Monday, December 21, 2009

English Gingerbread Cake


Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 75: English Gingerbread Cake

I had to make little cakes again as i have been so busy since i came back from Tokyo. There's pile of work in office, then there are Christmas cookies to be baked..and now my kids are both sick! My teenage daughter is capable of taking care of herself but I'm worried about my son as he is not able to tell us how ill he is or if he is in pain, but usually, i just know...but i still get worried quite a bit esp. when he is extremely picky of what he eats so that includes any type of medication. Initially wanted to skip this week, but i just couldn't bring myself to do so. Thus, i decided to bake in souffle/paper-cupcake cups so i don't have to grease any pan or cut parchment paper to line it plus baking time is faster too.

I didn't realise that i needed whole wheat flour to bake this cake until i read up the recipe again and oh dear, i don't have whole wheat flour! I don't remember seeing any whole wheat flour in the supermarket but then, maybe i haven't been noticing. I googled to see if i could substitute whole wheat for anything else but i couldn't find anything. So i just took a chance and used bread flour instead as substitute since whole wheat four has high gluten content, so the next high gluten flour i have in my pantry is bread flour. Another 'mishap' - i ran out of Lyle's golden syrup 3/4 of the way...and added another brand "Taikoo" (Hong Kong brand?) golden syrup to top the difference.

The cake is extremely easy to make except that i find that the batter developed little flour pockets so i had to stir a long time to remove it..and also used my fingers to nib the flour pockets floating onto the surface. Probably it is because of the bread flour? *shrugs* Oh yes, i also added 1/8 tsp of nutmeg in addition to the cinnamon & ground ginger. The batter yield 16 cupcakes and i baked it for only 25-30mins.

I was expecting failure but surprisingly my little gingerbread cakes turned out really well! It tasted really well with the lemon glaze. It's light and spongy inside with a soft chewy texture to it and the spices blend in amazingly. I really like it and so does everyone in my family! This is definitely a keeper! :)


11 comments:

Hanaâ on December 22, 2009 at 12:27 AM said...

Oooooh these look adorable. What a great idea to bake these into cupcakes. Would you mind if I "borrowed" your idea? I have a potluck at work tomorrow and cupcakes would be perfect. I only have "white" whole wheat flour. Hopefully that works too.

Btw, thanks for your compliments on my new kitchen. I love baking and cooking in it.

faithy on December 22, 2009 at 9:32 AM said...

Hi Hanaâ! No problem! Cupcakes definitely faster to bake cos of lesser baking time. :)

Patricia @ ButterYum on December 22, 2009 at 10:01 AM said...

Lovely cupcakes, and great photos!

:)
ButterYum

NancyB on December 22, 2009 at 12:30 PM said...

Oh, very nice idea with the cupcakes.

evil cake lady on December 22, 2009 at 12:53 PM said...

little gingerbread cupcakes are a great idea, and your photos of them are so scrumptous i wish i had more gingerbread to eat!
hope your kids get well soon :)

Nicola on December 22, 2009 at 6:49 PM said...

Your cupcakes look fabulous. I must think to make these HCB cakes in cupcake fashion more often. Much easier all round.

Hope you are all feeling better soon.

Mendy on December 22, 2009 at 10:08 PM said...

ב''ה

What a great texture! Well done.

sarahtriv on December 23, 2009 at 4:05 AM said...

These look gorgeous, I loooove sticky sticky gingerbread!

Tracy on December 23, 2009 at 10:19 PM said...

Oh how cute! I love how neatly and beautifully they are packed up, too. :-)

Tracy on December 23, 2009 at 10:20 PM said...

Whoops, I meant that last comment to go on your butter cookie post. Sorry about that! (But these look great too!) ;-)

Vicki said...

Sick kids are so nerve wracking Faithy. It takes nerves of steel to be a parent. Hope your children feel better soon.

I like the souffle cups. This was a lovely recipe, wasn't it?

 

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