What a day! What a week! I'm happy to be back baking and blogging. Holiday decorations are going up, and I'm starting to get in the spirit. I hate to admit it, but I'd like a little snow instead of the balmy 60 degree days we've been having. I'm sure I'll regret that thought about February. I'd like to start off by wishing a big Happy Birthday to my husband, Gary! The kindest, sweetest person in the world. It's been a big year for him. Recently, he packed up our Prius and went off to New York City to help with the recovery efforts from hurricane Sandy. No special reason, just overcome with the desire to help. To celebrate his birthday, I've made baby gingerbread cakes.
The recipe coincides with my Baking with Julia blog group. To bake along, you can find the recipe at Karen's Kitchen Stories.
As I write this, I'm still cracking up from my dumb baking blunder. More on that later...
The recipe has some great ingredients including black pepper, cocoa, instant espresso, and fresh ginger. The smells are amazing. I found a tube of fresh ginger in the produce section of the grocery. I liked it a lot. It was very smooth, and made for easy measuring and smooth fresh ginger in the batter. You can see it in the photo in the white bowl off to the right.
This is where the craziness comes in. I bought the cutest little paper cups for holiday baking. They were just a little smaller than 4 inches, but I though they'd be perfect. I could serve the cakes in the papers or unwrap them just before serving. The batter was ready, and I gently spooned the batter into the cups.
After a few minutes, I started to wonder where the cups were getting support as the batter expanded. Guess what? No where! The sides were drooping the batter was oozing out onto the baking sheet. I prepared for round 2 and let the mess finish baking. Here's what happens when you don't have a study container around a paper baking cup. I was able to peel a few apart, and salvage at least a few. I used a 10" cake pan for the next batch, and plan to use it for Gary's birthday dinner tonight. For anyone who's every felt intimidated to bake with me, this should make you feel much better!
I'm still crazy about the little red cups, and will plan to use them again. I just can't quite figure out what kind of pan to use do the contents don't spew out.
The whipped cream was sweetened with powdered sugar and garnished with a few pieces of candied ginger. The reviews so far have been great! I really like the flavor and texture of this wonderful cake.