TWD Returns: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

What with all the Christmas and the Africa and all, it's been a while since I've been able to participate in Tuesdays with Dorie, the weekly baking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my home to yours. Looks like I missed a few good things, too (pear tart!) so I might go back and catch up, but probably not. I'm trying to minimize the actual presence of dessert in the house, which sadly may impair my baking capacity. More likely I'll just be giving even more away. I have some freelance jobs that are resulting in a larger diversity of cake-eaters in the workplace, so I have more outlets.

This week's recipe was Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread. Frequent readers may have noticed that I have no problem whatsoever with any kind of gingerbread or spice cake, nor does anyone living in my house. I don't see any particular reason to add chocolate, but was happy to do so for this experiment. I made half the recipe, used powdered and fresh ginger but not the optional preserved stem ginger. I subbed in a mixture of yogurt, creme fraiche, and milk for the buttermilk, and a scoop of pumpkin butter for half an egg. I forgot to mix in the shaved chocolate so I just sprinkled it all on top of the batter in the oven. It was very good. Matt ate it with yogurt--pictured above.

Also, home decor proceeds apace. Matt is bringing home lamps like it's his job, and our house is starting to take on semblances of order. I brought some beautiful fabric home from Uganda, and now we have a tomato tablecloth.