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Isle of Wight Ginger Toms

The Isle of Wight tells the story of Ginger Tom — a cat that is said to slide in and out of people’s letter boxes through the night. If you meet him and offer him a special type of gingerbread (named after him) he will grant you his ear and give you advice.

But here’s the rub, if he does not like the treat he will not tell you, but his advice will be bad. It is only he enjoys the ginger that he will give you good advice.

If however, he visits and you have nothing to offer, then Ginger Tom will leave, never to visit you again.

Post by @wihtlore@thefolklore.cafe (Stories and Folklore)

Ingredients:

• 150 g salted butter
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 350 g flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 5 cm root ginger (grated)
• 2 balls stem ginger (finely chopped)

Method:

• melt butter, sugar and honey in a pan
• mix flour, spices and baking powder in a dish
• add stem and root ginger into the pan
• stir butter, sugar, honey and ginger mix into the flour
• knead it into a dough
• as the mixture cools pre-head oven to 200°C
• once the dough is cool enough to handle but still slightly warm, roll out on a floured surface to ca. 1½ cm thick
• bake for 12–15 minutes (watch to ensure it doesn’t burn)
• gingerbread should be soft; it is not meant to be as hard as a biscuit
• decorate in a way that represents your family