A Peace of Cake: Week 2, Gingerbread Heart Cake

In the run-up to Christmas the team at Peace Direct have decided to bake a series of Christmas-themed cakes to enjoy in our weekly staff meetings. Each Tuesday we will be posting pictures and the recipes we used to give you some cake inspiration and get you in the Christmas mood. Following on from last week’s delicious Christmas Bakewell Cake, this week Carolyn our chief executive has baked a Gingerbread Heart cake. We’d love to hear from our supporters too, so get involved in our Great Christmas Bake Off and send in your own snaps and recipes!

Week 2: Gingerbread Heart Cake

Baked by Carolyn Hayman, Chief Executive

Carolyn is the chief executive and co-founder of Peace Direct, having worked with the charity from the very start. This week she baked a large gingerbread heart cake, which the team ate every last crumb of.

Ingredients (to serve 15)

525g plain flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
6 teaspoons ground ginger
150g soft margarine
150g light soft brown sugar
3 tablespoon black treacle
3 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda
630ml warm milk
6 eggs, beaten
120g stem ginger, finely chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees or 160C gas mark 3.
2. Grease and line with greaseproof paper your heart shaped tin.
3. Sieve the flour, and add the baking powder and ginger into a bowl.
4. Cream the margarine and sugar together. Add the treacle and syrup to this and beat very well together.
5. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the warm milk and stir this into the creamed mixture.
6. Add the flour, eggs and ginger into the creamed mixture. Beat well until completely blended and then pour into the prepared tin.
7. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until the gingerbread has risen and is firm to touch.
8. Remove and leave to cool and then add whatever topping you have chosen (Carolyn chose a melted chocolate topping but simple lemon icing is also delicious.)

Any good Cake recipes? We’d love to hear from you! Comment below with your ideas.

If you enjoyed this like and share it with your friends to spread the Christmas spirit! And remember to watch out for next week’s recipe baked by our head of Asia programmes Ruairi Nolan.