The flavour of gingerbread cookies magically becomes a fork-friendly moist cake complete with candy decor. Gather little hands to help decorate and many mouths to help devour this sweet holiday treat. For the best gift-wrapped look, choose 1-inch (2.5 cm) wide fruit leather candy strips.
- Portion size 16 servings
- Credits : Canadian Living Magazine: December 2013
Ingredients
Bow:
Cream Cheese Icing:
Method
Grease two 8-inch (1.2 L) round cake pans; line bottoms and sides with parchment paper. Set aside. In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light; beat in molasses, egg and vanilla. Whisk together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves and salt; stir into butter mixture until no longer streaky. Stir in boiling water until smooth. Fold in crystallized ginger. Scrape into prepared pans.Bake in 350 F (180 C) oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan; peel off paper. Let cool completely on rack.
Make-ahead: Cover with plastic wrap and store for up to 24 hours.
Cream Cheese Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until fluffy; gradually beat in icing sugar. Beat in vanilla. Trim tops of cakes to level if necessary. Place 1 of the cakes on flat cake plate; slide strips of waxed paper between edge of cake and plate. Spread top with 3/4 cup of the icing; top with second cake.
Spread 1 cup of the remaining icing over top and side of cake to seal in crumbs; refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Spread remaining icing over cake; refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Remove paper strips.
Bow: Unroll 1 package of fruit leather candy; cut in half crosswise to make 2 strips. Drape across top and down side of cake to make cross shape in centre; trim to fit.
Unroll remaining fruit leather. Cut two 3-1/2-inch (9 cm) long strips; diagonally cut off 1 end of each. Arrange, points out, over centre of cake to make bow ends. Cut two 4-inch (10 cm) and two 5-inch (12 cm) long strips from remaining fruit leather; fold each in half to make bow loops.
Cut 2-inch (5 cm) strip from remaining fruit leather. Press ends of larger bow loops together; wrap 2-inch (5 cm) strip around centre to cover. Arrange smaller loops over bow ends; top with larger loops.
Make-ahead: Cover loosely and refrigerate for up to 8 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
Nutritional facts per each of 16 servings: about
- Fibre 1 g
- Sodium 292 mg
- Sugars 62 g
- Protein 4 g
- Calories 496.0
- Total fat 18 g
- Cholesterol 59 mg
- Saturated fat 11 g
- Total carbohydrate 83 g
%RDI
- Iron 26.0
- Folate 15.0
- Calcium 8.0
- Vitamin A 16.0
- Vitamin C 10.0
