Starbuck's Gingerbread Latte Inspired Cake
Although I don't normally like Christmassy foods, I do fall into Starbuck's trap of limited edition festive drinks. I LOVE pumpkin spiced latte's as to me they taste like a cinnamon roll in a drink (And I LOVE cinnamon rolls!) but another favourite of mine is a gingerbread latte. I think it is because I associate the drink with wintery memories, like going to see A Christmas Carol in the theatre, rather than actually the drink itself: I've never been a massive fan of gingerbread, but nevertheless I wanted to make a cake inspired by this drink- maybe even to get my taste buds tailored to more Christmassy tastes! It worked. After creating this gingerbread latte style cake, I instantly fell in love with gingerbread as this cake is not to gingery, but still bouncing with flavour with the perfect whipped icing to really top it off as of course no festive drink is complete without whipped cream! Although, it is unexpected that I am posting a so called "Christmas recipe" in April, I feel as though my reasoning is justified. I always get strange looks when I am in Starbucks in the summer asking for various lattes that are "out of season" so I thought I would put my foot down and remove the "stigma" around festive foods being only for a certain time of year! This wonderful cake is perfect all year around and I hope you love making it as much I do- just remember to lick the bowl after you make the icing as it is heaven on earth!
Here is my recipe for Starbuck's Gingerbread Latte Inspired Cake:
Ingredients: (Serves 12)
For the Cake:
- 250g Butter
- 250g Brown Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 2tsp Vanilla/Almond Extract
- 50g Golden Syrup (This can be substituted for Honey!)
- 250g Self Rising Flour
- 1tbs Coffee Granules (The cake doesn't taste too strongly of Coffee but it gives it the perfect latte-like flavour!)
- 150ml Milk, heated until piping hot
- 1tbs Cinnamon
- 1tsp Ginger
- 1tsp Nutmeg
- 225g Butter, softened
- 225g Cream Cheese
- 2tsp Vanilla/Almond Extract
- 1tsp Pumpkin Spice (This can be bought from Trader Joes or can be substituted for a 50:50 mix of cinnamon and ginger!)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 175’c, gas mark 4
- Dissolve the coffee granules in the hot milk, set aside
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar
- Add the eggs, vanilla and golden syrup and continue to mix
- Mix the coffee mixture into the butter mixture (do it carefully as hot splashes need to be avoided!)
- Mix your flour and spices into the mixture and mix well until fully combined
- Pour your cake batter into 2 cake trays of a similar size (it doesn't matter what shape as long as they are both the same shape or stacking will provide difficulty!)
- Bake for 25-30 minutes
- Leave the cakes to cool for at least an hour
- To make the icing, whisk the cream cheese, butter and vanilla using an electric whisk
- Add in the icing sugar slowly and continue to whisk until the icing is thick (it should be thick enough so that you can hold the bowl above your head and the icing doesn't fall on you!)
- Set aside 2/3 of the icing, using the remaining third to spread on the bottom cake as evenly as possible
- Gently place the top cake on top using cocktail sticks to stabilise if need be
- Using a 1M or 4D piping nozzle, pipe the remain 2/3s of the icing on top of the cake into little meringue shapes as shown in the photo above
- Enjoy!!
