Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

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Hello Daring Bakers!

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting—richly candy, completely spiced, and swirled with snowy buttercream—is as cozy as a freshly-cut Christmas tree.

• The dessert delivers the entire conventional tastes of the festive season, and baking it in a skillet makes it charmingly rustic.
• However the luscious drift of frosting, made by cooking the butter till it’s toasted and nutty with an irresistible caramel be aware, elevates this cake to a celebration-level deal with, one which’s destined to change into a cherished vacation favourite.

The style of gingerbread brings again nostalgic Christmas reminiscences and timeless pleasures. Whereas the vacation season can name for fancy-looking showstoppers like this Pink Velvet Roulade Cake, Christmas Pudding Ice Cream Bombe, and Christmas Wreath Pavlova, homey desserts like this skillet cake summon up heat fuzzy ideas of the straightforward vacation treats of childhood.

An enormous thanks to my pal Brian Hart Hoffman at Bake from Scratch journal for permitting me to share this scrumptious, festive cake that appeared beforehand in considered one of their Vacation magazines. I’m an enormous fan of their baking journal and  I strongly suggest signing up for the Bake From Scratch Publication  so you’re the first to learn about their many baking retreats and after they launch new books  . With the vacations proper across the nook a journal subscription for the baker in your life would make a improbable present.

Desk of Contents

What’s Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting?

• Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting is a single-layer spice cake baked in a cast-iron pan and frosted with buttercream.
• The gingerbread cake is wealthy and moist from the molasses and brown sugar. Conventional buttercream is given a flavorful twist by browning the butter first till it’s toasty and nutty.
• Gingerbread turned fashionable in medieval Europe when spices from the Center East first turned out there. It was generally ready in monasteries for spiritual celebrations. The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, written in 1843, talked about gingerbread as a vacation deal with, and since then, it has change into a mainstay of Christmas menus.

Key Components for Gingerbread and Brown Butter Forsting and Why

• Self-raising (self-rising) flour

• Ginger, cinnamon, and cloves

  • This iconic trio of seasonal spices accommodates distinctive notes that mix to make the skillet cake style and scent like the vacations.
  • Ginger brings zippy taste and delicate warmth. Cinnamon supplies earthiness and coziness, and cloves elevate the combination with a peppery-sweet punch.
  • For probably the most impactful taste, make certain your spices are recent!

• Entire milk

  • Entire milk moistens the cake, giving it a young and delicate crumb.
  • Milk additionally reacts with baking powder, giving the cake a lightweight, ethereal rise.

• Molasses

  • The sturdy, earthy sweetness of molasses offers gingerbread its signature taste.
  • Molasses offers the cake its moisture and retains it from drying out. That’s as a result of molasses is hygroscopic, which implies it attracts and retains moisture.

• Butter

  • The fats in butter coats the flour and inhibits gluten formation. This offers the cake a fragile texture.
  • Butterfat additionally offers gingerbread moisture and a pleasantly smooth crumbliness.

• Darkish brown sugar

  • Darkish brown sugar sweetens the gingerbread.
  • With a ten% molasses content material in comparison with mild brown sugar’s 3.5% content material, darkish brown sugar has a bolder style than mild brown sugar.
  • Darkish brown sugar additionally provides to the moistness of the gingerbread.

• Egg

  • Eggs enrich flavors and supply an emulsifier from the egg yolks to homogeneously bind all of the elements collectively.
  • Eggs should all the time be at room temperature in baking until specified in any other case. Room-temperature eggs will set this recipe heading in the right direction with a clean and cohesive cake batter.
  • Study foolproof methods to get your eggs to room temperature rapidly.

• Vanilla extract

  • Fragrant vanilla provides depth, heat, and an fragrant be aware to the frosting.

• Powdered sugar

  • Powdered sugar can also be known as confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar.
  • As a result of powdered sugar is finely floor and blended with cornstarch, it offers the frosting a fluffy texture.

• Lemon zest

  • Zippy citrus is the proper counterpoint to the frosting’s sweetness and buttery richness.

• Salt

  • Salt is non-compulsory on this recipe. Relying on what kind of butter you employ, and if it’s salted or unsalted butter, you may need to add 1/8 teaspoon of salt to stability the frosting’s sweetness.

Easy methods to Make Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

• Prep:

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and butter the skillet.

• Make the Gingerbread Cake:

  • In a big bowl, whisk the flour with the spices.
  • Combine the milk with the molasses and put aside.
  • Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat till mixed.
  • Alternately add the milk and flour to the butter combination till mixed and clean.
  • Unfold the batter into the skillet and bake for 25 to Half-hour. Cool utterly.

• Make the Brown Butter Frosting:

  • Soften the butter within the skillet for five to 10 minutes till it turns brown and smells toasty. Watch the butter rigorously to verify it doesn’t burn.
  • Switch the butter to a bowl and let it cool within the fridge for an hour.
  • Beat the cooled butter till creamy, then add the powdered and beat till mixed.
  • Add milk, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt if utilizing, and beat till mixed.
  • Frost the cooled cake and serve it within the skillet.

Can I Make Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting in Advance?

Sure, you may make Skillet Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting in Advance.

• • Bake the cake, let it cool, and frost. Switch the cake to an hermetic container. It’s going to hold it at room temperature for 2 days.

Easy methods to Retailer Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

Retailer leftover frosted cake in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as two days.

FAQs

• Might I make this Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting recipe egg-free?

Sure, you may make this spice cake egg-free.

• Can I make this Gingerbread Cake with Brown Butter Frosting vegan?

Sure, you may make this cake vegan.

Gemma’s Professional Chef Suggestions

• When you don’t have an iron skillet, you possibly can bake this in a 9-inch (23 cm) spherical cake pan, buttered and lined with parchment paper.
• All the time make certain all your elements are at room temperature when baking a cake.
• When making any spice cake, make sure that your spices are recent. They’ll lose their taste and aroma over time.
• No self-raising flour? You can also make your personal right here. (For this cake, you will have 1½ cups all-purpose or cake flour and three teaspoons baking powder.)
• My Greatest-Ever Cream Cheese Frosting would even be scrumptious on this cake.
• When you have not browned butter earlier than, then err on the aspect of warning relating to the timing. Additionally, ensure to not stroll away from it as it could actually overcook rapidly.

Extra Gingerbread Recipes