'm just a peasant...

[Rasmia_Oxford]

Every time Mrs. Crocombe has something to say about “poor people”, “not very good”, she looks right into your eyes.

[cmcolemanhome]

This minute I saw the notification I rushed to watch this. I would love to see an entire series about Mrs Crocombe. Her entire "life", day, everything.

[littlesnuggle]

I found this channel maybe 45 minutes ago (How To Make Butter the Victorian Way was the first one I found) and holy shit, all of these videos make me indescribably happy. The professional way they're presented, the personalization of every video, the way the person interacts with the audience - it's all so perfect and heartwarming. This is the kind of thing that I would come to watch if I were feeling horribly lonely and I wanted a nice, patient, very well dressed motherly figure to speak softly to me while making delicious and simple food in a descriptive fashion that makes me feel included and wanted even though I'm not even there

[Withoutasoul]

my mind says ginger cake mix but my heart says mud cakes I made outside when I was 7

[AliciaNyblade]

I happened to have all the ingredients in my cupboard for this and so I made it today. Mrs. Crocombe is right; it's a truly delightful cake. Wonderfully rich in flavor yet surprisingly light in texture. My family loved it, too. Thank you so much. For my fellow Americans who want to try the recipe, here are the measurements I used:

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 to 2 t. ginger, to taste (I used 2)
2-3 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour
2 cups molasses (or treacle)
1 t. baking soda
1/4 cup warm milk

Prepare the batter as Mrs. Crocombe instructs and bake at 350 degrees F. I baked mine in an 8X8 square pan and it took an hour and ten minutes, but your time may vary of course.

[Steve-Owens]

So people are coming to my channel from this LOL it must be my demonstration how to make Treacle LOL what a wonderful series, glad to have it bought to my attention..

[astral_ghost]

You guys seriously helped me figure out a topic for my sensory history final. I get to make some Victorian Era desserts and present them to my class and professor in a few days!
Keep up the radical work!
Update: My final went really well!! I'm very grateful for the historians on this channel because every other Victorian recipe I have found in books is a direction copy and I'm very bad with estimating the varied measurements(like a pinch vs a dash).