This is hands-down the best cake I have made all year! And I’ve eaten a lot of cake, people! By now you’ll know about my love for proper dark muscovado sugar – that deep, dark treacle flavour gives me all the feels and I loved how this cake was the epitome of that flavour. It’s loaded with molasses too – which, by the way, is high in B vitamins, so this cake is healthy too!
Unlike fruit cake, it’s light and spongy making it easier to eat more (if you are arguing about this statement, refer to previous paragraph re vitamins) and the brandy butter, well it was just destined to be the frosting. The little Christmas tree decorations on top are simple, elegant and anyone can make them – even the kids can help out (less work for you!). To sum up; Fruit cake be gone, because there is a new Christmas cake in town!
Christmas Gingerbread Cake with Brandy Butter Frosting
Serves 12
For the cake:
170g salted butter
170g molasses
170g golden syrup
180g (260ml) Natura Sugars Dark Muscovado Sugar
425g (3 ¼ cups) cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cocoa powder
2 large eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups whole milk
Brandy Butter Frosting
250g butter, softened
350g Natura Sugars Demerara Icing Sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
2 tbsp brandy
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180° C (or 160C fan-forced). Grease and line the base of 2x22cm round cake tins. In a saucepan, melt the butter, molasses, syrup and sugar over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved completely. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Whisk the eggs and milk into the cooled molasses mixture then pour into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Divide the batter between the lined cake tins and bake in for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely then slice each cake in half horizontally to form 4 layers.
To make the frosting, cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy then add the brandy and vanilla. Assemble the cake by layering the icing inbetween the cake layers leaving enough to cover the sides. Decorate with gingerbread Christmas trees and a dusting of icing sugar.
TIP Get the recipe for the gingerbread biscuits here
Please could you convert this to grams please? ❤️
Hi Debbie – done! 🙂
thank you so much for being wonderfully helpful x