This is one classy tea time treat that will wow all your friends, they will "ohh and ahh" as you bring out the tray. Firing complements your way, telling you "there was no need to go to all this trouble", however, don't feel the need to divulge your little secret....this tea time treat is really, really easy to make! The sponge is light as air and as it's an all-in-one mixing method, you can't go wrong. Lap up the praise and thank your lucky stars Mary Berry came to your rescue :)
Recipe complements of Mary Berry's Baking Bible
Makes 15 squares
Ingredients
225g Softened butter175g Light muscovado sugar
200g Black Treacle
300g Self-raising flour
2 level tsp Baking powder
1 level tsp Ground mixed spice
1 level tsp Ground allspice
4 Large eggs
4 tbsp Milk
3 Pieces stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped
Icing
75g icing sugar
3tbsp Stem ginger syrup from the jar
3 Pieces stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4 and line a 30x23cm traybake or roasting tin with baking paper. Put all the ingredients for the traybake in 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 preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until the cake has shrunk from the sides and when pressed springs back in the centre with your fingertips. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the baking paper 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 pallet knife and sprinkle over the chopped stem ginger. Allow the icing to set before slicing the traybake into 15 pieces. (I omitted the stem ginger because my children just love it as it is, warm from the oven with the icing still running down the sides!)
Mary's Tip: This traybake freezes very well un-iced, and in fact improves with freezing.