With Christmas coming up very soon I decided to make a cake inspired by the flavour of gingerbread. The cake contains many Christmas flavours such as ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. I bought some gingerbread syrup online, to add even more flavour to the cake (and buttercream) and this helps that cake taste like a Starbucks Ginger Bread Latte! For the buttercream, I made a brown sugar buttercream which uses the same spices I used for the cake. Also, I decorate the top of the cake little candy gingerbread sprinkles. This cake with instantly make your house feel and smell Christmasy!
Gingerbread Cake:
340g Soften Butter/Baking Spread
200g Caster Sugar
150g Soft Brown Sugar
6 x Eggs
340g Self-Raising Flour
1 Tbsp Ground Ginger
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp All Spice
¼ Tsp Nutmeg
60ml Gingerbread Syrup
Brown Sugar Gingerbread Buttercream:
250g Soften Butter
700g Icing Sugar
120g Soft Brown Sugar
180ml Gingerbread Syrup
2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 ½ Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
2-4 Tbsp Milk
Decoration:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Then in a large missing bowl add the soften butter/baking spread, caster sugar and soft brown sugar and mix until pale and fluffy.
2. Next, add the eggs one at a time and mix until all of the eggs have been incorporated.
3. Add the self-raising flour, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, ground nutmeg and gingerbread syrup. Mix until all of the ingredients are evenly mixed into the batter.
4. Divide the gingerbread cake mixture into 3 x 20cm lined cake tins.
5. Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes. To check to see if the cake is baked, place a skewer through the middle of the cake; if it comes out clean, then the cake is baked.
6. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the gingerbread buttercream, add the softened butter to a large mixing bowl and mix until the butter becomes lighter in colour.
7. Pour the soft brown sugar, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg into the bowl and mix until the ingredients become paler in colour.
8. Next, add half of the icing sugar into the mixing bowl. Then add the gingerbread syrup and mix until all of the ingredients are evenly incorporated.
9. Then add the rest of the icing sugar and add some of the milk and mix until you get a spreadable buttercream consistency.
10. Place a layer of cake on a cake turntable and place some buttercream over the buttercream. Then add another layer of cake on top.
11. Then repeat this process again for the final layer of cake.
12. Next coat the cake with buttercream; I have a tutorial on how to do this here.
13. With the remaining buttercream place, the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M Piping Tip. Pipe buttercream rosettes around the top of the cake.
14. Finally, decorate the top of the cake with the gingerbread sprinkles. These sprinkles will make the cake so Christmasy, I got mine from here.
Here are some other cakes you may like to try and bake!
