To Make Gingerbread Cakes
Take three pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of butter rubbed in very fine, two ounces of ginger beat fine, a large nutmeg grated; then take a pound of treacle, a quarter of a pint of cream, make them warm together, and make up the bread stiff; roll it out, and make it up into thin cakes, cut them out with a tea-cup, or small glass, or roll them round like nuts, and bake them on tin plates in a slack oven.
From The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy by Hannah Glasse, 1747 & 1796
Modern Adaptation
21 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 pound butter
1 tbsp. Ginger
1 tsp. Nutmeg
H cup molasses
2 tbsp. Cream
Add more molasses if needed. Roll thin (3 - 1 inch). Cut out using any cookie cutter. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a 350º oven.
From The Backcountry Housewife, Vol. I, Improved by Kay Moss and Kathryn Hoffman, 1985 & 1994.