– Can’t wait for Christmas – Favorite Gingerbread Cake
Wohou, time is flying and suddenly it is just a month to Christmas!
During this autumn, I have been rather busy creating and testing new recipes for my work (we have been producing awesome advent calendars filled with organic & plant based chocolate bites of various flavours!), but I haven’t forgotten about my blog, and especially not about the recipe that I am about to present to you now!
Actually, I originally baked this gingerbread cake for my birthday at the beginning of October. But back then, I was rather worried that if I published this recipe, it would get just…lost. While now, looking forward to Christmas but knowing you have to wait for a few more weeks, you might more likely find yourself tempted to bake this cake!
Moreover, if you would like to bring a true Christmas atmosphere to your home as the first advent weekend is approaching, if you decide to bake my gingerbread cake, not only will you get a super duper Sunday dessert, but your home is going to smell absolutely awesome and – last but not least, you can employ your whole family and have a lot of fun!
Or have fun on your own, as I did – One Sunday, my boyfriend found me in our kitchen making…gingerbread mushrooms… šš yep, use gingerbread dough and make whatever you want!
Me, I created a little forest on the top of my cake with a Little My figure, a pig called Fluffy and several gingerbread mushrooms š And despite the fact that I am not a big fan of not edible decorations, this time, I used spruce twigs as little trees and strawberry leaves, daisies and maple leaves around the sides and around the cake. It simply looks beautiful, doesn’t it?
The cake itself is composed of a moist spicy cake body which is cut into 8 layers (or only 4 – if you prefer so), a slightly spiced cream cheese frosting with orange zest and a simple home made raspberry jam.
The cake body can seem quite heavy after baking, I was even worried that I haven’t baked it enough, but relax – it is just supposed to be so and the result is really, really delicious!
Oh, I almost forgot – there is only very little added sugar in this cake.
The only extra sugar is yacon sirup and since yacon sirup’ GI is +- 40, I think it is a pretty cool, low GI, option, still. In the rest of the cake I used Sukrin and Sukrin Melis as a sweetener and thanks to the rich flavor of the warming spices, one doesn’t need to use much sweeteners, anyway!
Last two notes before we jump to the recipe:
First, even though you can just decide to make this cake during an afternoon, I suggest not to do so, but don’t you worry, this cake is just an awesome choice if you are a super busy person! Is it a few day, even a week before you want this cake to be ready? Do you have 20min? Cool, bake the body and put it to the freezer, it will help the cake to taste even better. And the same story comes with the gingerbread cookies, make them ahead whenever it fits you, but keep them at a secret place if you ever want to find them again (out of your sight – and sight of those living with you, they are too good, too tempting to be eaten!!!).
And second – for baking this cake, I used two 18cm springform pans and then cut each cake layer by a smaller 16cm springform pan in order to have nice, even layers with clean, sharp edges. But I suppose that you do not have those at home, so do not panic, you don’t need them!
If you do not have 18cm springform pan, use a wider cake pan and you’ll get a wider, lower cake (according to the size of your pan you need to decide in how many layers the cake is going to be devided, the more the better, but even only two will do just fine!)
To create those nice, clean edges without using another, slightly smaller form, I suggest using either a plate, pot lid or a paper stencil which you place on top of the baked cake and then you cut the edges along the stencil with a sharp bread knife.
So, are you ready to bake? šš
The Gingerbread Cake
INGREDIENTS for 2x 18cm springform pans
For the cake
360g fine spelt flour
200g unsalted butter, softened
200g Sukrin
100g yacon sirup/ honey
185g sour cream
50g full fat milk
4 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground anis
1/2 tsp salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
300g cream cheese (unsalted!)
200g softened butter (unsalted)
200g Sukrin Melis (or powdered sugar)
zest from one orange
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
pinch of salt
Gingerbread Cookies
400g fine spelt flour
140g icing sugar (Sukrin)
85g unsalted butter, softened
2tbsp yacon sirup or honey
3 eggs
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground anis
1 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of salt
Raspberry Jam
200g fresh raspberries
50g Sukrin (add more if you want the jam to be sweeter)
1/2 lemon – juice
INSTRUCTIONS
1. MAKE THE COOKIES
In a large bowl, combine the spices, flour, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and Sukrin on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the yacon sirup or honey and eggs and beat until combined, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Beat until combined, then raise the speed to medium and beat until a thick dough forms, about 1 minute. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, shape into a disk, wrap in plastic foil and let rest in a fridge for at least one hour. Feel free to let the dough rest there for a few days or keep it freezer, if you make the dough longer time ahead.
After at least 30min, preheat the oven to 180Ā°C, prepare a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Place the dough on the kitchen counter sprinkled with all-purpose flour. Quickly kneed the dough and then roll out with a rolling pin. Use cookie cutters to cut gingerbreads of different shapes. Then place the cookies onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 8-12 minutes (you have to adjust the baking time according to the thickness of the cookies – so I suggest checking them after 7 or 8 minutes).
Let cool completely.
If you want to make the mushrooms, you need only to shape the gingerbread cookie dough into small balls and logs, place on a baking try lined with a baking paper and bake as other gingerbreads, just a little longer. The dough is thicker, so you need to keep an eye on the “mushrooms” so that they don’t get burnt. I didn’t brush the mushroom caps and logs by an egg as I did it with the rest of the cookies, but you definitely can! It depends only on how you want to decorate them – or not.
When the mushroom caps are baked, while they are still warm, by a sharp knife, cut holes for the logs – and try if the logs fit in. Then finish the mushrooms by dipping each stem into jam and sticking it into the cap.
Let the mushrooms set a bit before decorating them with royal icing.
2. COOK THE JAM
Place the raspberries, lemon juice and Sukrin to a 0.8l saucepan over medium heat, bring the mixture up to a boil, stirring frequently, and let slowly cook for 15 – 20 minutes.
When the raspberries turn into nice, thick jam, stop the cooking. Pour the jam to a little bowl and cover by plastic foil, let cool completely.
3. BAKE THE CAKE
Preheat the oven to 180Ā°C. Coat two 18cm cake pans with cooking spray, line with parchment paper and then spray again.
Use again the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat together the softened butter and Sukrin on medium speed until light and fluffy, then add eggs, yacor sirup or honey, sour cream, milk and beat until combined, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Then add the dry ingredients and slowly combine into a cohesive batter.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached (40-50 minutes, depending on the size of the pan you use).
When the cake body is baked let it cool for 15 min or a rack before removing the pan, then let cool completely.
Ideally, let the cake rest in a fridge for a few hours before cutting it into layers. You can also cut it into layers, place baking paper in between them, wrap the cake into a plastic foil and put into the freezer. Then, take it out and let get defrost overnigt before the day you are going to use if further.
4. FROSTING
Beat butter with Sukrin/ sugar until nice and pale, add cream cheese with vanilla and beat until completely smooth, then stir in the orange zest.
If the frosting is too soft, place in the fridge for a while.
5. ASSEMBLY
At this step, you are supposed to have:
- cake body baked and cut into layers
- frosting
- gingerbread cookies for decoration
- raspberry jam
Place the first cake layer on a cake stand and spread a layer of frosting on the first layer. Create higher edges that will block jam from running out of the cake. Onto the frosting, spread a layer of jam (the jam doesn’t go all the way to the edges of the cake but is blocked by a slightly higher edges created by the frosting).
Put another layer of the cake onto the first one, frosting and jam, and repeat this until you have used all cake layers.
Spread a thin layer all over the cake and let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. After that time, spread another layer of frosting all over the cake for the final look and then just decorate your cake with the gingerbread cookies!