Cake hasn’t risen

[tricolore]

I made this tonight

www.cooked.com/uk/Leiths-School-of-Food-and-Wine/Quadrille-Publishing/Leiths-How-to-Cook/Bread-biscuits-and-cakes/Gingerbread-recipe

It hasn’t risen at all.
Any idea why? I didn’t open the oven door

Has your bicarb old or been left open to the air? I find that bicarb works best when it's a new packet.

Old bicarb?
Too much bicarb......

Possibly old although the use by date is Aug 23.
What a bugger. It’s not the sort of cake you make every week

Hmm see, to me, gingerbread is not a cake. It’s biscuits.
It’s definitely a very dense cake at least.
It’s got a lot of flour in it and only 2 eggs. I wouldn’t be expecting much of a rise anyway.

Could you have overmixed?

I agree that the title leads you to think or biscuits but I had the case once before, made by an experienced baker, and it was much lighter and deeper.
The recipe said to mix for at least 5 mins and that’s what I did.
My melted butter and syrup/sugar mixture wasn’t smooth: that certainly didn’t look right.

I wouldn’t expect that recipe to lead to a light, fluffy cake. Gingerbread is often quite dense and I that’s what I would expect here upon initial reading.

The only acid is the milk and treacle to balance the bicarb. Next time, either, add a little cream of tarter or take out the bicarbonate entirely and use sr flour. A little vanilla essence might be a worthwhile addition.

Or, you can separate the eggs, stir in the yolks, whisk the whites until stiff and fold in last thing.

Thank you for the suggestions. It tastes yummy as it is so no harm done. It’s not quite as delicious as I remember it but that might be because I made it