This moist and delicious cake is spiced with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg AND the warm spicy flavors of freshly ground rouge de bordeaux wheat flour. It is perfect for desserts that it can be paired with whipped cream, cream cheese frostingor even a caramel sauce — or you can enjoy it as a snack cake with a simple dusting of icing sugar and a hot cup of tea or coffee. There are a lot of ingredients in the cake, but in the end it is quite simple to mix and only takes 30 minutes to bake.
I encourage you to try this cake with rouge de bordeaux flour or red fife flour. Both have distinct baking spice aromas, although this is a little more intense in the rouge de bordeaux. Using any fresh wholemeal flour will work well and will not only increase the flavor of the cake but also its fiber content. The high amount of fresh ginger in the batter also adds fiber and flavor. (Using refined all-purpose flour or high-extraction flour will also work, and you don’t need to change the recipe for these different flours.)
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Dry ingredients
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Whisk in the sugar and fats
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Last step, add the beaten egg
The cake is baked in a 9 x 13-inch pan, and the batter looks pretty shallow when you pour it into the pan, but the cake will expand as it bakes, so don’t worry. The yeast does a lot of leavening in the cake but overall the crumb is dense in a good way. An interesting aspect of preparing the recipe is that it melts the cooking soda in a cup of boiling water. This pre-releases the fizz (carbon dioxide), removing some of its leavening power while maintaining its relatively high pH. The result is a dilution of the acidity of the molasses, adding some notes of caramel, without the crumb exploding too much.
Spiced gingerbread cake is an elegant and satisfying addition to your winter dessert repertoire. Warm spices, including fresh ginger, and tasty grain options make this a unique and special dessert, whether for breakfast or snacking! Serve with a dusting of icing sugar or garnish with whipped cream, cream cheese frosting or a drizzle of caramel.
Ingredients
Dry ingredients (combine them in a bowl and set aside)
Wet ingredients (see instructions, do not combine everything at once)
- 1 cup boiling water (237 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda (11 grams)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2/3 cup brown sugar (134 grams)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (57 grams)
- 3 tablespoons of oil (39 grams)
- 2/3 cup molasses (230 grams)
- 1/4 cup honey (85 grams)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped (~7 grams)
Gasket
- <1 tablespoon icing sugar for dusting the cake after it has cooled
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare the pan by greasing it and dusting it with flour. Possibility of adding a layer of baking paper that goes up two sides of the pan for easy lifting.
- Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Dissolve the baking soda in a cup of boiling water and set aside.
- Beat the two eggs in a small bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the brown sugar and butter until light in color. Then add the oil, followed by the molasses, honey and fresh ginger.
- Pour in the baking soda and hot water solution and mix on low speed.
- Add the dry ingredients; It’s fine all at once, but mix on low speed initially to avoid mess. The batter will seem quite wet.
- Finally add the beaten eggs and mix until they disappear into the mixture.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool for about 30 minutes and then remove it from the mold. Sprinkle with icing sugar and cut into squares.
- The cake can be stored at room temperature for several days. To keep it moist, return the uneaten cake to the pan and cover, or keep it on a plate/cutting board and invert the pan as a cover.
Notes
The recipe is based on Martha Stewart’s Gingerbread Cake with changes to flour (from all-purpose to whole), fat (from all butter to butter and oil), and molasses (less total and some swapped for honey). In cakes, oil tends to form a more tender crumb than butter, while butter… has the delicious flavor of butter. For aspects of both and for a slight reduction in saturated fat compared to the original recipe, I used both oil and butter in this recipe. If you prefer all butter, use 8 tablespoons total. For all the oil, use 6 tablespoons. The butter-to-oil conversion is 4:3.
The reduction in molasses and partial substitution is simply because I prefer a lighter molasses flavor to allow more spice flavors to come through.
