Gingerbread Cake With Dried Fruits. Step-by-step Recipe With Photo

On a frosty evening, it's great to settle down in the cozy kitchen with a cup of hot ginger tea and … a slice of delicious gingerbread cake. These are real winter pastries, not only tasty, but also healthy. Especially during the cold season!

In addition to a rich set of vitamins, trace elements, organic acids and antioxidants, ginger root contains essential oils and gingerol - a substance similar in composition to the pungent components of hot pepper. Therefore, ginger has a spicy, pungent taste. It warms up remarkably and speeds up metabolism, promotes excellent appetite, and successfully resists colds and inflammation.

"Horned root" (this is how the name 'Zinziber' is translated), like a noble knight, will stand guard over immunity in the cold season: to prevent the onset of a cold, with a sore throat, it is enough to chew a tiny piece of peeled ginger root so that the acute respiratory infections go away without having time start. And your breath will be fresh!

And to consolidate the effect and prophylaxis, add ginger to a variety of dishes: it is in equal harmony with both main dishes and pastries, desserts and drinks. Cook meat with ginger, finely grate the root in lemon tea or put thin slices in a cup, bake gingerbread and cookies; and in the dough for regular baking - buns and pies - pour ground ginger and add raw - like in today's cake recipe!

And don't worry: the finished cake, despite the large amount of ginger, is not at all as hot as the root in its pure form. Sweet raisins and figs add their own flavor, the icing adds a chocolate touch, and the butter gives a creamy softness. The cake turns out to be moderately moist, spicy and very satisfying.

You can add any dried fruits that you like to the dough: raisins, dates, dried apricots, candied fruits, dried kumquat and dried cranberries. Our today's muffin is with raisins and figs.

• Cooking time: 1.5 hours
• Servings: 8-10

Ingredients for gingerbread cake

For the test:

• 130 g (1 tbsp. 200 g without top) flour;
• 150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
• 130 g butter;
• 2 pcs. medium sized eggs;
• 1 tbsp. l. honey;
• 100 g of dried fruits;
• 40 g fresh ginger root;
• 2 tsp ground ginger;
• 0.5 tsp baking soda;
• 1/4 tsp salt;
• 1/4 tsp turmeric (saffron);
• 100 ml of freshly brewed black tea.

For glaze:

• 50 g of chocolate;
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or milk).

The ingredients are indicated for a 10x17 cm pan. However, the cake can be baked not only in a rectangular shape, but also in a round, and in a cupcake with a hole, and in portioned tins (small cupcakes will bake faster).

Method for preparing gingerbread cake

Let's get the oil out of the refrigerator in advance so that it softens.

Let's prepare dried fruits. Wash them, cut the figs into small pieces. Peel the ginger root and chop it. The grater is not suitable - you just need to cut it into very small pieces.

Pour ginger and dried fruit with fresh warm tea and leave for 10 minutes.

While dried fruits are infused in tea, prepare the dough. Beat soft butter and sugar with a mixer for half a minute at low speed.

Drive eggs and honey into the oil mixture. If the honey is candied, we first warm it up a little in a water bath so that it becomes liquid. Continue whisking until smooth, cream-like mass.

Sift flour into the whipped mass, add spices: salt, ground ginger and turmeric. It is also better to sift the baking soda along with the flour so that it is evenly distributed in the dough: then the cake will bake well, and you will not come across lumps with a soda flavor. It is not necessary to extinguish the soda: the reaction will take place thanks to honey, which is an acidic medium.

Mix, getting a fragrant, rather thick dough.

We discard the ginger with pieces of dried fruit in a colander. In addition, we squeeze them well from the tea by hand so that excess moisture does not get into the dough.

Sprinkle the dough with an additional spoonful of flour, add the ginger-fig-raisin mixture and mix.

Cover the form with a sheet of parchment oiled with vegetable oil and spread the dough. Distribute evenly in shape.

We put the cake on the middle tier of the oven, preheated to 170-180 ° C. We bake gingerbread for a rather long time - from 45 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes, depending on the characteristics of your oven. Electric baked goods usually cook faster than gas baked goods. The finished cupcake can crack in the middle and noticeably brown. But it is quite difficult to establish readiness only by the color of the crust, because honey and tea also give a dark shade to the cake.

Therefore, from time to time try the cake with a bamboo skewer: when the middle is baked and becomes not liquid, and the stick comes out of the dough dry, without traces of dough, the cake is ready.

Carefully remove the cake from the mold by pulling the edges of the parchment and set it to cool on the wire rack. When the baked goods have cooled down slightly, you can gently remove the paper.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the chocolate icing. To do this, chop chocolate (or grated cocoa) into pieces, add a spoonful of milk or butter and, stirring, heat in a water bath.

After a few minutes, the chocolate will melt. Pour icing on the cake and put it on a dish. Serving Gingerbread Cupcake with Ginger Tea!