This is a gorgeous, deep, dark, spiced gingerbread confection topped with figs and praline.
I’ve also made the recipe recently without the icing, just as a good solid plain cake spread with a little butter and quince jam, which was excellent too. And you could easily leave out the figs or top the cake with berries or any other seasonal fruit.
Gingerbread cake with cream cheese icing, figs and praline
Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 50 mins
Serves 8
330g plain flour
200g brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
250g unsalted butter, melted and cooled a little
3/4 cup honey
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1 cup buttermilk
250g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 23cm cake tin (preferably the .
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together the melted butter, honey, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk in a large jug.
Fold the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.
Transfer the batter to your cake tin and place in the oven for 50 minutes or until cooked through (check with a skewer). Let cakes cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
When the cake is completely cool, make the frosting by combining all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until smooth and light.
Carefully slice your cake in half through the middle. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture on one of the halves, top with half of the figs and place the ‘lid’ on top. Spread with remaining cream cheese icing. Sprinkle over the praline and arrange figs to your liking.
For the praline – Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds in a frying pan over medium meat. Line a tray with baking paper. Melt the sugar into a syrup, stirring all the while to coat the nuts evenly. This will take a while, but right at the end, things move quickly and can easily go from beautifully golden to burnt, so don’t take your eyes off the pan at this point! Transfer to the tray to cool completely.
This recipe was created as part of a paid collaboration with Anolon Australia.
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