Recipe - Frosted Maple Gingerbread

2 1/3 cup Allpurpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 One half teaspoon Ginger
One half teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
1 cup Maple syrup
1 cup Sour cream
4 tablespoon Melted butter or bacon fat

FROSTING
2 cup Icing sugar (sifted); up to
3 cups
2 tablespoon Soft butter
3 tablespoon Maple syrup
1 tablespoon Sour or whipping cream

Sift together the flour, soda, ginger and salt. Beat the egg until it is
foamy, then gradually beat in the maple syrup, sour cream, and butter or
bacon fat. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating until well blended.

Pour into a greased and lightly floured 11 X 7 X 1 1/2" baking pan. Bake at
350 degrees F for 3040 minutes, or until cake pulls away from the sides of
the pan. Remove from the oven and let it cool.

Combine all the frosting ingredients in a bowl, beat with an electric mixer
until smooth, creamy and of spreading consistency. Place the icing in big
swirls on the cake and sprinkle to taste with chopped walnuts.

NOTES : Molasses, ginger, and maple syrup are inextricably linked with
early Canadian foods. The first two came as part of the English navy
rations, the other from the Indians. Lei's Note: Although Mme Benoit
mentions molasses in her introduction to this recipe, there is none listed
in the ingredients and it is not mentioned in the directions either.
Recipe by: The Canadiana Cookbook/Mme Jehane Benoit/1970 Posted to TNT
Prodigy's Recipe Exchange Newsletter by Bill & Leilani Devries
devriesb@cyberbeach.net on Aug 20, 1997