Spiced Ginger Cake

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 4 ounces cold unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and lightly flour a 8-inch by 3-inch cake pan.

Into a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingers, work the butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the eggs, vanilla, milk, and half of the crystallized ginger and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will appear lumpy).

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle remaining crystallized ginger on top of batter. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester inserted into cake?s center comes out clean.