Extra Gingery Gingerbread Cake

This is one of Justin's favorite foods, and we've been searching for a good recipe for a few years now. I once worked in a bakery that made incredible gingerbread cake around the holidays, but unfortunately, I quit before being able to swipe the recipe! Anyway, this is the best one we've tried so far. I got the recipe off AllRecipes.com but I made a few slight adjustments noted in bold.

Overall the cake is definitely spot on as far as taste goes, but I slightly overbaked mine so it's a bit drier than I'd like. Also, the recipe calls for a full cup of molasses. I'm not a fan of molasses at all, so I halved it and only used 1/2 cup. Justin had no idea until I said something after he'd tasted it. He agreed that a full cup would've been too overpowering.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup dark molasses (I only used 1/2 cup and it was plenty)
  
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger (We couldn't find any in the stores near us, so I omitted. It still tasted very gingery and delicious!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour a 10 inch springform pan (I used a standard bundt pan instead).

2. Stir together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a large bowl, mix sugar with oil, juice, molasses, eggs, and fresh ginger in a large bowl. Mix in crystallized ginger. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 1 hour, or until cake tester comes out clean. Run a knife around the edge to loosen cake, and release pan sides. Serve warm. (I baked this for 60 min and it's slightly overbaked. Next time, I'd recommend 50 minutes.)