An autumnal favourite, gingerbread is an easy, comforting treat to bake at this time of year and will make your kitchen smell fantastic. The best bit is that you probably have all the ingredients at home already.

This recipe is enough for TWO standard loaf tins, but you can do it in one 20cmX20cm cake tin if you like. If you’re feeling really indulgent you can cover your gingerbread with icing (when it’s cool!) and add some little bits of caramelised orange and lemon, but for this recipe, I’m just doing it straight up, as it were…

Ingredients

125g vegan marg such as Vitalite

100g caster sugar

350g golden syrup

75g applesauce

330g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

250ml water

 

Here’s how I do it:

Line your tin (or tins) with greaseproof paper and preset your oven to 180 degrees (slightly lower for a fan assisted oven) or gas mark 4.

Cream the marg and sugar together in a bowl till they’re light and fluffy.

Heat the syrup in a pan gently until it’s runny, then add to the creamed mixture, mixing well.

 

 

Once that’s incorporated, add your applesauce and mix again.

Sift the flour, salt, bicarb, ginger and cinnamon together into a separate bowl, then add them gradually to the mixture bit by bit alternating with adding the water. The resulting batter will be quite runny, but don’t worry, it’ll firm up nicely while baking.

 

Pop the mixture into the tin (or divide it equally between loaf tins) and bake for 50 minutes. (Loafs should be ready 45-50 mins in, depending on your oven, while the cake tin may take up to an hour. Just keep an eye on things.) When you put a skewer in, it should come out dry. If it doesn’t, give it a few more minutes and try again.

When you take your gingerbread out of the oven, give it a good five minutes to reduce slightly before turning it out onto a cooling rack. Remove the paper, let it cool.

 

(If you fancy doing a bit of decoration, go for it, but I prefer just to tuck straight in as it’s pretty sweet already.)

 

Slice and serve!