Gingerbread Cake – My Baking Dependancy

Gingerbread cake is wealthy, moist, and filled with ginger taste. Serve this vacation traditional with whipped cream and caramel sauce for a dessert that’s certain to be successful together with your visitors.

Do you’ve got a set of inherited cookbooks like my household? Now we have so many who belonged to my Nana.

A few of them are filled with all the things that was terrible about meals within the ’50s (I’m you, scorching canine jello salad), and superb concerning the following many years, like this gingerbread cake.

Once I’m lacking my Nana or I’m caught for a brand new recipe concept, I wish to thumb via these previous cookbooks for nostalgia and inspiration.

They by no means appear to disappoint, I can inform you that a lot.

(Though what I wish to know is, who truly ate that scorching canine salad factor? Gross. We normally make a giant deal in our home about not yucking anybody else’s yums, however I draw the road at combining jello and meat merchandise, sorry 1957.)

One factor that’s undoubtedly yum for almost everyone seems to be a cake like this one. It’s a traditional, and for good motive.

My traditional gingerbread cake recipe

This recipe has a little bit of an fascinating historical past.

Whereas flipping via an previous cookbook, a random handwritten notecard with a model of this recipe fell out.

At first, I believed it should be one in all my Nana’s recipes. In spite of everything, she was well-known for her vacation baking, making all the things from pumpkin rolls to tins of peanut brittle yearly.

Once I requested my Aunt Debbie, although, she mentioned that it wasn’t Nana’s handwriting. Nana and her coworkers used to swap recipes on a regular basis, so we expect it should have come from one in all her work mates.

Nicely, I like gingerbread all the things, whether or not it’s gingerbread cookies or gingersnaps or gingerbread crinkle cookies. So I needed to give this recipe a attempt. I made a number of tweaks and fell in love with this flavorful cake.

This recipe is unquestionably an old-school traditional; there are variations of it out there all around the web, which tells me that many handwritten recipe playing cards should have been shared years in the past.

To essentially play up the ginger taste, I exploit two full teaspoons of floor ginger on this cake. I additionally will generally add chopped crystallized ginger to the batter, giving it a fantastic texture in addition to one other hit of that zippy, spicy ginger.

This cake makes a straightforward Christmas dessert, excellent for whenever you wish to serve one thing completely scrumptious with out placing in a ton of effort.

Find out how to make this gingerbread cake

This can be a completely easy, no-frills cake recipe, very similar to my eggless chocolate cake. 

However don’t let that idiot you into pondering it isn’t past flavorful! This gingerbread cake simply doesn’t have to be dressed as much as make a giant impression.

Components you’ll want

To make this cake, you will have:

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup room-temperature unsalted butter 
• 1 flippantly crushed egg 
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 2 ½ teaspoons floor cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons floor ginger
• ¾ teaspoon floor cloves
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup scorching water
• ½ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (optionally available)

Earlier than you begin baking, be sure to know easy methods to measure flour appropriately. This may assist your gingerbread cake end up excellent each time. 

A bit of little bit of applesauce helps this cake keep moist, whereas unsulfured molasses provides it a wealthy sweetness and the attribute gingerbread colour. Ensure you are utilizing common unsulfured molasses, not blackstrap molasses.

I like pairing ginger with cinnamon and cloves for the proper steadiness of spices on this cake. In case you actually love that ginger kick, add in some finely chopped crystallized ginger. It provides nice texture and and an additional layer of ginger taste to the cake. 

Making this recipe

One of the vital uncommon issues about this recipe is the addition of scorching water on the very finish. However hey, that’s a retro recipe for ya!

To make this gingerbread cake, begin by beating the butter and sugar till mild and fluffy, then including the eggs, applesauce and molasses. 

If you’re new to baking, I recommend reviewing easy methods to cream butter and sugar collectively. This can be a easy step that may make a giant distinction within the texture of your baked items.

At this level the batter would possibly look slightly bizarre, virtually curdled. Don’t freak out – it’ll come collectively in the long run.

Then whisk collectively the dry components: flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Slowly add this to the moist components till simply mixed.

After the dry components are added, stir within the scorching water till the batter is clean. Sure, after the dry components!

Actually, I don’t even know the why behind this step. All I do know is it makes for a tremendous moist texture on this cake, and that’s all I care about on the finish of the day.

In case you’re utilizing the crystallized ginger, go forward and fold it in earlier than pouring the batter right into a greased and floured 9-inch cake pan. You should use a sq. pan or spherical pan, or bake it in a springform pan to chop the ultimate cake into wedges.

Bake the gingerbread cake at 350°F for 55-65 minutes, or till a toothpick inserted within the middle of the cake comes out clear with only a few crumbs clinging to it.

Let the cake cool earlier than slicing and serving.

Storage suggestions

Retailer this gingerbread cake coated at room temperature for as much as 3 days. As a result of it’s a very moist cake, I don’t advocate conserving it a lot previous 3 days, however you possibly can prolong this to 4-5 in case you retailer it within the fridge.

You may additionally freeze the cake, both entire or in slices. 

To freeze the entire cake, wrap the cooled cake in a layer of plastic wrap adopted by a layer of industrial quality foil. Wrap particular person slices in a layer of plastic wrap and place them in a zip-top freezer bag.

Freeze for 1-2 months. Thaw at room temperature for a few hours earlier than having fun with.

For more information on this course of, take a look at my publish on easy methods to freeze cake.  

Serving options

There are many choices in the case of topping your gingerbread cake.

A dusting of powdered sugar is an easy and chic option to go. You may as well serve it with do-it-yourself whipped cream or salted caramel sauce, and even eggnog ice cream!

In case you’re feeling additional fancy, attempt making some sugared cranberries for a festive and scrumptious garnish.

It doesn’t matter what you serve with this gingerbread cake, it’ll be a giant hit together with your visitors!