Forget dense, heavy fruit cake – this light but complex gingerbread cake is the new Christmas cake in town!
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 the previous paragraph re vitamins) and the brandy butter, well it was just destined to be the frosting. The little Christmas tree decorations on top (made with this gingerbread cookie recipe) 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
2020-01-13 13:41:14
Serves 12
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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 The Kate Tin 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
Instructions
- 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.
The Kate Tin https://thekatetin.com/
Please could you convert this to grams please? ❤️
Hi Debbie – done! 🙂
thank you so much for being wonderfully helpful x
This recipe needs to be in cups measures. Too hard to keep converting. Waste of time. I am sure it must be delicious
Hi William, baking is a science and measuring must be done as accurately as possible. I don’t use cups in my recipes because:
1) ‘1 cup’ is different in various parts of the world eg in Australia it is 240ml.
2) when measuring by volume (eg cups), there can be so much inconsistency. Measure out a cup of flour and weigh it. Now do this 3 times and see what a difference it makes. The inconsistency can be up to 30g per ‘1 cup’.
3) switching to a scale is not only affordable (you can find them at such affordable prices), but also saves washing up as you can weigh everything into the bowl you’re using – no washing measuring cups!
I find it a huge honour when people choose to make my recipes. Someone is investing their hard-earned money and time into creating something special, most likely for a loved one, and it is my job as a recipe developer to try and take as much of the risk out of that recipe flopping or being a disappointment as possible. Providing weights is just that.
Hope you’ll invest in a scale – it will change your baking forever.
Kate
Is there a way to print this off your site without all the pictures and the story – a simple 1 page recipe with an image of the finished product? Maybe I’m missing seeing a link to print… thank you!
Hi Alyse! I’ve updated it now so there is a printable recipe. It was a function I added to my website a while ago but as this is an older post it wasn’t updated. Sorry about that! Hope the recipe card works now 🙂
I made this for Christmas Day this year and it was not only delicious but super easy to make – thank you!
You’re welcome Kirsty! Thank you for taking the time to let me know it came out well!
Would you consider adding some mincemeat mixture to the middle layer to bring in a traditional flavour?
Hi Lisa! Yes, that would be a lovely addition!
How far in advance can you make this cake?
You could make the cake layers 3-4 weeks ahead of time and simply wrap and freeze them. You can then make the buttercream the day before you want to serve it, and assemble the cake with the still-frozen cake layers (it makes it easier to assemble actually!). Leave it at room temperature (or in the fridge if it’s very hot) until you’re ready to serve it.