Merry Christmas!!! Here’s my dessert for today, a Cinnamon Cake with spiced cream cheese frosting and gingerbread houses. This is a super soft cake with a creamy and pipable cream cheese frosting.
I cut the houses freehand and in different shapes and sizes, then I used a toothpick, a fork, knife, cookie cutters, anything I had in hand to trace the windows, doors and roofs.
Because I knew Christmas eve was going to be hectic and I needed all the extra time I could get, I made them three weeks earlier. I froze them and took out of the freezer one day before using them, waited until they were completely defrosted and dusted them with powdered sugar.
Stags and Trees
The stags and trees were made out of fondant, I also made them a week before and when decorating the cake I “glued” them with a bit of frosting.
What makes this cake moist and fluffy?
There are a few things that you need to do to achieve this:
Room temperature ingredients. I can’t stress enough how important this is! it ensures that the ingredients mix more evenly and it helps getting better volume.
Leave the ingredients 30-60 minutes outside of the fridge prior to using. You can even allow your eggs to sit -completely covered- in warm water for 5 minutes.
Over baking. Over baking your layers will result in dry cake. After all of the effort of making it, make sure that the cake stays in the oven just long enough!
Cake flour. Using cake flour in this recipe is necessary for having a tender and fluffy cake, so do not substitute for all-purpose flour
Follow this link for more Christmas dessert recipes, or follow the links below to see some of my favorite ones:
Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Line and grease 3 baking pans of 6” inches each. Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. On a medium sized bowl mix milk and sour cream and set aside
Beat butter, sugars and vanilla extract together, until fluffy, for 1 to 1.5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk mixture, alternating between each one, and mix.
Pour batter into prepared pans, and bake for 28-30 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes and then remove pans and place in a wire rack to finish cooling
Spiced cream cheese frosting
On med-high speed, cream together shortening, butter and cream cheese until smooth, around 1 minute. Add vanilla and mix
Incorporate sifted powdered sugar, salt and all spices, slowly; make sure it’s well incorporated
Frost cooled cakes and stack. Cover your cake with shredded coconut and add the gingerbread houses on the sides of the cake. Place any extra fondant decorations, using your frosting as "glue"
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