Gingerbread Cake is Your New Favorite Christmas Treat
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No matter how much 2020 has sucked, I’m still looking forward to Christmas and all the cookies and baked goods that come with it. To get the party started, I’m making the most Christmassy of all treats – Gingerbread Cake.
Studded with spicy bites of crystallized ginger, this cake epitomizes holiday flavor. Warm cinnamon, ginger, and molasses wrap your tongue in a cozy sweater by the fireside. Paired with a red cup from Starbucks full of something great and Bing Crosby tunes, gingerbread cake lulls you into yuletide comfort.
Top It Homemade Crystallized Ginger
If you want to go the extra mile, you can make your own crystallized ginger with just three ingredients. I made mine by cutting down Alton Brown’s recipe.
- Fresh Ginger – About 1/2 cup cut into small 1/4-inch cubes
- Water – About 1 quart
- Sugar – 1/2 cup of sugar (an equal amount of sugar and ginger)
You’ll start by boiling the ginger in 1 quart of water for 30 minutes until it’s tender. Then, you’ll drain the liquid. You want to reserve 1/4 cup of liquid. You can also drink this as tea, so don’t waste any!
Add 1/4 cup of your ginger tea, the ginger, and the sugar to your pot again. Bring it to a boil, and then reduce the heat. Keep stirring and watch for crystallization. This is when you’re done. It’ll take about 20 minutes.
Then you’ll move it to a cooling rack that’s been lightly coated with oil to prevent sticking. Once it’s cool, you have the crystallized ginger to put on top of your cake!
Making Gingerbread Cake is Easy!
This recipe uses melted butter, similar to a Texas sheet cake. Creaming the sugar and molasses into the melted butter means you can reduce the sugar granules quickly for a really nice cake texture.
Then, you want to add the eggs in one at a time. I like to turn the mixer up to high for 2 minutes once the eggs are in to really get them beat in and fluff up my cake batter. You can add in the vanilla at this point.
The dry ingredients get sifted to remove clumps and evenly distribute the spices. There’s a little bit of cinnamon for support, but the ginger should be the star! Feel free to adjust the spices for your own flavor preference; the recipe contains the measurements for my own perfect spice ratio.
Once your batter is ready to go, just top it with your crystallized ginger and bake!
Pick the Right Ginger
Since ginger is front and center in this cake, you want to make sure you’re using the best out there.
When you pick up a hand of ginger, look for a size that you’ll be sure to use. The skin should be shiny and firm as a sign that it’s still fresh. The root itself should be firm and never feel mushy.
To store it, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days, or you can peel it and keep it in the freezer. I find that I can grate my frozen ginger just fine and it still provides great flavor.
Serving Up Gingerbread Cake
So, you’ve packed your gingerbread cake with the best ginger flavor and your whole home smells like Christmas. To serve it up, you want to wait until it’s totally cool to cut it. Cool cake cuts a lot easier than hot, even if it is super tempting to dig in immediately!
Then, cut it into 24 even bars. Feel free to dust a little powdered sugar on top, or enjoy them as is. They’re also amazing with a warm cup of tea or a tall glass of milk. You could even break out the sherry or port for a grown-up Christmassy pairing.
Save a Couple Pieces for Santa!
Santa, of course, is happy with either milk or sherry depending on which side of the pond he’s working on. But no matter what, he’ll always be happy to scarf down a piece or two of this gingerbread cake. Don’t forget to leave a piece for Mrs. Claus. She works hard, too, ya know.
So, are you up to trying my gingerbread cake? Are you brave enough to make your own crystallized ginger? Let me know!
Comment below if you have questions, concerns, or opinions. And tag me @ellejayathome on Instagram or Twitter if you share pictures from any of my recipes. I love to hear from you!
Gingerbread Cake
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup butter melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup molasses
- 3 large eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup crystallized ginger
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Rub your 9×13 pan with a light coat of butter to make the paper stick, and then line with parchment paper. Press it down to stick. Lightly butter the paper, too.
- Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon and set aside.
- Cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and molasses until the sugar dissolves.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Then mix in the vanilla.
- Add in the flour mixture until no clumps of dry ingredients shows. Do not overmix.
- Spread the batter into your prepared 9×13 pan. Sprinkle crystallized ginger on top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Allow it to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, and then use the parchment to pick it up out of the pan. Transfer the cake to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Cut into 24 even bars. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar!
