Treacle Anyone?

'Tis the season for Harry Potter, and I've been invited to a themed birthday party.  But what to make to fit in with the theme?  I don't have time to make an elegantly sculpted cake or to research "genuine" Harry Potter treats.  Then inspiration struck me:  treacle.  Yes, good ol' treacle, known as molasses on this side of the pond, at least I think they're the same, not certain, but for the purposes of this entry, treacle is molasses and molasses is treacle.

Random fact about molasses:  When visiting the Booker T. Washington National Monument in Franklin County, VA, the guide told us (I think I was in 4th grade when my class went) that when Booker T. Washington would be given a little bit of molasses as a treat as a child, he would let it spread all over his plate to make it appear to be more than it really was.  That's how special molasses is.

No, I didn't make treacle tarts, which I think are similar to chess pies (even though I am a proud Southerner, I do not like chess pie).  What else has molasses in it?  Gingerbread!

Ah, I remember going to Colonial Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern Bakery and gobbling up their "ginger cakes."  When I saw that they had a cookbook, I snatched it up, only to find that the modern adaption for the recipe turned out to be gingerbread cookies, not little cakes.  Disappointing.

Okay, so I did some tweaking to a recipe from the cookbook mentioned in the cheesecake post.  Channeling the "Ginger Ninja" (a friend from undergrad) I doubled the ginger.  It just didn't look like enough, if it's "ginger" bread, it should have more ginger than cinnamon (the recipe called for equal amounts of each).  Also, I used dark brown sugar instead of regular sugar, since this is all about the molasses.  I am waiting for it to cool down for the final inspection.  Will it be as good as the colonial ginger cakes?  We'll see.