I used the recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I've made it once before and noted that it is "fantastic".

I made it without any substitutions, although I'm curious to try it with butter instead of Crisco. I made it in an 8"x2" round cake pan instead of a 9" pan. It fit perfectly. Baked it for 40 minutes. I think last time I may have made it in an 8" square pan. I think I prefer squares to wedges when it comes to gingerbread.

It's just ok. Very moist, but very crumbly. Tastes mostly like molasses. I think gingerbread should taste more like... ginger. And spices. Needs cloves. Perhaps some nutmeg. I'm not a big fan this time around. I'm hoping that this is a cake that gets better after sitting for a day. We'll see. (See edit below)

I also tried making the vanilla sauce they recommend to serve with it. It ended up being less saucy and more gooey than I expected. Almost like gelatin or something, and it has a weird smell. I think I may just toss it. Only made 1/2 a recipe so no big loss.

There's a gingerbread recipe in The NEW Best Recipe, so maybe I'll try that one next time I have a gingerbread craving. It uses butter, a wider variety of spices, and milk instead of water.

Also, there's a recipe for Honey Spice Cake in the Chocolate & Zucchini cookbook that sounds good.

Edits: It is a little better the next day. Still too crumbly though. Will definitely just use the America's Test Kitchen (The NEW Best Recipe) version next time though.

Just found another recipe for gingerbread in the family cookbook. It has an orange glaze that sounds really good, but it doesn't specify a pan size. Comparing ingredients it looks like it would fit in the same size pan.