Sunday 27 December 2015

Gingerbread Cake with Caramel Biscuit Frosting

This was another recipe from the Christmas 2015 (November) issue of Good Food magazine. I wanted a cake which looked good as a centre piece on the Christmas dining table, as well as tasting good. This Gingerbread Cake with Caramel Biscuit Icing certainly looked good on the cover of the magazine, but it was far too big for my needs and the decoration was too elaborate and twee for a group of four adults. Fortunately the recipe was easy to split into thirds, so I made two layers of cake instead of three, and decorated it much more simply, using fondant snowflakes, ginger crunch pieces and gold glitter and just half the quantity of frosting from the recipe.

I was really pleased with the flavour of both the cake and the cream cheese frosting, which used Lotus  caramel biscuit spread to give it a delicate flavour of caramel and cinnamon. The cake had quite a mild  ginger flavour, but anything stronger would have overwhelmed the flavour of the frosting. What didn't turn out so well was the texture of the cake. It was dense and solid, rather than sponge-like, and didn't really rise at all. It was as if the baking powder hadn't worked, although once I realised what the cake was like, I went back and tested it, and it worked OK. I'm sure I remembered put it in (!!??).

Unfortunately I didn't realise how bad the texture of the cake was until it was cut after being decorated. Had I realised earlier I'd have started again and made another cake. It wasn't inedible, but it wasn't what I'd expected, and rather spoiled the overall eating experience, despite the good flavours. I'd definitely use the frosting recipe again - I can think of many cakes which would be enhanced by it.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

What a shame. It looks so lovely and the idea sounds glorious xx

Snowy said...

It is a shame, as it looks so good. It was a recipe I was going to make, and even went to Sainsburys in a nearby town to find the Lotus caramel spread. I agree with you Suelle that the one on the cover is too big, and I was going to halve it for a family get together on Jan 10th. Back to the drawing board!

Suelle said...

It might be me, not the recipe, Snowy. There were no complaints in the reviews so far online!

I thought the frosting would go well with Dan Lepard's hazelnut and caramel cake.

Alicia Foodycat said...

It does look very pretty! But definitely not the texture I'd be wanting.

Suelle said...

This is the cake I mean, Snowy, if you're reluctant to try the gingerbread cake now:
http://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/caramel-hazelnut-layer-cake.html

Coffee, Cake, and Composition said...

Maybe the batter was overmixed? or underbaked? Regardless, it looks beautiful!

http://coffeecakeandcomposition.blogspot.co.uk/

Snowy said...

Thanks Suelle, will make Dan's cake with the gingerbread cake frosting. I miss Dan's recipes in the Sat. Guardian magazine; they always worked.