Ginger Cakes is a traditional British recipe, based on Alexis Soyer's recipe of 1849, for a classic biscuit (cookie) of a flour, butter, sugar and egg dough bound with milk and flavoured with ginger that's cut into rounds and oven baked. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Ginger Cakes.
(click this button to prevent the screen from sleeping so Cook Mode is 'ON')
This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Alexis Soyer's 1849 volume The modern Housewife or Ménagère, a classic Victorian cookbook.
Original Recipe
941. SHREWSBURY CAKES—Weigh one pound of flour, into which rub half a pound of butter and six ounces of sugar, make a hole in the centre, into which break a couple of eggs, and add sufficient milk to form a flexible paste, which roll out to the thickness of a penny-piece, and cut it into small cakes with a round cutter; bake them in a moderate oven.
Ginger Cakes are made precisely as the above, but adding half an ounce of ground ginger before mixing; and Cinnamon Cakes, by rubbing in an ounce and a half of ground cinnamon after the paste is mixed.
Modern Redaction
This is really just a minor adaptation of Alexis Soyer's classic Shrewsbury Cakes.
Sift the flour and ginger into a bowl, add the butter then rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the dugar then form a well in the centre and crack in the eggs. Stir the eggs into the flour mixture to combine.
Now add just enough milk to bring the mixture together as a fairly stiff dough. Turn onto a floured work surface and roll out about 4mm thick. Use a round pastry cutter to cut out fluted-edged biscuits from the dough. Transfer these to a baking tray (re-roll the scraps).
Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for about 12 minutes, or until cooked through and golden brown on top. Allow to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing or serving.
