Christmas Gingerbread Cake!
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A Two-Layer Gingerbread Cake with Ginger Buttercream Frosting.. the perfect Christmas cake for the Festive Season!
So this is Christmas in a nutshell. Well, its not really, its just a delicious cake but it is Gingerbread themed soooo its Christmassy! But anyway. I posted my Gingerbread Cake back in March 2015 for the UK Mother’s Day, but its a loaf cake, and I wanted to post a delicious layer cake version for this Christmas season!
I will admit that I did buy the little Gingerbread Men that I decorated the cake with from Tesco as I want to show that it works, and I honestly did not have time to make any myself. HOWEVER, you can use this delicious Gingerbread Men recipe buy use a really small cookie cutter and you’ll be there!
This cake is a delicious deep and treacley ginger cake that has allllll the festive feels. I adore the flavour that the Syrup, Sugar and Treacle create, and then when mixed with the ground Ginger it is WONDERFUL. However, something that even beats the taste of the cake, is the DELICIOUS and SO very Christmassy smell that occurs when baking this treat. OH. MY. DAYS.
I genuinely cannot describe how wonderful my house smelt when this was baking and cooling, it was amazing. Like so amazing, even the postman asked what it was and slightly insulted me for baking something Christmassy so early (I made this a month ago compared to when this post has gone live!).
I went for a simple Ginger flavoured Buttercream Frosting for this one as I adore the flavour. I used a touch of Vanilla in the frosting as well because I like my frosting to be sweet, but you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to do so! But anyway, I love it.
I use a simple supermarket brand Ground Ginger, but I nearly aalllllwaaaayyyysss use Nielsen Massey Vanilla because it is simply glorious! I find the flavour so much stronger than any supermarket brand, and I just think its so much more worth the money. It may seem much more expensive, but the size of the bottle should should it’ll last SO much longer!
When I made this cake the first time, it was pretty damn deep, so I reduce the recipe slightly. I originally started off with 300g of everything, and it was still just as delicious, but maybe a tad too much? I reduced it slightly back to the original BBC Food recipe I based this on, but it wasn’t quite enough.
The middle heaven was 250g! Perfect amount. I did however bake this at 150C Fan in my oven, and I found it so much nicer. It baked flatter, and almost seemed more moist! It was so yummy. I will be making this treat again closer to Christmas to celebrate, and I think you should all too! Enjoy!
Christmas Gingerbread Cake!
Ingredients
The Cake
- 250 g Unsalted Butter/Stork
- 250 g Light Brown Sugar
- 250 g Golden Syrup
- 250 g Black Treacle
- 500 g Self Raising Flour
- 4 tsp Ground Ginger
- 3 medium Eggs
- 350 ml Whole Milk
The Frosting
- 250 g Unsalted Butter
- 500 g Icing Sugar
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
The Decoration
- Mini Gingerbread Men
- Sprinkles
- Gingerbread Crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 160C/150C Fan and grease and line two 8″ Round Baking Tins (deep ones!)
- Add the Butter, Light Brown Sugar, Golden Syrup, and Black Treacle to a large pan and heat gently and stir frequently until the mixture has melted and is smooth. Leave to cool slightly!
- Sift the Self-Raising Flour into a LARGE bowl, and add the Ground Ginger. Whisk briefly so the ginger is distributed! Pour in the melted Sugar/Butter/Syrup mixture and beat together till smooth.
- Add in the Eggs, and Milk and beat again till smooth. It’ll be reasonably runny, and will nearly fill a large bowl, so be careful!
- Split the mixture between the two tins, and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until baked through.
- A cake skewer should come out clean, and when you listen to the cake it will not be making a ‘bubbling/crackling’ sound. Sometimes, a cake skewer can come out clean, but if the cake is still make the noise, its not quite done!
- Once the cake is baked, leave the cakes in the tin for 10 minutes, and then cool on a wire rack fully.
- To make the frosting, beat your butter in a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes so its really supple and soft. Add in the Icing Sugar 1/2 at a time, and beat fully in-between each addition.
- Add the Ginger, and vanilla and a little Whole Milk or boiling water to loosen if its a little stiff. You will only need 1 or 2 tablespoons to loosen so don’t go crazy!
- To decorate the cake, pipe half of the buttercream onto the bottom cake, and then add the second cake on top.
- Pipe the rest of the buttercream on, and then add some Mini Gingerbread Men! Add some crushed gingerbread men sprinkles, or some Christmas sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
- This does make a large cake - if you want less, you can easily halve it, or bake into three tins instead of two.
- This delicious recipe is based on the BBC Food Ginger Bread Cake recipe with a few alterations to suit my post!
- It’s completely normal for the top of the cake to look slightly darker, and if anything almost burnt. It’s not actually burnt at all, its the treacle and the sugars in the sponge coming through, so don’t fear!
- This is a slightly denser cake compared to a victoria sponge, so be prepared. It is delicious though, and I think it needs the buttercream to lighten it! You can make it into a traybake instead if you prefer, but I would suggest a 10″ square tin thats deep as there is a lot of mixture.
- This cake will last 3 days once made!
ENJOY!
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J x
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Just wanted to say I’ve made this a few times at Christmas, and it always turns out SO amazingly well and it’s the tastiest ginger cake I’ve ever had. Thanks so much Jane
Hi Jane!
I wondered if I can add some stem ginger to this cake please?
Many thanks,
Lisa x
hi, you said in a comment that you need to have treacle as part of the recipe but could i use some kind of substitute? i have honey or golden syrup but i know it doesn’t give as deep of a flavour
Hi do you have a vegan version?
Could I add walnuts to this to make it ginger and walnut cake? If so, how much and would I need to adjust any of the other ingredients to compensate for this addition?
Hiya! Unfortunately I think the mixture is too thin for this, so the walnuts would just sink! It may be best to just decorate with them instead, hope this helps! x
This looks delicious! I was just wondering if this cake would be sturdy enough to do a three or four tier semi-naked cake for a Christmas party? It’s the only gingerbread cake recipe I’ve found that I love the look of, but not sure whether it will stack easily and hold decorations? Please help!
Made this cake few months ago was so yummy, moist and melts in the mouth. I know it’s summer and this is more an autumn/ winter bake but would love a cupcake version. Xx
Hi Jayne lovely recipe as always thank you, my cakes always crack on the top and I don’t know why, is there something I’m doing wrong xx
It can be a few things! Sometimes mixing, sometimes too hot an oven or not good heat distribution! It’s worth trying to lower the temps in the oven and bake for longer and see if that helps!
Hi Jane,
I’m wanting to bake this into 12 cupcakes for Christmas Day, would I halve the recipe? Can’t wait to try!
Thanks!
Halving the recipe may still make more than 12, but its a good start! x
Hi Jane.
If you split into three tins, how long would you cook them for?
Thanks
I’m unsure, sorry! I’m guessing about 35 minutes, but I have only ever baked it as listed. x
Oh my days, my kitchen smells amazing after making this! Another easy to follow recipe with brilliant results, thank you! Xx
Lovely recipe, easy to follow, I only made the cake and made it chocolate gingerbread by reducing some flour and adding cocoa, but I’m going to make the whole thing with gingerbread frosting 😊
Can you make the Sponges ahead and freeze them until ready to decorate? I’m thinking max time of a week?
Thank you 😊
Yeah definitely! X
Hi Jane. You mentioned the tins must be deep…. I currently have 20cm sandwich tins about 4cm high. Would these be too shallow?
Definitely too shallow – I would recommend tins about 3″ deep x
Hi Jane, if making the sponge a day ahead, shall I just wrap them up and leave at room temp?
Yes!! x
This is absolutely wonderful! I made it for the first time today. It tastes delicious and the aftertaste is incredible! Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
Yes that was a silly question! Haha omgoshhh I made the cake and the smelll in my whole house is just AMAZING! Thank you so much!!!💕🍰xxxx