Gingerbread Latte Cake
Layers of moist spicy gingerbread cake and soft coffee-and-vanilla-bean whipped cream. This Gingerbread Latte cake is inspired by cold afternoons sipping vanilla lattes with molasses cookies.
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Layers of moist spicy gingerbread cake and soft coffee-and-vanilla-bean whipped cream. This Gingerbread Latte cake is inspired by cold afternoons sipping vanilla lattes with molasses cookies.
8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups molasses
4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups freshly brewed coffee, piping hot
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar or vanilla sugar
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
2 teaspoons instant coffee, crushed slightly
Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter 2 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
1. Prepare your coffee and keep it hot.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and spices and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until soft and fluffy. Add sugar; beat one minute.
4. Add your eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Add molasses and blend until thoroughly mixed.
5. Add dry ingredients; mix just until combined.
6. With mixer on low, slowly add hot coffee. Stop and scrape sides of bowl as needed. When all your coffee is mixed in, you should have a smooth, pourable batter.
7. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Sides of cake should start to pull away from pan and a toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.
8. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before inverting and removing cakes from pans. Allow to cool completely.
1. Beat cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
2. Add sugar, vanilla bean seeds, and instant coffee powder. Whisk ingredients together gently. I like to frost my cakes with whipped cream somewhere between soft and medium peaks, so try not to over-whip your cream here.
1. Remove parchment from bottoms of cakes. Trim tops of cakes to make cake layers even and flat, if necessary. (You could also slice each cake in half horizontally to make a 4-layer cake, if you wish.)
2. Spread a thick layer of whipped cream on bottom cake. Place top cake on top of cream and press gently to adhere.
3. Frost entire cake with a very thin layer of whipped cream to crumb coat it. Chill for 20-30 minutes.
4. Finishing frosting the cake with the remaining whipped cream, swirling or piping it as desired.
5. Sprinkle cake with a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and decorate as you see fit!
