Full question
As I am stuck at home during the Corona Virus outbreak I have been baking cakes etc. for my partner and her colleagues who works for the NHS. They are all Occupational Therapists who need a bit of cheering up. This week so far, Victoria Sponge but with a chocolate filling, Chocolate fudge cake, and for today cheese straws. Next week I am starting with Guinness Gingerbread but cannot get any golden syrup, so can I use dark treacle instead and how much?
Our answer
Nigella's Guinness Gingerbread (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is a grown-up gingerbread cake made with Guinness, golden syrup and soft dark brown sugar. It has a slightly dark, complex flavour in comparison with some other gingerbread recipes. The golden syrup helps to give the gingerbread a moist, slightly sticky texture.
Treacle will also give the gingerbread a moist texture but it has a slightly bitter taste and we are slightly worried that the combination of Guinness and treacle could affect the overall taste of the gingerbread. Some of this can be mitigated by using light brown sugar rather than dark brown sugar but as we have not used treacle for this recipe we are not sure exactly how the flavour would be affected overall. So it really depends on whether you think that the recipients will like a more complex, less sweet version of the gingerbread. Light agave syrup would be a good alternative to golden syrup, if you can find that in the supermarket instead. You could also try making Nigella's Chocolate Gingerbread instead, using all treacle rather than treacle and golden syrup and using light brown sugar. The milk in the cake batter will help to soften the bitterness of the treacle a little more, though we haven't tried this recipe with all treacle so unfortunately can't guarantee the final result.
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