
Squidgy ginger cake, silky-smooth Biscoff spread – it’s a Christmas miracle! If you don’t want to frost the cake with the elf jumper design, simply spread over vanilla frosting and dot over some crushed Lotus biscuits, a few mini gingerbread men and sprinkle over a bit more cinnamon.
I’ve never decorated a cake before! Help!
Well, the delish elves used a tub of ready-made buttercream to make things easier and some sweets to cut down on the piping. Invest in good quality gel food colourings as these dye to icing much deeper than the liquid colours, meaning the frosting doesn’t go crazily runny. An off-set spatula is your best friend for spreading frosting smoothly. If you’re nervous about piping the design, score the green frosting with a cutlery knife to give yourself guidelines to follow and use the handle of a teaspoon to spread the icing into the points of the collar.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
15 - 18 serving(s)
Prep Time:
40 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr
Total Time:
1 hr 40 mins
Ingredients
For cake
- 125 g
butter
- 125 g
light soft brown sugar
- 125 g
golden syrup
- 175 g
plain flour
- 1 tsp.
bicarbonate of soda
- 1 Tbsp.
ground ginger
- 1 tsp.
ground cinnamon
- 1
large egg
- 150 ml
milk
For poke sauce
- 175 g
smooth Lotus biscoff spread
For frosting and decoration
- 400 g
ready-made vanilla frosting
Green and red gel food colouring
Black liquorice pieces
Red strawberry laces
Long yellow wine gum sweets or jelly babies
Directions
- Step 1Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Grease and line a 30.5 x 20.5cm rectangular baking tin with parchment paper.
- Step 2Put the butter in a large bowl, and heat in the microwave on a high setting for 30sec bursts until melted. Add the remaining cake ingredients and beat together with a handheld electric whisk until combined to make a very runny batter.
- Step 3Pour into the prepared tin, and bake for 30 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin completely.
- Step 4When the cake is cool, flip on to a serving board or plate and peel off the parchment.
- Step 5Make poke sauce. Poke holes all over the cake using the handle of a wooden spoon. Put the Biscoff spread in a pan and heat gently until melted. Pour the sauce over the cake so it fills the holes. Leave until completely set (about 30 minutes).
- Step 6Colour half your tub of vanilla frosting green in a small bowl, then colour half of what’s leftover red in a separate bowl. Leave the remaining quarter uncoloured.
- Step 7Spread the green frosting over the top two thirds of the cake. Spread some of the red over the remaining bottom third to cover. Put the remaining red and white frostings into separate piping bags (no need for piping nozzles) and pipe a red collar at the top of the cake. Pipe white striped lines over the red at the bottom of the cake to make trousers, and a small semi circle at the top of the collar for the neck-hole. Add a belt made from black liquorice and use a little white frosting to stick yellow sweets to the liquorice to make the buckle. Pipe circles of red to make buttons down the centre [or you could use some kind of circular red or yellow sweets]. If you want a neater edge to your collar, add pieces of red strawberry lances/whips to give sharper lines.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below