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Gingerbread Cake: Last Minute Holiday Baking

One thread you’ll notice if you read here long is that I am consistently completing tasks at the last minute. I loathe being late, but I can’t say I manage to get things done weeks in advance. As usual I needed a last minute Holiday recipe and ummm… Well last year I recommended my chocolate dipped pretzels, which, would have been wonderful IF I had reviewed my recipe. Yeah, I burned chocolate… again.

Since this happens a lot I have a fall back recipe. I think the recipe originally started with one I found in a magazine, but I have tweaked it until it makes a nice moist semi-sweet cake that looks like this:

You can bake in a large bunt pan, but I like to bake them in mini-loaf pans and give them as small gifts. As cakes go this one seems to rise well, not stick, and are predictably tasty. Best part they make a great breakfast treat if there are any left over :).

Recipe

Dry ingredients:

  1. 2 & 3/4 cup Flour
  2. 1 tsp Cinnamon
  3. 2 tsp Ginger
  4. 1 tsp Baking Powder
  5. 1 tsp Baking Soda
For additional spice you can also add 1 tsp nutmeg.
Creamy ingredients:
  1. 1 & 1/4 cup Shortening
  2. 1/4 cup Packed brown sugar
  3. 1/4 cup White sugar
  4. 2 Eggs
  5. 1 cup Molasses
Liquid:
  1. 1 cup Water

Directions:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl use a hand or stand mixer to whip the shortening until fluffy. Then fully cream in the brown and white sugar. Once completely whipped mix in the eggs and molasses. Then mix the dry and liquid into the creamy ingredients.

It works best to alternate 1/3 dry with 1/3 water. Just mix until everything is incorporated. Try not to over mix.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes for small loaf pans or 50 minutes for single cakes. I spray the pans with non-stick cooking spray. I tried traditional greasing with flour but had it stick a few times. Let it cool at 15 minutes and turn out to finish cooling after that.

For Added Sweetness

It is easy to make a simple lemon glaze to pour across the top.

  1. 1 cup Powdered Sugar
  2. 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
Optional candied ginger for garnish.
Mix the sugar with vanilla and lemon juice. If watery add more sugar and if still dry add water until liquid enough to pour. Pour over the cakes and top with crystallized ginger. Let dry to form a hard glaze then wrap cakes to keep moist.
Enjoy!

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