Christmas Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Topping
Gingerbread or spiced loaf cakes with their aromas and flavours are usually associated with the festive Christmas season. Whether you enjoy baking cookies, cakes, bread, or serving mulled wine and seasonal lattes, spreading festive cheer is always fun, and this festive cake will spread instant joy.
Classic gingerbread cake ingredients
Whatever you bake during the festive season, you simply must incorporate common spices such as ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves to diffuse Christmas aromas. Some recipes suggest a five-spice mix which is a ready prepared mix of the above-mentioned spices plus fennel. Other recipes also encourage the addition of nutmeg and other spices to form more robust and earthy flavours.
How to avoid dry gingerbread cake
Dry cake can be caused by a multitude of reasons and there are easy ways to avoid this. An oven that is too hot can cause dryness and in this recipe the cake is baked at two 2 different temperatures to avoid this. An oven or food thermometer can be helpful for accurate temperature readings too.
In this recipe we add a marmalade mix thus adding extra moisture to the cake batter. Note that you can follow our recipe precisely or choose to use just one of the marmalades.
Christmas Gingerbread Cake
EQUIPMENT (click pictures for details)
Ingredients
- 135 ml whole milk
- 10 gr star anise 8-10 pcs
- 360 gr lavender honey or acacia or orange blossom honey
- 120 gr orange marmalade
- 120 gr lemon marmalade
- 120 gr kumquat marmalade
- 40 gr plain flour
- 225 gr light rye flour
- 45 gr corn starch
- 15 gr baking powder
- 30 gr light brown sugar or demerara sugar
- 10 gr cinnamon powder
- 6 gr five spice mix
- 3 pcs large eggs 150 gr
- 120 gr soft butter
- 7 gr salt
- 15 gr butter
- 30 gr plain flour
For finishing
- 3 tbsp lemon marmalade
Instructions
- Infuse the anise star in milk over a medium heat for 15 minutes.Lighty warm the honey, then stir in the marmalades until well combined.
For the cake
- Sieve all the flour, baking powder and starch. Add the light brown sugar, cinnamon powder and 5 spice mix.
- Mix all dried ingredients on a low speed with the honey and marmalade mixture.
- Add the eggs one by one.Add parcels of soft butter and increase the speed of the mixer to medium to obtain a smooth texture.
- Add the salt and finish by adding the strained milk into the cake mix.
- Prepare the baking pan cake by brushing with soft butter and dusting plain flour over the butter. Line parchment paper inside the buttered loaf tin.Transfer the cake mix into the baking pan (up to ¾).
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 30 minutes.Lower the heat to 160°C and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cooling completely.When the cake is cold, brush with warmed lemon marmalade.
Notes
- For this recipe we use a rectangular baking pan of 16x9x7cm and pour in ½ kg of the cake mix. If using a smaller baking tin, the baking time should be reduced.
- Check if the cake loaf is properly baked by inserting a paring knife or a skewer into the middle of the cake; if it comes out clean then the cake is ready.
Nutrition for 1 portion
Something else that everyone enjoys at Christmas is quality chocolates beautifully arranged in nice boxes. If you want to read everything about chocolate and truffles, you won’t want to miss our guide.