Fresh Ginger Cake

I have a weak spot for ginger cakes of all sorts and this recipe finds that weak spot and blasts a hole in it wide enough to drive a... well you know what I mean. It's really good. Really, really good. But you have to like a bit of zing in your desserts.

It calls for 1/4 pound of grated ginger - none of these sad little teaspoons of the powdered stuff. And black pepper too - the first time I've used that in a dessert. It makes for a wet batter and bakes up beautifully, rising and cracking. The crumb is moist and tender and the crust (if a cake can have a crust) is a little chewy and sweet.

Recommendations: make sure your ginger is well chopped - I used a food processor to make sure it was in very small pieces, so they just melt into the cake. If you have kids or other family members a little sensitive to spicy foods, you might want to dial back the ginger and cut out the pepper. Both my daughters (5 and 7) tasted this and declined to have any more. My wife and I are now forced to eat the whole thing ourselves. Sigh.