Mini Iced Gingerbread Cakes

Happy Sunday, everyone.

It’s Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas, and we’re finally getting to the gingerbread, because it just wouldn’t be Christmas without it. While I try to always include some kind of gingerbread in the holiday baking series, how it makes its appearance varies from year to year whether we’re talking about actual gingerbread, cookies, or things that are gingerbread ‘flavored’.

I’m really happy with what I’ve come up with this time around. In one sense, it’s traditional in that we’re making a gingerbread cake, but I’ve added some tweaks to it that I think make it somewhat ‘elevated’.

My original plan was to just make one great big bundt gingerbread cake, drizzle an icing on top and call it a day. But then, in thinking about how so many of. the recipes on the 12 Days of Christmas are gheared towards sharing, I then started to wonder how to make the recipe a bit more ‘shareable’ as a holiday treat/gift.

Enter mini aluminum pie pans from stage right. They’re inexpensive, sturdy, and easy to bake with and provide a really handy way to divvy up one big gingerbread cake into portable portions that are perfect for gift giving. (Don’t worry, I’ve included the link to the ones I used in the recipe below)

After I settled on the pie pans, I then also decided to give these an extra lift in the decoration department by covering them all over with a thin vanilla glaze and some holiday sprinkles.

But, wait; there’s more!

When I did serve these, I served them alongside the Chunky Cranberry Applesauce that was the recipe from yesterday for Day 4 of the holiday series. The combination of the spice from the gingerbread, the sweetness of the icing and the tartness from the applesauce were a literally perfect combination, that I can’t recommend enough.

Day 1: Cranberry Sourdough Muffin Tops

Day 2: Pesto Chicken Rolls

Day 3: Pfeffernüsse Spice Cookies

Day 4: Chunky Cranberry Apple Sauce

Day 5: Mini Iced Gingerbread Cakes

Mini Iced Gingerbread Cakes

Recipe Adapted from King Arthur Flour and Bake From Scratch

Ingredients

For Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/2 cups (319g) light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs at room temp
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup water

For Icing

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
⅓ cup whole milk, room temperature
2½ tablespoons light corn syrup
1½ teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla-butter emulsion (I used LorAnn’s)
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Special equipment: 10-12 5 oz. disposable aluminum pie/tart pans. (I used these.)

Directions

For Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 10-12 5 oz. pie/tart pans and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda and set aside.

In a separate medium sized bowl, use a handheld mixer. to beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and mixing just until combined. Add the molasses.

Add the flour and water alternatively to the butter-sugar mixture, starting and ending with flour, and stirring just until combined.

Divide the batter among. the pie pans, filling the pie pans just under half full. Place the pie pans on two sheet pans you’ve lined with aluminum foil.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Meanwhile make the icing: In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth and well combined.

Line two sheet. pans with aluminum foil, and place two wire racks over them.

Once cakes are done baking, allow to sit in cake pans for roughly 5-7 minutes, until able to be handled without burning your fingers, or falling apart. Carefully remove a cake from its pan and turn upside down, placing on a wire rack.

Use a spoon to heap, and spread icing over the top of the cake, gently spreading around to completely cover the top and sides and allowing the excess to drip off and onto the aluminum foil lined sheet pan.

Repeat icing process with other cakes. Allow cakes to sit until icing has hardened, about 30-45 minutes.

Serve cake with whipped cream and Chunky Cranberry Applesauce.