This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is being hosted by Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories. The recipe she is hosting is for Gingerbread Baby Cakes which is located on pages 247-248 in Baking With Julia.
When I first glanced at the recipe I was surprised by the addition of cocoa powder and espresso powder. For one I was actually out of the cocoa powder that I usually use, but since the recipe didn’t call for too much I decided to use Black Cocoa powder instead. I also halved the recipe because I didn’t have enough molasses for a full recipe. Essentially, I was trying to use items that I had on hand instead of having to go to the grocery store because of that I omitted the fresh ginger and decided to add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
I baked these baby cakes in large cupcake pan for 25-30 minutes, and half of a recipe makes exactly 6 large cupcakes. Once the cakes came out of the oven, I let them cool and then proceeded to dig into one with a side of whipped cream. The addition of the whipped cream is a must because it cuts the spice and chocolate in the cake. The cakes actually have a good spice to them without the fresh ginger. I am glad that I did not add the fresh ginger because I think it would have had too much spice/heat from the ginger and black pepper.
The large muffins look great. I can picture them out of the paper and turned upside down on a plate with whipped cream. I think not adding the fresh ginger was a good idea. The flavour of these cakes was very strong…way to strong for me.
[…] baby cakes, as well as the Gingerbread Baby Cakes (page 247), Hazelnut Baby Loaves (page 249), Oven-Roasted Plum Cakes (page 255), Vanilla Pound Cake […]