Carla Hall’s Gingerbread Cake Comes Together in a Snap & Is Topped With a Dusting of ‘Snow’
Gingerbread is probably the most iconic sweet treat you can make and eat during the Christmas season, and Carla Hall is giving us yet another way to indulge in gingerbread besides the cookies, houses, and flavored coffees. Hall has perfected the gingerbread cake, a super simple recipe that bakes up fast and is topped with “snow sugar,” which you can easily make at home.
“This cake is going to come together really quickly, and you want to make sure that your oven is ready to receive your deliciousness,” Hall says in a clip posted to Food Network’s Instagram page. So, set your oven to 375 degrees before you begin assembling. Hall also suggests you let your butter and eggs come to room temperature before mixing everything together, too.
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Hall’s gingerbread recipe calls for a lot of eggs, and Hall explains that the two extra yolks are there to add fat and moisture to the cake batter without adding extra water from the whites. To those whisked eggs, you’ll add vanilla and molasses to begin creating that gingerbread flavor.
“I love the smell of molasses,” Hall says. And honestly, how can you not?
Next, you’ll whisk together buttermilk and water, which will add even more moisture to your batter. Finally, in a third bowl, mix together your dry ingredients — “It’s all about the spice,” Hall says, showing her combo of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. To that, she adds sifted cake flour.
“Cake flour has less gluten than all-purpose flour. It will give you a lighter cake,” Hall says. “So if you don’t have cake flour, you can sometimes take all-purpose flour and cornstarch. Go ahead and look up a recipe so you can see what the ratio is and you can get it done.”
Baking powder and salt are also whisked into the dry ingredients, as is the sugar, which Hall admits is not a normal order of operations. “I’m using dark brown sugar because dark brown sugar has more molasses in it,” Hall explains. She then works in the softened butter and vegetable oil using her hands until she gets a sandy consistency.
Then, the dry mixture gets mixed with the two wet mixtures, and the cake is ready to bake. And while the cake is in the oven, you can pull together your snow sugar using granulated sugar, cornstarch, and coconut oil. Once the cake is baked and cooled, you can dust your snow sugar over the top using a fine mesh strainer.
Grab Hall’s full recipe on Food Network’s website and treat your friends and family to a new type of gingerbread dessert this Christmas.
Before you go, check out the gallery below:
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