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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are a working mother and ever had this little thought swirling around your head; “Why do stay-at-home moms cook better than me?”

Then, you’re doomed.

I mean, no one is better than another. Whether you’re a housewife or a career woman, it doesn’t determine your successful percentage in the kitchen. It’s all about your will. Even though the holiday season is almost leaving us, it’s never wrong to keep the warm celebration going—and nothing represents that more than gingerbread cake.

Gingerbread can usually take on different forms. Adults are relatively into cakes, but children may love gingerbread cookies more. Either way, gingerbread is rising to everybody’s favorite for holiday. And that’s why we’re gonna discuss the easy recipe on how to make an amazing gingerbread cake along with the correct ways to store it.

The Spice-rich Origin of Gingerbread

The popularity of gingerbreads go back to the 18th century when in Grimm’s fairy tale story, Hansel and Gretel, a house made of candies and cakes was mentioned. Inspired by this concept, Germans started making Gingerbread houses.

I mean, let’s be honest. Just how amazing and delicious that sounds? Gnawing on a house-shaped cake with such an amazing taste...

Even my adult self just can’t resist devouring those cakes. Imagine how the kids will think. They’ll probably dream about it all day. But the real history of gingerbreads go way back. According to Steven Stellingwerf, the sugarcraft scholar (that job sounds fascinating!), gingerbread was brought to Western Europe in the 11th century by crusaders who were returning from East Mediterranean.

In the year of 1598, gingerbreads also got the honorable mention in the Shakespeare play Love’s Labour’s Lost,

An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.

The meaning of gingerbread has also evolved over time. Initially, it meant preserved ginger. Originally these were prepared with ginger, honey and breadcrumbs. Today, they have transformed a lot in terms of the cake recipes being used, but the love for them remains the same.

A sweet Ginger dessert tradition

There has been a very interesting European tradition associated with Gingerbread. Since long time ago in Germany, during the winter and autumn street festivals, distinct gingerbread cookies made with ginger and honey are cut in hearts shape and widely sold by the vendors. The cutie is called ‘lebkuchen’.

Due to the use of honey and ginger in the making, this cake can be stored for a longer time period, making them perfect choice for display without the fear of them getting spoiled.

In fact, in old times, gingerbreads were considered sacred and the only time they were permitted to be made by general public was in Easter and Christmas. Guess that’s how we started making gingerbreads as a Christmas delicacy.

Christmas choice recipe for Gingerbread cake

When I was a working mother, I get excited at the thought of my kids loving my homemade gingerbread creation for Christmas. I was truly passionate about proving to people that I’m still able to serve good meal for my kids even if I’m working outside. So I share this is situation with all the working mothers out there. Hence, I have brought you the simplest but delicious gingerbread cake recipe.

Ingredients:

2 large-sized eggs kept at room temperature, beat lightly 1 cup molasses, unsulphured 1 teaspoon fine salt Unsalted butter, softened 1 cup of sugar ¼ teaspoon ground cloves 1 tablespoon ground ginger 1 cup your preferred vegetable oil 3 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon baking soda 2 tablespoon crystallized ginger, minced. 1 cup water The process:

Take a cake pan and butter it lightly, then line the bottom using a parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 325°F.

Whisk together molasses, oil, crystallized ginger, and sugar in a large-sized bowl. Next, add the eggs to the mixture and whisk until it’s smooth.

Whisk together ground ginger, salt, cinnamon, flour and cloves in another large sized bowl. Combine the above molasses mixture with this one. Whisk till both are combined perfectly.

Take a small saucepan and add water to it, then bring it to boil. Once boiled, remove it from the heat and add baking soda. Add this mixture to the mixture made in step

Transfer this batter to the cake pan and bake it for around 50 minutes. Insert a toothpick to the cake, if it comes out clean, your cake is baked perfectly.

Cool the cake on a wire rack. Cut it into square pieces and serve it to your friends with ice cream.

Alternatively, instead of serving with ice cream, you can add cream cheese or lemon curd frosting to give that creamy taste to your cake. Easy ways to store your Gingerbread Normally, you can store a gingerbread cake in the pantry at room temperature for around a week and in the freezer for about 6 months. However, storing in the freezer is less recommended as it might lead to dryness of the cake.

For proper storage, you need to wrap the cake tightly in plastic and then put in a plastic zip bag. At room temperature, the cake would last for a week. If your cake has frosting, you don’t need to wrap it in a plastic as the frosting serves the same purpose. A frosted cake at room temperature would last for around 5 days.

While putting the unfrosted cake in the fridge, wrap it with a plastic to prevent the cake from being too dry or it catches the weird fridge smell. The frosted cake should be initially put in the freezer for 15 minutes so that frosting gets chilled and then wrapped in plastic for storage.

Gingerbread baking cheat-sheet that truly works Working mothers and even stay-at-home mums may struggle with unsuccessful baking(s): Cake is too dry, too dense, unbalanced, and other failures due to the lack of baking skill.

That’s why I bring you simple tricks to bake an amazing Gingerbread cake (that never fails.)

First and utmost, follow the recipe. That sounds so simple and almost cliche (since everyone knows we should’ve done that from the first place), but in fact, most of us don’t. We either add or reduce some ingredients or unintentionally skip certain steps. Trust me, as long as you follow the recipe, your cake will turn out as good as the recipe you follow.

Store your cake in a cool, dry environment. Humidity is not good for your cake.

Preheating your oven is essential. If the oven is not heated enough, your cake is not going to rise properly. Make sure that the eggs you used were kept at room temperature. Cold eggs do not whisk well and that leads to lump in the batter.

Get an oven thermometer. Your oven might show certain temperature, but it might be off by 10 degrees. To be sure, use an oven thermometer. Also, bake the cake in the center of the oven. Keeping it too close to the top or bottom of the oven risks it being excess brown.

Once done, cool your cake on the wire rack for 20 minutes. This will prevent your cake from turning soggy.

Vegan Gingerbread Cake (Bonus Recipe Alert!)

Ingredients:

½ cup melted coconut oil 1 ¼ cup nut milk, room temperature 2 tablespoon cinnamon 1/3 cup of apple sauce, kept at room temperature 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup Coconut sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 tablespoon ground ginger 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds ¾ teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon ground cloves 3 2/3 cup spelt flour Steps:

Grease two baking square pans with butter and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix all the ingredients together but the flour in a large bowl by using a stand mixer at medium temperature. Mix until thoroughly combined. Add the flour and mix some more.

Divide the batter evenly into the two greased baking pans.

Baking time for the batter should be around 40 minutes. To check if your cake is cooked perfectly, insert a toothpick into it. If it’s clean, then your cake is done!

Let the cake cool down for around 30 minutes, then transfer them to the rack so that they get cooled completely.

Its best to store the cake at room temperature for moist gingerbread cake. Making the buttercream frosting: Ingredients:

200 grams of semi-sweet chocolate 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup of chickpea brine 2 cans coconut milk which had been refrigerated earlier for 24 hours Ingredients:

In a saucepan at medium heat, add chickpea brine. Simmer the liquid until it is reduced to ½ of its original quantity. Set the liquid aside in a bowl once done.

Chop the chocolates and then melt it while stirring continuously. Set aside the chocolate when it’s in liquid form. Make sure it is completely cool.

Use the electric mixer at high speed for about 1 minute to cool and reduce the chickpea brine. Set it aside.

Take out the refrigerated coconut milk in a bowl and beat it using a mixer until it starts to get the texture of whipped cream. Add to it vanilla extract and melted chocolate. Add chickpea brine at medium speed. Beat until the mixture is smooth. The bottom line I know how good it feels to be able to deliver great food each time, as a sign of affection and care towards our children. Though, we often think that our efforts in baking just ain’t enough.

However, the secret to baking a perfect cake or cooking any food whatsoever is not to spend hours in the kitchen, but to have the right passion and love for cooking. Not everyone can be a stay-at-home mum, but we can always make a favorite cake for the holiday season to make our children happy. Patience plays an important role here. Be patient and practice regularly so that the love you feel while cooking is embodied in your dishes.

Have fun trying, mums!