BBC - Radio 4 Woman's Hour -<strong>Ginger and Treacle Spiced Traybake</strong>

Treacle can be difficult to weigh accurately, as it tends to stick to the scale pan. Weighing it on top of the sugar overcomes this problem.

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

For the Icing:
75g (3 oz) icing sugar
3 tablespoons stem ginger syrup from the jar
3 finely chopped bulbs of stem ginger from a jar

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C/Fan 160˚C/Gas 4.
Grease a 30 x 23 cm (12 x 9 in) traybake or roasting tin then line the base with baking parchment.
Put all the ingredients for the traybake into a large bowl and beat until well blended. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping the bowl with a plastic spatula to remove all the mixture. Level the top gently with the back of the spatula.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin and springs back when pressed in the centre with your fingertips. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the ginger syrup and mix until the icing is smooth and has a spreading consistency. Pour the icing over the cake, spread it gently to the edges with a small palette knife and sprinkle with the chopped stem ginger to decorate. Allow the icing to set before slicing the traybake into 15-20 pieces.
TIP: This traybake freezes very well un-iced, and in fact improves with freezing.

Mary Berry's Baking Bible is published on 3rd Sept 09 by Ebury, ISBN 978-1-846-07785-2

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