Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

Hey there!  Tell me this picture doesn’t have you drooling…  Who doesn’t love a Chocolate Cake?  But can you even imagine a Chocolate Gingerbread Cake?  Does that sounds amazing or what?  But that’s not all… this cake if finished off with a Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting.  Aren’t you impressed?  Can you believe I whipped this up and baked such a beautiful layer cake?  Don’t you just want to dip your finger into that gorgeous Cream Cheese Frosting?  I know I do!

Ha!  You all know I’m  incapable of baking something like this.  This beautiful Chocolate Gingerbread Cake with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting (the name alone makes me drool) was baked special for me by Nancy, one of our Sunday Supper Contributors, from Gotta Get Baked.  Nancy is an amazingly talented baker and her site is filled with the most amazing recipes.  I love to go there just to be inspired (not that I could ever bake anything like this.)

When I received her recipe with her beautiful post, I smiled… you see, she said that I am her hero.  Little does she know that she is my hero.  When I see the beautiful recipes she develops and bakes, I am just in awe!  But I have to admit, her admiration went to my head.  I had to show it to my kids and tell them “See, finally I am someone’s hero!”

Thank you Nancy!  I am honored to have your beautiful recipe featured today.

Hi everyone!  I’m Nancy of Gotta Get Baked.  Isabel is my foodie/blogger hero.  I’ve spoken about her many times on my blog and there’s good reason why she takes up so much real estate in my posts.  I only started blogging in June of 2012.  I had no idea what I was doing (I still don’t, really), technologically or otherwise.  All I knew was that I love to bake and I love to write so why not combine the two into one project?  This was something that I started because I needed a creative outlet but I had no idea if anyone would care about what I had to say.

Isabel is one of the first bloggers who reached out to me when I was a complete newbie.  I hadn’t even published that many posts when this incredibly generous and warm-spirited woman introduced herself and suggested that I join her Sunday Supper group.  I had no idea what Sunday Supper was about but I was thrilled to be making an actual connection with a human being in the blogging community.  When I started looking into Sunday Supper, I realized what a perfect fit it was for me – I loved the spirit and intention behind Sunday Supper.  It took me awhile to really dive in, mostly due to fear of not knowing what I was doing, but boy am I glad I did.  It’s opened up a whole new world to me, full of supportive and open-minded bloggers who all bring different voices, perspectives and dishes to the online foodie community.

Isabel recently reached out to our Sunday Supper family for gingerbread recipes.  Now, obviously, with a name like Gotta Get Baked, I am a dessert junkie and I eagerly volunteered to make something with one of my favorite holiday flavors.  I wanted something big, bold, and decadent for my dear friend, Isabel, so I decided on a layer cake.  Not just any layer cake – a chocolate gingerbread layer cake studded with chopped candied ginger and frosted with an eggnog cream cheese icing.

This is Christmas in cake form, people. If you shoved Santa Clause, children’s laughter, cold snowy days and magic into a dessert, this is what you would get.  And not only was it an absolute delight to eat, it was super easy to make.

[print_this] Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

by Gotta Get Baked (adapted from Savory Sweet Life) 

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp table salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup dark molasses
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup hot coffee
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ½ cups chopped candied ginger (optional but highly recommended)
• 2 tsp minced fresh ginger (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream the butter, oil and both sugars until the mixture is super fluffy, approximately 3-5 minutes.
 Add the ginger cloves, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.  Mix for a minute.
 Next add the eggs and molasses.  Mix for another minute.
 Add the flour and mix for a few minutes until thoroughly combined.
  In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the hot coffee with the cocoa powder.  Whisk together until smooth.  Add it to the batter and mix until smooth.  Add the candied ginger and fresh ginger.  Fold with a rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.
 Pour the batter into your greased cake pans (use whatever you want – a bundt pan, smaller cake pans for a layer cake, an angel food cake pan, etc).  My batter had a lot of air bubbles so I just tapped the bottoms of the pans on the counter to release some of the air.  If you are baking the cake in one large pan, bake for about 60 minutes.  If, like me, you used two small pans, bake for about 35-45 minutes.  A cake tester inserted into the cake should emerge out crumb-free.
 Allow the cake to cook for 5-10 minutes before shaking loose.  Finish the cooling on wire racks.

To say this cake is good is a serious understatement.  I absolutely loved it.  The smooth, dark taste of chocolate and the spiciness of the ginger go so perfectly together, with neither dominating the other.  The little chunks of candied ginger amp up the flavour profile as well as provide the cake with an interesting textural contrast.

As lovely as the frosting is, this cake is a star on its own and I highly recommend not adorning it with anything so as to properly savour the flavours.

However, I had to frost this baby – not only am I presenting this cake to Isabel but I also brought it to a Christmas dinner for dessert.  I chose an eggnog cream cheese frosting, naturally!

Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp rum extract
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• approximately 1 cup icing sugar

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.
2. Add in the vanilla and rum extracts, mix.
3.  Add in the nutmeg and mix.
4. On low speed, slowly add in icing sugar in small amounts until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.  You can taste and adjust the ingredients as you go along.  I think I added a bit more nutmeg than 2 tsps to really heighten the eggnog flavour.

This is a really lovely frosting – extremely creamy and cram-packed with eggnog flavour.  I thought it complimented the chocolate gingerbread cake beautifully (although my overzealous addition of nutmeg may have been a bit overpowering).  This frosting would taste great with an eggnog cake or plain ol’ vanilla too. [/print_this]

Isabel, thanks so much for having me over!  It was a lot of fun thinking up something delicious and indulgent for you and your readers.