If you are looking for a cake to wow friends and family, look no further. This is the cake to make a statement with. If you can’t find cranberries, try using blueberries and strawberries. This recipe makes more than you need for the cake but I figure why not make some extra for other uses? I highly recommend grinding cardamom and cloves with a pestle and mortar instead of buying ready made. It does make a huge difference!
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Gingerbread spice mix
4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp freshly ground cardamom
3 tsp freshly ground cloves
Soft gingerbread cake
270 g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
4 tsp gingerbread spice mix
1/2 tsp ground bitter orange peel (can be omitted)
2 large eggs
100 g light muscovado sugar (or light brown sugar)
100 ml* cane syrup
125 g butter
100 ml heavy cream (about 35-40 % fat content)
150 ml* milk
Sugared cranberries
Fresh cranberries, a couple of large handfuls
1 egg white (use pasteurized if you’re worried about eating raw eggs)
Granulated sugar, for rolling
Cream cheese frosting
I’m using a large amount of butter for this recipe to add stability as this is a rather tall cake. Cream cheese frosting tends too be a bit on the loose side, but not this one!
150 g butter, softened
180 – 210 g (1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cups) powdered sugar
200 g cream cheese, cold
METHOD
Soft gingerbread cake
1 Heat oven to 175°C (350F). Butter and flour three 15 cm (6 inch) baking pans. Set aside.
2 Mix flour, baking soda, salt, gingerbread spices and ground bitter orange peel in a bowl. Set aside.
3 Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy and lighter in color, about 3-4 minutes. Add cane syrup and beat until smooth.
4 Melt the butter in a saucepan and add cream and milk.
5 Add dry ingredients and butter mixture to the egg mixture in additions.
6 Divide batter between prepared cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then unmold onto a wire cooling rack.
Sugared cranberries
1 Dip cranberries in egg white and put them on a piece of kitchen paper so they’re not soaking wet when rolling them in sugar (this will make the sugar lumpy).
2 Roll in sugar and leave to dry for 30 minutes or so. Make the frosting while you wait.
Cream cheese frosting
1 Beat butter until pale, about 2 minutes.
2 Add powdered sugar and continue beating until frosting is very pale and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3 If you want the frosting to be as white as possible, add just a tiny bit (start off with a super small amount, like the tip of a toothpick and then add more if needed) of purple/royal blue icing color.
4 Add cream cheese and beat until just smooth.
Assembling the cake
1 If cake layers are domed on top, even them out just slightly using a serrated knife (you can correct this with an even layer of frosting instead).
2 Put the first cake layer on a cake stand or plate and spread a fairly thick layer of frosting on it using an offset spatula.
3 Keep doing this until you’ve used all three cake layers. End with a layer of frosting on top of the last layer.
4 Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake and put it in the fridge to set for a 10-20 minutes if needed.
5 Decorate with sugared cranberries and a sprig of spruce if desired.
COOK’S NOTES
*100 ml = 6 tbsp + 2 tsp
*150 ml = 10 tbsp
If you don’t want to use egg whites for the sugared cranberries, Naomi over at Bakers Royale has another way of making them with a simple syrup.
