A warmly spiced gingerbread loaf with a tangy cream cheese frosting. A Christmas classic, this has a soft and moist sponge infused with gingerbread flavours and is finished with a thick, rich and tangy buttercream frosting. Perfect for holiday gatherings or as a seasonal slice with a cup of tea or coffee, this festive loaf is both comforting and a real crowd pleaser.
Time to prepare : 20 minutes
Time to bake : 1 hr 20 minutes
Serves : 12
Ingredients
220g treacle
180g butter
200ml milk
220g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
Cream cheese frosting
100g butter, softened
100g icing sugar
200g cream cheese*
1 tsp vanilla
I used sprigs of rosemary (dipped in simple syrup or water and rolled in granulated sugar) and mini gingerbread men to decorate.
Method
Pre-heat a fan oven to 130ºC and grease and line a loaf tin.
In a saucepan over a low heat, add the butter and treacle and cook until the butter has just melted, then remove it from the heat.
In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and all of the spices. Stir to mix.
Pour the milk into a measuring jug and whisk in both eggs.
Once the treacle and butter mixture has cooled slightly, pour in the milk and whisked eggs, using a whisk to continuously whisk everything together.
Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry and use to whisk to mix the batter until smooth, it should be quite a runny consistency.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for 1 hr 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean with no wet batter streaks when inserted into the middle of the loaf. If the loaf is nice and golden on top but hasn't had it's full time in the oven, loosely wrap the top of the tin with a sheet of tin foil, this will allow it to continue baking in the oven without catching anymore colour. Once it's baked, remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely before decorating.
For the cream cheese frosting, use an electric whisk to beat the butter until pale and fluffy in a mixing bowl. Gradually add in the icing sugar, beating with the electric whisker again until it's all combined, then beat for a further 1 - 2 minutes until smooth.
Add in the cream cheese (drain off any excess liquid) and vanilla and beat again for a further 1 - 2 minutes until even in colour, smooth and thick. Either spoon the frosting on top of the cooled loaf cake or fill a piping bag with a nozzle to pipe it on.
Decorate and enjoy!
Nutritional Information
(per serve, with frosting)
446 calories
26g fat, 49g carbs, 5g protein
Good to know/alternatives:
I use a 2lb/900g loaf tin for this recipe. Though they can vary hugely in shape, you want to fill the batter to be 2/3 full before baking. If you have any leftover you can make gingerbread cupcakes.
Use a full fat, branded cream cheese. Supermarket-own brands and low fat versions tend to be quite watery and don't 'set' as well.
Store the gingerbread loaf in an airtight container for up to 1 week, the flavours intensify and develop as time goes on so this is a great one to make in advance.
Baked, unfrosted loaves can be frozen whole, wrapped in cling film and stored in an airtight container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze individual slices (frosted or unfrosted), defrost at room temperature for 2 - 3 hours.