Ultimate Treacle Gingerbread Loaf Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why does my gingerbread loaf sink in the middle? ›

Too much: If you accidentally overmeasure your baking soda or powder it can also cause your cake or loaf to sink in the middle. High altitude: If you're baking at a higher altitude you'll need less leavening to achieve the same result as sea level. Without proper altitude adjustments, your products may sink.

We would not use extra sugar instead of the treacle as treacle is an invert sugar, which particularly helps to keep the cake moist. Golden syrup or agave syrup would be the next alternatives, but they don't have the slightly bitter bite of treacle and could make the cake slightly too sweet.

Our answer

Molasses and treacle are similar and are both syrups that are made during the processing of cane sugar. In this cake it will be fine to use molasses as a substitute. There are varying grades of molasses and some molasses are very dark and bitter, such as blackstrap molasses.

As with maple syrup, honey will work as a 1:1 substitute for golden syrup. Again you'll get more complex flavour from honey which will mostly be a good thing.

Six common baking-fails, and how they can be prevented. Your cake is too dense A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought).

Both have a deep, aromatic flavour that adds a unique finish to food and drink recipes, but they are subtly different, with treacle tending to be a sweeter product that has less of a bitter profile than molasses. Compared to treacle, molasses is thicker in consistency and darker in colour.

For that deep colour and warming flavour to your Gingerbread, treacle is a must! For those outside the UK struggling to get treacle, molasses can be used as a substitute, although you may need to experiment with the quantities to get the perfect flavour.

Black treacle is slightly runnier than molasses. It's important to point out that there are other types of sugar syrup: golden syrup, for instance, is much lighter in colour than molasses and black treacle, and has its own range of applications, despite being closely related to black treacle.

More commonly known as treacle or black treacle or, in the US as blackstrap molasses, molasses are essentially what is left over after cane sugar is boiled to produce sugar and most of the sugar has been extracted.

For a closer substitute, you can use blackstrap molasses. Its dark, bitter flavor will be closer in taste, but it is stronger so you might want to use a little less.

What can I use instead of treacle in gingerbread? ›

Honey: Similar in color, taste, and texture to golden syrup, honey is a good substitute for treacle. Look for a thick amber honey, rather than a super-light honey. Use the same amount of honey as you would golden syrup in a recipe.

Treacle has a richer colour and a stronger flavour to Golden Syrup and is not quite so sweet. You can use it to replace Golden Syrup in many recipes but it is often used alongside Golden Syrup in recipes such as in our Old English Gingerbread.

It works particularly well in gingerbread cookies. Start with slightly less than the amount of molasses called for as maple syrup is lighter in texture. The flavor profile will be different. You can also substitute honey, though a light clover honey will not have the right effect flavor-wise.

Molasses – Essential for that deep, rich, caramel-like gingerbread flavour! It also helps hold the dough's shape. Golden syrup makes a great sub, or treacle. Honey will also work, but the cookies will spread out a touch more and not have the same deep flavour (but still very, very good!).

To keep our gingerbread recipe from sinking in the middle, we incorporated the baking soda with the wet ingredients and roughed up some of the batter to strengthen the flour, giving our gingerbread a more sturdy texture while maintaining its moistness.

Just melt the sugar in a pan over low heat. You want to allow it to turn brown, but make sure not to burn it (otherwise it won't taste so great). Then take your gingerbread house pieces, dip the edges in melted sugar and hold them together for a few seconds. That's it!

Always bake on the middle rack. Bake just one batch at a time for perfectly even cooking. Pop the remaining unbaked cookie dough in the fridge as each batch bakes, to prevent the dough from becoming too warm and turning into flat cookies.