Gingerbread community Christmas cake
https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/gingerbread-community-christmas-cake
A four-tier gingerbread cake, decorated with gingerbread biscuits and fondant snow people
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Feeds
32
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Ready in
5 hours
20 minutes
Each serving contains
% of adult’s reference intake | Carbohydrates per serving : 74g
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Ingredients
For the gingerbread cake:-
- 650g Co-op unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 500g Co-op plain white flour
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200ml Co-op semi-skimmed milk
- 250g golden syrup
- 250g black treacle
- 250g Co-op Fairtrade light brown soft sugar
- 4 Co-op British free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 700g Fairtrade icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
- 100g Co-op Irresistible Fairtrade Madagascan vanilla white chocolate, melted
For the trees:-
- 150g Fairtrade caster sugar
- A few rosemary sprigs, cut in half
- Edible glitter (optional)
For the gingerbread biscuits:-
- 100g Co-op unsalted butter
- 100g Co-op Fairtrade light brown soft sugar
- 3 tbsp golden syrup
- 250g Co-op plain white flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Zest of ½ orange
- 1 Co-op British free range egg, beaten
- 115g Fairtrade icing sugar
For the snowpeople:-
- White and coloured fondant
Method
For the gingerbread cake:-
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Grease and line two deep 20cm round cake tins
- Put the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a large bowl
- In a separate bowl, mix the bicarb and milk
- Put 250g of the butter in a pan with the syrup, treacle and brown sugar
- Heat gently, stirring now and then, until smooth
- Add to the flour and spices, mix until smooth, then stir in the milk mixture, along with the eggs
- Pour into the lined tins and bake for 45-50 mins, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 mins before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack
For the icing:-
- Beat the rest of the butter, then whisk in the icing sugar a little at a time
- Add the white chocolate then mix until smooth
- Split the cakes horizontally through the middle. Spread a sixth of the icing on the bottom half, top with the sponge, then repeat with the remaining two cakes 4. Cover with the remaining buttercream.
For the trees:-
- Heat 50g of the caster sugar in 3 tbsp water in a small pan until dissolved
- Dip in the rosemary, remove, sprinkle with the rest of the caster sugar, then leave to dry
For the gingerbread biscuits:-
- Now make the gingerbread biscuits. Heat the unsalted butter, soft sugar and golden syrup in a pan until melted
- Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and the zest of ½ orange in a large bowl and pour over the butter mixture
- Stir, then mix in the egg
- Form into a ball, flatten and wrap in cling film, then chill for 30 mins
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4
- On a surface dusted with flour, roll out half the dough to a thickness of 0.4cm
- Cut into house and tree shapes
- Bake for 10-12 mins, until just golden
- Leave to cool on wire racks
- Mix the icing sugar with 3 tsp boiling water to make a smooth paste
- Spoon into a piping bag with a 0.3mm nozzle and decorate the houses and trees
- Leave to set for 1 hour, then stick around the sides of the cake with the remaining icing and stick a few biscuits on top
- Stick the Christmas 'trees' into the cake
- Sprinkle on a little glitter and complete your village scene with snowpeople made out of white and coloured fondant, if you like
For the snowpeople:-
- Roll the white fondant into small balls to form a body
- Then decorate with eyes, noses, hats and scarves, using your choice of coloured fondant
