Gingerbread Cake - Cook's Illustrated

Submitted by DrGaellon

"Adapted from a recipe at the LiveJournal blog of fantasy author Lynn Flewelling (_Stalking Darkness_, _The Bone Doll's Twin_), which she got from _Cook's Illustrated_. http://bit.ly/ePNCY0"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 5mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 9

ingredients

• 3⁄4 cup stout beer
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2⁄3 cup mild molasses
• 3⁄4 cup light brown sugar
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1 1⁄2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon table salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 1⁄3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh gingerroot

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F Grease and flour an 8x8" square baking pan.
2. Bring stout to a boil in a large saucepan. Off heat, stir in baking soda; it will foam up. When foam subsides, add molasses and both sugars; stir until dissolved.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ground ginger, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and pepper.
4. Whisk eggs, oil and grated ginger into stout mixture.
5. Whisk wet mixture into flour mixture in thirds, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Pour batter into pan and bake 35-45 min, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 1 1/2 hours. Cut into squares.

Reviews

[Emily T.]

I made this just a few days ago. It is AMAZING. Originally I thought I'd use a loaf pan instead of the square one because it would look nicer, but in the end decided that Cook's illustrated recommends everything for a reason, so I went with the square pan. I also made a small batch of cream cheese icing with a little cinnamon mixed in. I was inspired to try this at home after I had the gingerbread cupcake at Sprinkles, and I have to say, this cake is much more moist with an incredible ginger flavor. I don't think it needs any tweaking at all. If you measure everything out and have it ready to go before you start, it takes about 5 minutes to put together. Mincing the ginger wasn't super fun, but it was definitely worth it. I'm thinking about making it again while I still have a little more ginger and another bottle of stout in the fridge, but I may try cupcakes this time. I ended up cutting it into squares and putting some of them in the freezer, and after taking them out and letting them sit at room temperature for a little while, you'd never know they'd been frozen. Highly recommend trying this recipe. Thank you so much for posting it.

 

[Laura2of7]

I'm so glad to find this recipe posted here. I just finished watching the episode of America's Test Kitchen where they made this gingerbread and they never actually said how much baking soda they used. I can't rate the recipe until I've made it and I will need to go shopping first. (No fresh ginger in the house. Or stout, although I do have some lager beer. I wonder if I could substitute?) Anyway, thanks for posting the recipe. It looked very good on television and I intend to make it soon.