Studs and Flicks: gingerbread

Today's post is a recipe for a gorgeous gingerbread flavoured cake, with gingerbread icing. This cake is so tasty, and the sponge is beautifully fluffy & light. It is a great cake for this time of year, and would make a great alternative dessert on Christmas day, if your family doesn't like Christmas pudding. Depending on how you decorate it, it could be a great showstopper cake at a Christmas party this season too. Everyone in my family loves it, and I think it will be asked for every Christmas from now on.

Ingredients

Homemade Gingerbread Biscuits (recipe)

Method

1 - Preheat the oven to 180C. Then, line & grease 3 x 20cm cake tins ready for the cake mix.

2 - Pour the 150ml milk and 3 tbsp of treacle into a saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly until combined. Leave to cool.

3 - In a stand mixer, add the 375g of Plain Flour, 3 tsp Baking Powder, 1 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda, 375g Light Brown Sugar, 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon, 2 tsp Ground Ginger and a pinch of salt. Gently mix the dry ingredients until the brown sugar breaks up, and you have a sand-like texture.

4 - In a large jug, whisk the 300ml Buttermilk, 225ml Vegetable Oil, 3 Eggs, 3 tbsp Amaretto and 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract together. Once mixed, add the milk-treacle to the jug and mix well.

5 - Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, in the stand mixer. Whisk the ingredients together to form a smooth cake batter.

6 - Divide the batter equally between the three tins and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, after you poke it into the middle of the cake. Once cooked, cool the cakes in the tins for 10 minutes.

7 - Then turn out the cakes onto a wire rack, for cooling. Remember to peel of the baking paper from the bottom of the cake. Leave to cool completely.

8 - When the cakes are cool, make the icing. In a stand mixer, whisk the 200g of Butter and 400g Icing Sugar together, until combined. Then add the 1 tsp Vanilla Extract, 2 tbsp Black Treacle, 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon and 1 tsp Ground Ginger to the mixer, and whisk until combined & has an icing-thick texture.

9 - Place the first cake sponge layer on your chosen cake board. Then spread a thin layer of icing on the top of the sponge. Apply the next sponge layer, and spread icing on the top of that sponge. Then add the final sponge, and apply the icing on the top.

10 - Smooth a thin layer of the icing around the sides of the cake. It won't look pretty just yet, as this is the crumb layer. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes, to set the icing.

11 - Once out of the fridge, spread the remainder of the icing (should be about half of the original mixture) on top of the hard crumb layer. Smooth out as this is the final layer.

12 - Then finish your cake with whatever decorations you like. I decided to go with some desiccated coconut on the top, to look like snow, and several gingerbread biscuit trees around the outside.

And that is it!

Finished!

And that is how you make this delicious gingerbread cake, with gingerbread icing. It's a perfect cake for this festive season, whether you want it for cosy winter nights in, or as a centre piece for your holiday party.

I hope you like this recipe, and let me know if you decide to make it.

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As the festive season is fully upon us now, I thought that I would share my gingerbread recipe, that I love to make during this time of year.

They are great just as a snack, or even as a gift for your friends & family, if you don't have a lot of money to buy presents. This recipe made about 84 biscuits for me, but my cutters are quite small. So how many you make, depends on how big your cutters are. I have festive shaped ones, but you can use any shape you want, and you can decorate them with whatever you want too.

I hope you like them, as much as I do!

Ingredients

350g Plain Flour (+ extra for rolling)

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

125g Butter

175g Light Soft Brown Sugar

1 Egg

4 tbsp Golden Syrup

Writing Icing & Other Baking Decorations (1/2/3)

Method

1 - In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon. Add the butter and rub together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Then stir in the sugar.

2 - In another mixing bowl, lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture clumps together.

3 - Tip the mixture onto a flat surface, and knead briefly until smooth and dough-like. Wrap in clingfilm, and leave to chill in the fridge, for 15 minutes.

4 - Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4, once the dough has finished chilling. Also line 2/3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

5 - Lightly flour your flat surface and rolling pin. Then, roll your dough out to a 0.5cm thickness. Using cutters, cut out your shapes and place them on the baking sheets, leaving a gap between them. The size of your cutters will give you an estimation of how many gingerbreads this recipe will make. Mine were quite small, so I ended up with 84 biscuits.

6 - Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.

7 - Transfer them to a wire rack to cool down. Once cool, you can start decorating!

Make sure the icing is completely set before storing them in a tin.

8 - (Optional) I am planning on giving a few of this as a small gift this Christmas, so here is how I wrapped them. I purchased some festive cellophane wrap and created a little parcel with about 8 gingerbreads inside. I then used a little bit of ribbon for a festive touch. You could also add a tag, if you wanted to.