- Today, I'm going to show you how to make
this moist, fluffy gingerbread cake
filled with all the holiday spices,
and because it's Christmas,
there's a Christmas tree on it
with ornaments, snow, and a gold star.
Let's get started.
I'm starting off by taking
3/4 of a cup of boiling water, carefully
and adding that into a small bowl
to which I will add a tablespoon of baking soda.
No idea why I'm doing that,
but it's in the recipe that I wrote a long time ago.
Okay, set that aside.
Now we're going to sieve together
a lot of the dry ingredients,
including the flour,
two cups of all-purpose,
tablespoon and a 1/2 of baking powder,
tablespoon of ground ginger,
cinnamon, nutmeg,
1/2 a teaspoon of cloves,
1/2 a teaspoon of kosher salt,
1/2 a teaspoon of cardamom,
and a 1/4 teaspoon of allspice.
Give it a good sift,
which will help mix everything together
and prevent any lumps.
Look at those lumps.
Nobody wants those horrible lumps.
Gonna whisk it up
and set aside, while we do the rest.
All right, so into the bowl of my standing mixer,
I'm adding in 113 grams
or one stick of unsalted butter at room temperature.
Add a whisk attachment and let's cream it.
(mixer whirring)
Now we're ready to add in 1/2 a cup
of packed light brown sugar.
So much molasses in there.
We'll be adding even more molasses shortly.
(mixer whirring)
Okay, let's scrape the bowl down,
(mixer whirring).
and continue mixing.
(mixer whirring)
My butter-sugar combo is nice and fluffy,
so it's time for 2/3 of a cup of molasses.
(mixer whirring)
Okay, that's all nice and mixed.
Now it's time to add in our
hot water baking soda combo
(mixer whirring)
All right so we have a crazy
like very liquidy molasses mixture inside of this bowl.
Now it's time to add in our flour spice mixture.
Right let's mix that on low.
(mixer whirring)
Okay let's scrape that bowl down.
It smells like Christmas.
(mixer whirring)
Okay, that looks really great.
You can see this batter is much thicker than it was.
Thanks to all that flour, it's still pretty wet.
It's time for two eggs.
Room temperature, please.
(mixer whirring)
That batter is perfect.
I'm gonna prep my pans now
because it's time to put these into the oven.
Rub some cold butter onto the pans.
I say cold just because it helps the butter
not all dissolve in your hand
when you're pressing it against the pan.
Plop that in there and just move it around.
You will need a little bit of flour.
Tap the excess out onto the next pan.
I'm adding some cake strips
onto my baking pans to get nice flat layers.
You can click up here
and watch my full video on how they work
and how to make your own at home.
Distribute the batter evenly into your three pans
into the oven at 350 Fahrenheit
for about 1/2 an hour or until the centers are set
and the edges are just pulling away from the pan.
I'm mixing up a giant batch of Italian meringue buttercream.
I hope my bowl is big enough
but I need it because of the decoration scheme
having so many different colors.
I've two and a 1/4 cups of sugar here
and I've separated out 1/2 a cup for my egg whites
(mumbles)
the rest is gonna come to 240 degrees
once I've mixed it with a little bit of water.
Onto a saucepan, I'm adding in the sugar
over medium-high heat.
Pour the water on top
and now let's give it a little bit of a mix
just to get it started.
This meringue needs six egg whites,
so let's get separating.
This is a little high stakes
because if you get any yolk in here, it's ruined.
So if you're really cautious,
you should actually separate each egg
individually over its own bowl
and then only add the whites in.
You can do whatever you like, but I find that clean hands
are the best way to separate egg yolks.
Okay, last egg,
successfully separated, no broken yolks.
Move that onto a standing mixer.
Pop on that whisk attachment.
Add a couple of dashes of cream of tartar.
This is just an acid that helps your eggs
fluff up and get stiff.
If you don't have it,
little bit of lemon juice
or a little bit of vinegar will work fine.
I'm also gonna add in just a pinch of salt
and now let's get to whipping.
(mixer whirring)
So my eggs are fluffed up
and now it's time to add in my 1/2 a cup of sugar.
(mixer whirring)
I just wanna show you that
we've reached the soft peak stage.
That looks great.
Look at that soft peak.
Nice and wobbly perfect.
Now we're gonna drizzle in
our 240 degrees sugar carefully
while the mixers is running on like medium-low.
(mixer whirring)
It's a very full bowl of very hot eggs.
(laughs) (mixer whirring)
So just by the by this has to run for a while
It's a lot of eggs, a lot of molten sugar
and I do wanna show you though that this is a
(mumbles)
it's so thick.
Oh my gosh.
My poor, my poor KitchenAid.
Look at this.
Can you see that?
So silky and white and beautiful.
You can use this on desserts
and it toasts wonderfully baked Alaska delicious.
But we will be adding a pound and a 1/2
of butter to this once it's reached room temperature.
(mixer whirring)
Okay it's been a few minutes
and this is finally room temperature, so we're gonna add in
our six sticks of butter in like
a reasonable size (mumbles)
while the mixer is running on lowish.
(mixer whirring)
You'll notice this is getting soupy
as you add the butter in, but don't worry,
it's totally fine.
After all, the butter goes in and it whips up for a bit,
you'll have the correct consistency
perfect for cake decorating, last stick.
(mixer whirring)
Okay, this isn't looking bad.
It's looking totally fine,
but still a little bit warm, so it's just gonna run.
It'll firm up and be totally great,
but you do want to give this
a nice wipe down on the inside.
That's some delicious buttercream people.
I'm also gonna add in a little bit of vanilla right now
just for flavoring perfect.
(mixer whirring)
Those cake layers are out of the oven.
Super flat and really soft on the sides.
Perfect let them cool down and back to the icing.
(mixer whirring)
To the inside, I'm gonna dye part of the buttercream red
and give it lots of spices.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice,
a little ginger use whatever you'd like though.
I'm also using powdered food coloring
and regular food gel.
I want this to be very deep red.
Snip the tip-off.
You're gonna add the red and white piping bags
into another piping bag,
fitted with a large circle attachment
and then you'll be able to do your
two-tone candy cane realness interior.
To make that beautiful little gold star,
I smeared on a very thin layer of buttercream
onto a piece of parchment paper,
froze it then,
cut the star shape out,
removed the excess,
put it back in the freezer,
shaped a little bit,
and then covered in gold leaf, a little bit extra,
but that's me.
For the green buttercream, I'm using green food coloring,
matcha powder and a little bit of black
to tone it down and take it to a more realistic green.
For the brown, you can use some brown food coloring
or some cocoa powder totally up to you.
All right, let's pipe that two-tone interior on.
Doesn't have to be perfect,
but it'll be like a nice surprise
whenever someone cuts piece open.
Add that second layer on.
Pipe the other two-tone buttercream layer.
Third layer goes on,
fill in the gaps and now we're gonna do a crumb coat.
Just add a little bit of buttercream onto the sides,
straightened up the necessary.
It could slide around.
Then use an offset spatula for the top
just a little bit just for the crumbs so they don't get,
seeping out when you're doing your final code.
I use a bench scraper for the sides and really just like
use the scrap buttercream that you're not gonna use anymore.
It'll be covered up,
but when your cake chills it'll be all protected.
The cake won't dry out no crumbs are gonna go on.
After the cake is crumb coated,
chill it and then you're ready to add your
final layer of buttercream on.
I put my buttercream on because it's easiest for me,
but you could use a spatula
and just smear it on it's totally up to you.
Then once again, we're gonna use
an offset spatula for the top,
a bench scraper for the sides and for that last little bit,
we're just gonna pull in with our offset spatula.
So pull in, turn clean,
pull in, turn, and clean that tool.
At this point, I suggest chilling the cake again
cause it's gonna be way easier to work
on a nice firm buttercream.
Once the cake is chilled, I use a little toothpick
just to sketch a Christmas tree out
and now I'm using a palette knife
to paint on my little trunk
with some really dark brown buttercream.
You can add some cocoa powder in there too if you want.
And now I'm using that pallet knife just to smear on
the green buttercream and approximate branches.
You wanna have like a lot of buttercream
on that pallet knife,
but not hanging off if that makes sense.
So a lot of buttercream is on there
but it's not hanging off.
That way you can just press it against the cake
and you'll get a nice beautiful branch.
Once your tree is all painted up and pretty,
you can add on little ornaments.
I just did red for a nice uniform color
I'll sort of use up that extra
red buttercream from the inside and then finish it off
with a dusting of powdered sugar
and then just attach that little star.
You can use a dollop of buttercream on the back
just so it sticks, and you do have to be careful because
the buttercream melts as soon as you touch it.
I am so happy with the way this cake turned out.
That tree, it looks like a tree.
I didn't think it was going to be as easy as it was
to be honest and the snow
just a little dusting of confectioner's sugar
and you're done, how nice was that?
All right, thanks so much for watching.
I hope you get to make the recipe,
have a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, et cetera,
and you know like and subscribe