Gingerbread Christmas Cake with Snowy Lemon Buttercream

🧂 Ingredients

• 1 kg self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp ginger

  (dried/ground)
• 4 tsp cinnamon

  (dried/ground)
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 500 ml dairy free milk
• 500 g dairy free margarine
• 300 g treacle
• 300 g golden syrup
• 350 g soft light brown sugar
• 500 g icing sugar
• 200 g dairy free margarine
• 1.5 tbsp natural lemon extract

  (*see notes)

Instructions

• 1 Preheat the oven to 160° C fan (180° C conventional / 350°F / gas mark 4).
• 2 Grease two deep spring form cake tins (20cm diameter x 7cm deep /8" x 3" ) and
  line them with parchment paper.
• 3 To a medium saucepan add the ‘saucepan ingredients' (margarine, treacle, syrup
  and sugar) and warm until combined, around 5 minutes. Take the pan off of the
  heat and set it aside for 15 minutes to cool.
• 4 In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder
  [https://geni.us/avvbakingpowder] and spices.
• 5 Once the liquid in the saucepan has cooled, add it to the dry mixture along with
  the dairy free milk.
• 6 Stir well using a large whisk [https://geni.us/avvwhisk], until smooth and
  combined.
• 7 Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 65 minutes. Test the
  mixture with a skewer or knife - if the skewer/knife comes out clean your cakes
  are done, if there is cake mixture still on the skewer/knife then cook the cakes
  for another 5-10 minutes until the skewer/knife does come out clean.
• 8 Cool your cakes in the tins on the kitchen side. I like to make the cake the day
  before I want to decorate it because it needs to be completely cool before it
  can be decorated, plus it’s less to do all in one day.
• 9 When the cakes are completely cool (at least 4 hours), cut each cake in half
  horizontally to make four layers in total, and level out the top. The offcuts
  will provide tasty decorating sustenance!
• 10 Add the icing sugar [https://geni.us/avvicingsugar], margarine and lemon extract
  into a large bowl and either beat by hand or beat using an electric mixture.
  Once it is smooth and your cakes are cool, it’s time to decorate.
• 11 Layer buttercream on top of each cake and then place one cake on top of another,
  creating four layers.  Smooth buttercream around the sides and top of the cake.
  Decorate however you like - I particularly like gingerbread woodland animals and
  upside down rosemary trees for this cake!

Nutrition Info