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Gingerbread Layer Cake




Source of Recipe


Bon Appétit | December 2003


Recipe Introduction


The original recipe is for a gingerbread layer cake with candied kumquats and a cream cheese frosting. That sounds wonderful and I might try it sometime, but I was looking for something a little simpler this time. I wanted to make a good gingerbread layer cake and use a lemon buttercream frosting on it. It was wonderful! This is a great cake with good rise (you won’t believe that it will make three decent sized layers when you divide up the batter into the three pans, but it is fine). I cheated and bought canned frosting – but never again. I don’t really mind the flavor of canned chocolate or vanilla frosting, but the lemon was awful – bitter and fake tasting. I’ll take the time to make real lemon buttercream next time. But my idea for lemon frosting was correct – just like lemon sauce on gingerbread, the lemon frosting is a perfect match with the layer cake. I frosted between the layers and on top of the cake only, leaving the sides of each layer bare. It looked interesting and different and didn’t load on too much frosting.


List of Ingredients




1 cup cola
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs


Recipe



Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour three nonstick 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Bring cola to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat; whisk in baking soda, then molasses. Transfer to large bowl; cool to room temperature.

Whisk flour and next 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar, oil, and eggs into molasses mixture. Whisk in dry ingredients. Divide batter among prepared pans (about 1 2/3 cups batter for each).

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool cakes completely.