Laura Ingalls Wilder's Gingerbread Recipe

My son brought this recipe home from school when he was in 2nd grade. His teacher had included it in a cookbook that the school had sold as a fundraiser. I always wanted to see if I could authenticate it, so a year ago I searched the internet & found this letter along with the recipe. It was exactly the same recipe that was in my son's cookbook. This letter was written to author Jennie Lindquist at The Horn Book, a publisher of children's stories. The date was October 19th, 1953. I just thought it was great to have one of her recipes in my collection, as I was raised about 30 miles from her Rocky Ridge Homestead where she & Almanzo lived for over 60 years & where she wrote the "Little House" books. I am happy to share it with you.

"1 cup brown sugar blended with 1/2 cup lard or other shortening. 1 cup molasses mixed well with this. 2 teaspoons baking soda in 1 cup boiling water (Be sure cup is full of water after foam is run off into cake mixture). Mix all well. To 3 cups of flour have added one teaspoon each of the following spices:ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sift all into cake mixture and mix well. Add lastly 2 well-beaten eggs. The mixture should be quite thin. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Raisins and, or, candied fruit may be added and a chocolate frosting adds to the goodness."

LAURA'S GINGERBREAD

(Recopied it in recipe form, for your convenience)

Mix all together:

1 C. brown sugar
½ C. shortening
1 C. molasses

Add:
2 t. baking soda in
1 C. boiling water

Sift together & stir in:
3 C. flour
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1 t. cloves
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. allspice
½ t. salt

Add last:

2 eggs, well beaten

Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Note: I have made this many times & it is very good. One hint, you do have to dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, per her instructions or it doesn't turn out right.