11 October, 2018
Gingerbread Cake
I’m really enjoying The Great British Bake Off this year. The ‘Spice’ episode from a couple of weeks ago was right up my street and left me desperate to make a Gingerbread cake! I turned to one of my favourite bloggers (Jane’s Patisserie) for inspiration! Here I’ve followed Jane’s recipe (Christmas Gingerbread Cake) for the sponge and layered the cake together with my own ginger and vanilla frosting recipe. The recipe makes a large cake! Mine was actually 3 tiers! The smell when this cake is baking is divine. It would be a perfect alternative to a traditional Christmas cake.
Ingredients for the cake:
- 250g Unsalted Butter
- 250g Light Brown Sugar
- 250 g Golden Syrup
- 250g Black Treacle
- 500g Self Raising Flour
- 4 tsp Ground Ginger
- 3 Medium Eggs
- 350ml Whole Milk
Ingredients for the frosting:
- 150g unsalted Butter
- 300g Full Fat Cream Cheese
- 1000g Icing Sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare 3 x 20cm (8 inch) round baking tins.
- Add the butter, sugar, golden syrup and black treacle to a large pan, heat gently and stir until smooth. Leave to cool slightly.
- Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the ground ginger. Pour in the liquid mixture and beat together until smooth.
- Add the eggs and milk and beat again until smooth.
- Split the mixture between the 3 tins (the mixture will be relatively runny, so be careful).
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, until baked through. A cake skewer should come out clean when inserted and the cake should NOT be making a bubbling/crackling sound (the sound indicates that the cake is not quite done). Don’t panic if the cake looks dark on top, it’s not burnt, it’s the treacle and sugar coming through.
- Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before allowing them to cool fully on wire racks.
- Make the frosting by combining the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, ginger and vanilla in a freestanding mixer and beating until smooth.
- Pipe 1/3 of the frosting on top of each cake and stack. Decorate with Gingerbread Men, blitzed gingerbread crumbs and edible gold sparkle!
