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QSis
12-21-2009, 04:01 PM
This is the second year I've made this wonderful gingerbread cake! So moist and wonderful, and so much easier than cookies!

Here's the recipe and a photo of the cake I made a couple of years ago.

BTW, Oatmeal Stout is delicious to drink, to cook with and to bake with!

Lee

Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread

Gourmet | February 2000

Claudia Fleming

The use of leavening in a cake is first recorded in a recipe for gingerbread from Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796; I guess you could say it is the original great American cake. Early-19th-century cookbooks included as many recipes for this as contemporary cookbooks do for chocolate cake. This recipe, from Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at New York City's Gramercy Tavern, is superlative—wonderfully moist and spicy.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr
Servings: Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients1 cup oatmeal stout or Guinness Stout
1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cardamom
3 large eggs
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Special equipment: a 10-inch (10- to 12-cup) bundt pan

Accompaniment: unsweetened whipped cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter bundt pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess.

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda, then cool to room temperature.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in oil, then molasses mixture. Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan and rap pan sharply on counter to eliminate air bubbles. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs adhering, about 50 minutes.
Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Serve cake, dusted with confectioners sugar, with whipped cream.

Cooks' notes:
• This recipe was tested with Grandma's brand green-label molasses.
• Like the chocolate decadence cake, the gingerbread is better if made a day ahead. It will keep 3 days, covered, at room temperature.


http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2925/gramercytaverngingerbreyc6.jpg

homecook
12-21-2009, 04:28 PM
Lee, that really looks good. I might try my hand at that to take to my best friends NYE party. It will be a nice change from other desserts.

Big Daddy's House
12-21-2009, 05:46 PM
Looks GOOD!!

Chowhound
12-21-2009, 06:06 PM
I had a gingerbread cookie the other day. I had forgotten just how good gingerbread is. The cake looks decadent in such a good way :^D
I can see me eating that cake before the shelf life expires with about a gallon of vanilla ice cream.

QSis
12-21-2009, 06:19 PM
Chow, that "shelf life" note was by the author of the article.

The cake is so moist that it would probably keep a MONTH!

Lee

Chowhound
12-21-2009, 07:22 PM
Bummer. I was looking forward to eating it in three days. lol
;^)