Gingerbread Cake with a Mini Gingerbread House
Time & Yield
Time: 3-5 Hours (plus overnight chilling), includes time for assembling and decorating the Gingerbread House
Yield: 1 Cake (serves 12)
Ingredients
GINGERBREAD CAKE
2 1/4 Cups AP Flour
2 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
3/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
2 1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature, Separated)
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
3 Eggs (Room Temperature)
3/4 Cup Fancy Molasses (Do NOT Use Blackstrap Molasses)
3 Tsp Vanilla Extract (Divided)
3/4 Cup Buttermilk (Room Temperature)
8oz Cream Cheese (Full Fat, Room Temperature)
4 1/2 Cups Powdered/Confectioners’ Sugar
GINGERBREAD COOKIES
3 Cups (375g) AP Flour
1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Ground Ginger
2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ground Allspice
1/4 Tsp Salt
6 Tbsp (85g) Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)
3/4 cup (150g) Brown Sugar
1 egg (Room Temperature)
1/2 Cup (120ml) Fancy Molasses (Do NOT Use Blackstrap Molasses)
2 Tbsp water
ROYAL ICING
4 Cups (480g) Powdered/Confectioners’ Sugar (Sifted)
3 Tbsp Meringue Powder
9–10 Tbsp Water (Room Temperature)
Recipe
Gingerbread House with Royal Icing
Make the gingerbread cookie dough: Whisk the flour (3 Cups), baking soda (1/4 Tsp), ginger (2 Tsp), cinnamon (2 Tsp), allspice (1/2 Tsp), and salt (1/4 Tsp) together in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter (6 Tbsp) and brown sugar (3/4 Cup) together on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Beat in the egg (1), molasses (1/2 Cup) and water (2 Tbsp) on high speed. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
On low speed, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Cookie dough will be very thick.
Divide cookie dough in half, flatten into discs (about 4-5 inches in diameter), and wrap each tightly in plastic wrap.
Chill in the refrigerator overnight.
While chilling, create gingerbread house template shapes for your house. You can find templates online, we used Sally’s Baking Addiction’s (Click Here)
Once sufficiently chilled, preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Remove each disc from the refrigerator and roll each out in between two pieces of parchment paper (note: gingerbread cookie dough will stick to your counter and rolling pin no matter how much you flour it, therefore sandwiching in parchment is best) to about 1/4 inch thick.
Lightly flour the underside of gingerbread house template shapes. (The dough is sticky and the paper may stick to it otherwise.) Carefully cut the dough into the gingerbread house template shapes. Re-roll dough scraps so you have enough dough for the whole house.
Carefully arrange gingerbread house shapes onto prepared baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. If they lost some of their shape transferring to the baking sheet, straighten out the edges.
Bake house pieces for about 18-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Bake chimney pieces for about 12-13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow shapes to cool completely on the baking sheets or on the counter.
A flat surface is KEY for cooling– the gingerbread house edges very slightly curl up otherwise. Cooled gingerbread house pieces can be made up to 1 week in advance, cover tightly and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
To assemble gingerbread house, you will first need to make the royal icing.
In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, add a little more water. (On particularly dry days, I use up to 12-14 Tablespoons water total.) If it’s too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners’ sugar. Icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature.
Using the royal icing as glue, assemble your gingerbread house. Then, again using the royal icing - decorate and allow to set.
Gingerbread Cake
Preheat oven to 350F and grease and flour three 6" cake rounds, line with parchment.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour (2 1/4 Cups), baking powder (2 1/4 Tsp), salt (3/4 Tsp), and spices. Set aside.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat 3/4 Cup (6oz) of butter until smooth. Add sugars (3/4 Cup Granulated, 1/2 Cup Brown) and beat on med-high until pale and fluffy (2-3mins).
Reduce speed and add the three eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition. Add molasses (3/4 Cup) and half of the vanilla (1 1/2 Tsp) and mix until incorporated.
Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk (3/4 Cup), beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk). Fully incorporating after each addition. Do not over-mix.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pans. Smooth the tops with a spatula.
Bake for approx. 30-35mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10mins then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.
For the cream cheese Frosting - beat the remaining butter (1 1/2 Cup, 12oz) and cream cheese (8oz) until fluffy (2 mins). Add powdered sugar (4 1/2 Cups) one cup at a time. Add vanilla (1 1/2 Tsp) and beat until fluffy (3 mins).
To assemble, place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Top with 2/3 cup of frosting. Repeat with remaining layers and apply a thin coat of frosting all over the cake to crumb coat. Chill for 20mins. Frost the cake with a rustic pattern using the remaining buttercream.
Top with the gingerbread house and upside-down sprigs of rosemary if desired.
Source: Liv For Cake & Sally’s Baking Addiction