Gingerbread is a term used to describe a variety of products, ranging from a soft cake to a ginger biscuit. What they have in common are the predominant flavours of ginger and a tendency to use honey or molasses (treacle) rather than just sugar. They will all share a common history though.

Gingerbread was brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis when he moved to Bondaroy (France), near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there 7 years, and taught the Gingerbread cooking to French priests and Christians.

During the 13th century, it was brought to Sweden by German immigrants. Early references from the Vadstena monastery show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease indigestion. It was the custom to bake white biscuits and paint them as window decorations. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. One hundred years later the town of Market Drayton in Shropshire, UK became known for its gingerbread. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century.

Of all the countries in Europe, Germany is the one with the longest tradition of flat, shaped gingerbreads. At every autumn fair in Germany, and in the surrounding lands where the Germanic influence is strong, there are rows of stalls filled with hundreds of gingerbread hearts, decorated with white and coloured icing and tied with ribbons.

During the nineteenth century, gingerbread was modernised. When the Grimm brothers collected volumes of German fairy tales they found one about Hansel and Gretel, two children who, abandoned in the woods by penniless parents, discovered a house made of bread, cake and candies.

At Christmas, gingerbread makes its most impressive appearance. The German practice of making houses never caught on in Britain in the same way as it did in North America, and it is here still that the most extraordinary creations are found. Though American recipes generally call for less spices than the European ones.

I have a wonderful recipe for gingerbread biscuits that I will be making soon enough, but it was gingerbread cake I decided to make this time.

I like a nice dark gingerbread, rich with treacle and full of spice and this cake certainly lived up to that. In a moment of sheer wonderfulness, in the import section of a local supermarket we found the tins of Lyle’s Golden Syrup, just the thing to make the recipe perfect. It’s a by-product of the sugar refining process, the same way treacle is. It’s light in colour and often substituted for honey though it has a much more distinct flavour. While it is available in squeezy plastic bottles, it’s in the tin that is the most traditional, and tastes better!

All the liquids are mixed together – melted butter, eggs, golden syrup and treacle.

The flour and brown sugar are mixed with baking powder and then all the spices are added. Obviously a good amount of ginger (some chopped candied ginger would also be a nice addition and provide some texture), cinnamon, nutmeg and a hint of cloves.

Mixed together and poured into a loaf tin. I only had 2lb tins though it would have probably fitted into a 1lb tin better, it still came out a good size though. Baked low and slow the cake comes out moist and tender.

Served with a lemon glaze, or maybe a touch of whipped cream, the gingerbread makes a perfect accompaniment to my morning tea (or coffee if you must!).