A Delicious Gingerbread Cake with Biscoff Icing | Recipe

I ended up making this Gingerbread Cake with Biscoff Icing (variation of this Good Food Recipe) for Christmas as I am not a huge fan of traditional Christmas puddings. Instead of 3 layers I did 2 and I changed the recipe up slightly. See me adaption below. I have also included my recipe for the Gingerbread Biscuits used to decorate the cake. The biscuit recipe is one from Mummy Pond and one I have used many times. You will make more biscuits than you need for decorating, but it’s no biggie. They’re pretty delicious!

Gingerbread Cake with Biscoff Icing

A wonderfully rich alternative to a normal Christmas cake. The icing is very moreish!

 Prep Time 2 hours

 Cook Time 30 minutes

 Servings 12

Ingredients

For the gingerbead cake

• 100 ml milk
• 2 tbsp black treacle
• 150 ml vegetable oil plus a little for greasing
• 250 g self raising flour
• 250 g light brown soft sugar
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 200 ml buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp dark rum
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For the Biscoff icing

• 125 g pack slightly salted butter very soft
• 300 g icing sugar
• 150 g full-fat cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
• 150 g smooth caramelised biscuit spread

For the gingerbread biscuits

• 175 g self raising flour sieved
• 75 g butter softened
• 75 g soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 egg yolk

Instructions

To make the gingerbread cake

1. Measure the milk and treacle into a saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer and stir until combined (it does not take long), then set aside to cool.
2. Grease 2 x 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins with a little oil and line the bases with baking parchment. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan.
3. Measure the flour, sugar and spices into a large bowl. Mix the dry ingredients together with a spoon or use your electric mixer to mix (I used the latter).
4. In a jug, whisk the oil, buttermilk, eggs, rum and vanilla. Add the milk and treacle mixture, and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and beat into a smooth batter (I used a middle speed on my kMix mixer).
5. Divide between the two tins and bake for 25-30 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins for a bit, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. This is a good time to make your gingerbread (keep your oven on if doing this).

To make the gingerbread biscuits

1. Cream the butter and sugar together. Then add the honey and beat the egg yolk in.
2. Fold in the flour and bring together to form a dough. Put in the fridge for 30 mins (prepare baking trays with parchment in the meantime).
3. When the dough is chilled roll it out to about 1cm thick. Cut the shapes you desire, I did trees and a snowman for the top and stars for around the cake. Keep cutting and rolling until all your dough is used up. If you have to make in batches, put the dough in the fridge between batches.
4. Bake for 8-12 minutes (160c fan) depending on the biscuit size, transfer to wire rack and cool completely before using for decorating.

To make the Biscoff icing

1. To make the icing, put the butter and the icing sugar in a large bowl (or your stand mixer – make sure the flour cover is on). Beat together roughly with a spoon or a middle level speed on your stand mixer Add the remaining icing sugar, cream cheese, vanilla bean extract and biscuit spread. Mix/beat again until smooth and evenly mixed. 
2. Use about 1/3 of the icing to stack the cakes and cover the entire outside in a thin layer. Chill the cake for 30 mins and the remaining icing for 20 mins (remove the icing from the fridge 10 mins before the cake to soften a little). Then cover the cake. I went for a more rustic look, but if you want a smoother finish use a palette knife. Also do leave some by to stick your biscuits around the side on and make sure the icing is quite deep on top for your winter scene.

Recipe Notes

Store this cake in the fridge, it’ll keep for 3-4 days.

Now I served up my Gingerbread Cake with Biscoff Icing on Boxing Day in the end. We were too stuffed on Christmas Day to eat it! Not to worry though, it keeps well in the fridge. Also you can make and freeze the sponges ahead of Christmas should you need. The dough for the Gingerbread biscuits freezes well too, so if you didn’t want to bake it all you could freeze some and defrost overnight in the fridge before baking when needed.