This luxurious Christmas cakes covered in decadent icing, complete with biscuits and Ginger coconut flour dusted with ' snow '
Ingredients :
- 375g plain flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp ground ginger
- 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 375g light brown soft sugar
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 150ml full-fat milk
- 3 tbsp black treacle
- 225ml vegetable oil, plus a little for greasing
- 3 good pinches of ground cloves
- 300ml buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 300g full-fat cream cheese
- 2 tsp vanilla bean extract
- 200g smooth caramelised biscuit spread
- 3 tbsp dark rum (optional – replace with extra milk, if you like)
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- For the caramel biscuit icing
- 250g pack slightly salted butter, very soft
- 600g icing sugar, plus a little extra for dusting
- (I used Lotus Biscoff biscuit spread)
- 50g desiccated coconut, to decorate
- silver edible glitter (optional)
- gingerbread shapes (see tip)
Methods :
- Measure the milk and treacle into a saucepan (grease measuring spoon with a little oil first and drops will easily slide off). Bring to a gentle simmer and stir until combined, then set aside to cool. Meanwhile, grease a 3 x 20 cm loose-bottomed cake tin with a little oil and line the base with parchment cake (if you don't have enough cake tin, see tip). If any of the 4 cm shallow Tin, line side with deep collar too. Preheat the oven to 180 c/gas 4/fan 160C.
- Measure flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and spices into a large bowl, then add teaspoon salt finely 1/2. Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk; If there are any large lumps of sugar, squeeze it through your fingers until you have a textured, even sandy mixture.
- In a jug, whisk the oil, buttermilk, eggs, rum and vanilla. Add the milk and molasses mixture and mix well. Pour wet ingredients into dry, and whisk into batter is smooth. Divide between the tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into Center of cake comes out clean. You may have to swap a cake over to cook evenly, but do not do so until they have had at least 20 minutes of cooking. Cool the cakes in their tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack, peel off parchment and leave to cool completely. Once cooled, you can wrap the sponges in plastic and store in a cool place for 4 days, or freeze up to 2 months-the texture and flavor will be all the better for it.
- To make the icing, put the butter and half the icing sugar in a large bowl. Mash together roughly with a spatula, then drivers with electric hand whisk until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract, beans and biscuits spread. Stir again until smooth and evenly mixed. Transfer half the icing into another bowl and set aside. Use remaining icing to the cake and cover the entire stack out into a thin layer-don't worry about making the cake seems too neat at this stage, such as crumbs trapped in the icing will be discussed in the final coat. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes and freeze the rest for 20 minutes (remove the icing from fridge 10 minutes before cake to soften a bit).
- When the icing on the cake company, remove it from refrigerator and use remaining icing to cover the cake. The smooth side of the palette knife to use, but leave the peaks and dips above for snow scenes. Top cake generously with coconut flour, sieved icing sugar and dust some edible glitter, if you like, then decorate the top and sides with Ginger (see tip). If you do not eat cake in a few hours, store it in the refrigerator, but bring back to room temperature before serving. Wlll keep for 2 days.