Gingerbread Tea Cake Food

GINGERBREAD CAKE

Steps:

• Lightly butter a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan and line the bottom with a piece of parchment or wax paper. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, molasses, and crystallized ginger. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth.
• In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, and cloves. Whisk the molasses mixture into the flour mixture until evenly combined.
• In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Whisk the hot water into the batter until just combined. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake in the center of the oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack. Cut into squares and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

FAVORITE OLD FASHIONED GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses.
• In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

WHITE GINGERBREAD TEA CAKE

Steps:

• Mix together flour, sugar and butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
• Add 1/2 of the tsp of the cinnamon, blend.
• Set aside 1 cup of mixture.
• To the rest of the mix add, ginger, mace, salt, soda and baking powder and remaining cinnamon; stir.
• Add egg and buttermilk, beating till smooth.
• Pour batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan.
• Sprinkle reserved crumb mix evenly over top.
• Bake 40 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.
• Cool and serve.

GINGER TEA CAKE

Steps:

• Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
• Line a large (4 1/2-inch by 9 1/2-inch) metal loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
• Sift the flour, baking soda, ginger and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk the pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.
• Beat the butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the light brown sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes more. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. At low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the pumpkin mixture in 2 parts, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix briefly at medium-low speed to make a smooth batter. Turn off beaters and add the crystallized ginger. Finish folding batter--which will be thick--by hand with a rubber spatula.
• Scrape batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean and top springs back when lightly pressed, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 to 15 minutes, then invert pan to release cake onto rack to cool. Dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Serve.

GINGERBREAD TEA CAKE

Steps:

• Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cloves; set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until well combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add molasses; beat until well combined. Alternately add flour mixture and water to butter mixture; beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Pour into prepared pan.
• Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Serve warm sprinkled with powdered sugar and garnished with edible flowers, if you like.

GINGERBREAD & HONEY LOAF

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and butter and line a 900g loaf tin. Put the honey, butter and sugar in a saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. Remove from the heat and pour in the milk and vanilla, then set aside to cool.
• Tip the flour into a bowl with the baking powder, spices and a pinch of salt. Add the egg, then gently fold in along with the melted butter mixture. Once combined, tip into the prepared tin, place on a baking tray, and bake for 40 mins until springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin, then place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely. Will keep in an airtight container for up to four days.

GINGERBREAD CAKE WITH CARAMEL BISCUIT ICING

Steps:

• Measure the milk and treacle into a saucepan (grease the measuring spoon with a little oil first and the treacle will easily slide off). Bring to a gentle simmer and stir until combined, then set aside to cool. Meanwhile, grease 3 x 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins with a little oil and line the bases with baking parchment (if you don't have enough cake tins, see tip). If the tins are any shallower than 4cm, line the sides with a deep collar too. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
• Measure the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and spices into a large bowl, then add ½ tsp fine salt. Mix the dry ingredients together with a large whisk; if there are any large lumps of sugar, squeeze these through your fingers until you have an even, sandy-textured mixture.
• In a jug, whisk the oil, buttermilk, eggs, rum and vanilla. Add the milk and treacle mixture, and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and whisk into a smooth batter. Divide between the tins and bake for 25-30 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. You may have to swap the cakes over to cook evenly, but don't do this until they've had at least 20 mins cooking. Cool the cakes in their tins for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack, peel off the parchment and leave to cool completely. Once cooled, you can wrap the sponges in cling film and store in a cool place for 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months - the texture and flavour will be all the better for it.
• To make the icing, put the butter and half the icing sugar in a large bowl. Mash together roughly with a spatula, then whizz with an electric hand whisk until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar, the cream cheese, vanilla bean extract and biscuit spread. Mix again until smooth and evenly mixed. Transfer half the icing to another bowl and set aside. Use the remaining icing to stack the cakes and cover the entire outside in a thin layer - don't worry about making the cake look too neat at this stage, as any crumbs trapped in the icing will be covered in the final coat. Chill the cake for 30 mins and the remaining icing for 20 mins (remove the icing from the fridge 10 mins before the cake to soften a little).
• When the icing on the cake is firm, remove it from the fridge and use the remaining icing to cover the cake. Smooth the sides using a palette knife, but leave peaks and dips on top for your snow scene. Top the cake generously with desiccated coconut, a dusting of sieved icing sugar and some edible glitter, if you like, then decorate the top and sides with gingerbread shapes (see tip). If you're not eating the cake within a few hours, store it in the fridge, but bring back to room temperature before serving. Wlll keep for 2 days.