Gingerbread Wreath Cake
Intermed..
Gingerbread Wreath Cake A beautiful cake for the holiday season, the sponge is flavoured with warming ginger, cinnamon and a hint of all spice. It’s topped with cream cheese frosting and decorated rustically with store-bought Christmas cookies, berries, or any other festive edible ornaments you can make or find. For a less intense treacle flavour, you can swap the dark Muscovado sugar for light soft brown sugar. Recipe sponsored by Kenwood Ireland.
PREP IN
30 MIN
COOK IN
50 MIN
SERVE
20
Gingerbread Wreath Cake
Intermed..
Introduction
Gingerbread Wreath Cake A beautiful cake for the holiday season, the sponge is flavoured with warming ginger, cinnamon and a hint of all spice. It’s topped with cream cheese frosting and decorated rustically with store-bought Christmas cookies, berries, or any other festive edible ornaments you c
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Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 300g dark muscovado sugar
- 200g black treacle
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 200g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp all spice
- 1 tsp salt
- 225g plain Greek yoghurt
- 45g (+-9 pieces) crystallised ginger, roughly chopped
- 60g unsalted butter, softened
- 95g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 230g full fat cream cheese, chilled
- Crystallised ginger
- Gingerbread cookies
- *Sugared rosemary
- Pomegranate seeds
- Chocolate truffles
- Sprinkles
FOR THE SPONGE:
FOR THE FROSTING:
TO DECORATE:
Method
- 1. For the cake, preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan assisted/gas 4. Very well grease a 1.5l Bundt tin, making sure to get into any nooks. Tip: For best results, melt a small bit of butter then use a pastry brush to spread it in the tin so that you get into any intricate designs your tin might have.
- 2. Set a medium sized pot over medium heat then add butter, sugar and treacle. Stir occasionally until butter and sugar have melted. Remove from heat and set aside for about 10 minutes.
- 3. Sift together flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a medium sized bowl.
- 4. Pour the melted butter mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer then use a whisk attachment to mix the eggs in.
- 5. Add the dry ingredients and mix with whisk attachment just until combined. Add the yoghurt and mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Fold in the crystallised ginger pieces.
- 6. Pour batter into prepared Bundt tin then bake in preheated oven until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out without any uncooked batter, about 45-50 minutes. Tip: A few crumbs is fine; the cake will continue to cook in the tin after being removed from the oven.
- 7. Remove from oven and place on a wire cooling rack, leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes. Turn cake out onto cooling rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.
- 8. For the cream cheese frosting, add butter, icing sugar and vanilla to a mixing bowl. Beat until creamy like a buttercream frosting. It may get crumbly at first, but keep mixing and it will become creamy.
- 9. Add the cream cheese and whisk until frosting is thick. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is nicely mixed.
- 10. Place the Bundt cake on a serving plate, then either spread the cream cheese frosting on top with a small spatula, or, fill a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip and pipe the frosting on top.
- 11. Decorate with your choice of edible decorations.
- 12. Store cake in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days. When serving, cut slices and leave at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before eating for the best texture and flavour.
- 13. *To make sugared rosemary; the day before needed, add a pinch of salt to 1 egg white. Beat with a fork to loosen the egg white until it’s lightly frothy. Dip a sprig of rosemary into the egg white, then tap gently on the side of the bowl so that excess drips off.
- 14. Place white sugar in a shallow bowl, then roll around and move the dipped rosemary in the sugar. Push it back and forth in the sugar so that the leaves spread and it gets in between the leaves. Place sugared rosemary on a tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat until you have several sugared sprigs. Leave to dry at room temperature overnight.
