
It’s not quite Thanksgiving, but I can’t help but start the cravings for holiday foods. And gingerbread screams the holidays. I remember making gingerbread men in elementary school and that wonderful blend of ginger, molasses, brown sugar, and cinnamon just takes me back every time. It’s the inspiration for my Apple Gingerbread Cake.
This twist takes our favorite gingerbread and whips it into the form of a cake complete with a decadent drizzle of vanilla yogurt icing and chopped cranberries. If you are in the mood for a showstopper, this may be your recipe. However, if you are looking for something a little less involved, skip the tiered cake approach and place the batter in a bread pan to make a simple loaf style cake and drizzle with the icing and call it done.
I love quick and easy wow recipes, and this one (pardon the pun) takes the cake. It was less than 20 minutes to mix up the batter on a weekend morning and 30 minutes to bake off the layers. After an hour or so of cooling it was on to the icing and ready to devour for dinner. I just love these quick and easy cakes and the simple approach to icing shown in the picture makes whipping a cake together and decorating effortless, yet still elegant.
Let us know how your cake turned out in the comments or on our Facebook page. We also would love to see your holiday bakes!
Apple Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients:
For The Cake:
1/3 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Molasses
1/2 cup Vanilla Greek Yogurt (approx. 5.3oz individual carton)
2 Extra Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cups Chopped Granny Smith Apple
2 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Crumble Spice
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
For The Filling:
1/3 cup chopped Dried Cranberries
1/2 cup Vanilla Greek Yogurt (approx. 5.3 oz individual carton)
1 tbsp Confectioners sugar
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a bowl measure out and sift together flour, ground ginger, Crumble Spice, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl measure out the dark brown sugar, molasses, greek yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients together and then fold in the chopped apple. Next mix in the flour mixture in thirds until just combined being careful not to over mix.
Divide equally between three 6 inch cake pans greased and lined with parchment (or for an easier method you can place all the batter in a loaf pan, baking time will increase to 45-60 minutes). Bake at 425 for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 35o degrees F and bake another 20 minutes or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool 10-15 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on wire racks before decorating with icing.
For the filling, mix together yogurt and chopped dried cranberries. Then whisk in confectioners sugar until smooth. Dust cake with confectioners sugar.