Buttermilk Gingerbread

Preheat oven to 180C (350 F). In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and allspice. Add egg and buttermilk, mix well with an electric mixer. Mix until the batter is creamy, with small air bubbles. Carefully fold in the raisin/nut/ginger/apricot/peel mixture. Don't stir too long! Put the batter in a (24 cm) rectangular cake dish (grease it first to make things easier after baking ;) Bake for 1 hour until done (do the knitting-needle test!) and golden/dark brown. Take the cake from the dish, leave to cool for 10-15 minutes. After that, wrap the cake in a plastic bag or in a piece of aluminium/aluminum foil and let cool completely. The last step is essential! If you leave the cake to cool 'in open air' it will get dry: it should be moist and sticky. Cut in thin slices; this recipe has 15 servings (!). Throw away the first and last piece if you don't like the tough texture. Great in winter with hot cocoa. Here in the Netherlands, we have two types of allspice. One is for making gingerbread as above, the other is for making 'speculaas'. I'm not really sure which one is for sale outside our country, but the main ingredient is cinnamon for both, so it shouldn't make too much of a difference.