Gingerbread Cake (Scratch) with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting - Mmmmmmmm….there’s just nothing better than scratch Gingerbread Cake for the holidays! Now that fall has arrived, my cravings for all things cozy and spiced are in full swing! Are you having those cozy cravings too?

I think you’re going to LOVE today’s scratch recipe for Gingerbread Cake with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting!!

This gingerbread layer cake recipe is amazingly moist, flavorful and delicious. The spiced aroma that will fill your kitchen is almost reason enough to bake the cake! Ahhhhh….

Before we made this recipe, I had always associated gingerbread with cookies or a holiday treat, but not an actual spiced gingerbread layer cake. I didn’t realize what I was missing!

What I love about this dessert is that it incorporates all of the flavors of gingerbread into fluffy cake layers. The Spiced Cream Cheese filling and frosting pair beautifully with the gingerbread cake layers. It’s a match made in heaven.

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE GINGERBREAD LAYERS

• 1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 3 large eggs
• 3 cups (363g) all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
• 2 teaspoons (4g) ground ginger
• 3 teaspoons (6g) ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon (1g) nutmeg
• 1 cup (236g) hot water
• 1/3 cup (65g) vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup (160g) molasses

FOR THE SPICED CREA

• 1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 3 large eggs
• 3 cups (363g) all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
• 2 teaspoons (4g) ground ginger
• 3 teaspoons (6g) ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon (1g) nutmeg
• 1 cup (236g) hot water
• 1/3 cup (65g) vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup (160g) molasses

FOR THE SPICED CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) (339g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 packages (339 g) cream cheese (no need to soften to room temp)
• 2 teaspoons (4g) cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon (1g) nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger (2g) *sift if clumpy
• 6 to 6 1/2 cups (690g - 748g) more if needed confectioners’ sugar, sifted

full instructions please see : www.mycakeschool.com

This chocolate cake with hazelnut ganache & vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream is the cake I am making for a friends wedding this month. I am going to make it big enough to serve 80 people and build two tiers. The bride wanted lemon and raspberry flavour but the groom wanted Nutella involved, so I told them they couldn’t have both. They agreed to settle on the latter and so I conceptualized the cake I would make. Having done a delicious Nutella ganache in my second cookbook sweet, I knew I would modify that for the filling.

I also wanted to try the Magnolia Bakery Devils Food cake for the sponge component because it’s a spectacular recipe and I’m a long time fan of this cute and iconic bakery in NYC. And because it’s a wedding and the cake was going to be very rich, I decided on a modified Swiss meringue buttercream to cover the outside. It has a silky smooth texture that is a dream to work with, perfect for a wedding cake and is not cloyingly sweet like a buttercream frosting.

This was the trial cake I made and comprises 3 layers of sponge and is the full recipe from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. It will also be the top tier of the actual wedding cake. I’m going triple the recipe in total to get me to the final wedding cake. After much Googling and research I have established that this is the size cake that will feed 80 people.

I have no problem with the baking, assembly and icing part of the cake. Even though I have never made such a big cake before, I follow enough cake makers on Instagram to know how it’s all done. Watching cake-icing videos is therapeutic for me and I have all the equipment. What I am very stressed about is transporting such a huge cake in my mini over two hours out of Cape Town in summer. Visions of them toppling over as I ascend up Sir Lowry’s pass have crossed my mind, so I have decided to assemble the cake on-site at the wedding venue. I keep telling myself that I have worked on over 90 TV shoots on location so putting together a cake will actually be child’s play for me. Wish me luck!

Ingredients:

Cake

• 360gm flour (3 cups)
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 170gm salted butter (11/2 sticks or ¾ cup) *if you are using unsalted butter then add in ¾ tsp salt
• 380gm sugar (2 cups) – I used half white and half firmly packed dark brown sugar (the original recipe calls for 2 cups light brown sugar)
• 3 large free-range eggs
• 250gm dark chocolate 70% (9 oz)
• 2 cups milk
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Nutella hazelnut ganache

• 250ml cream
• 180gm chocolate – 70%
• ½ cup + ¼ cup Nutella
• 80gm-toasted hazelnuts, chopped

Swiss meringue buttercream

• 3 large free-range egg whites
• 1 cup sugar
• 200gm room temperature butter
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

full instructions please see : drizzleanddip.com

Best Banana Cake - This is truly the Best Banana Cake Recipe ever! It’s soft, sweet with the perfect amount of banana and it’s topped with creamy frosting!

I have been holding out on you. You see, this banana cake. Oh this cake. It’s been on my list to share for some time now, but I always seem to get side-tracked!
So today I end the hold-out and talk cake…specifically this EPICALLY DELICIOUS BEST BANANA CAKE.

Dudes, it’s so great I can’t even tell you. Like so great you should probably go ahead and make it now. Plus, bananas + cream cheese = breakfast material folks. Sprinkle a few chia seeds on top and you’re basically drinking a smoothie.

Also, you may think that you don’t need a WHOLE cake sitting on your counter on a random weekday. I’m here to debunk that negativity.

You do need cake. Cake needs you. It’s a relationship that’s bound to happen, so don’t fight it. You can diet when the cake is gone. Trust me, that’s my life’s motto.

Ingredients
Cake

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 cup butter, room temp
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 cups flour
• 3 ripe medium bananas mashed, approximately 1 1/2 cups

Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (I used Challenge Cream Cheese)
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1–2 tablespoons milk
• optional – 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F
2. Coat 3, 8-inch round cake pans or 2 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray. Cut parchment paper into rounds to fit into the bottoms of the pans. Place the parchment into each pan and coat again with nonstick spray. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl combine the milk and lemon juice. Stir and set aside.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle at
5. Add in the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking soda and mix until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
6. Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour and milk in alternating additions, beginning and ending with flour, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
7. Finally mix in the bananas until just incorporated.
8. Divide the batter evenly among the pans and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, rotating the pans in the oven half-way through baking.
9. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 15-20 minutes and then remove from the pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the butter and cream cheese together for 2 minutes until creamy. Turn mixer to low and add in the powdered sugar.
2. Finally add in the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk.
3. Turn the mixer up to medium and mix until creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
4. If desired add in the remaining tablespoon of milk and mix until combined.

Frost cake.

1. If desired place the coconut in a nonstick skillet. Heat over medium-low, stirring frequently. The coconut will begin to turn golden brown. Watch closely, as the coconut will burn quickly.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the coconut to cool completely.
3. Garnish cake with the toasted coconut.

full instructions please see : cookiesandcups.com

Vanilla Almond Pound Cake - With all the cakes and cupcakes that I bake, I realized recently that I’ve never made a pound cake! I love to eat pound cake, but I usually just buy it pre-made from Costco instead of making my own. This recipe for vanilla almond pound cake was the perfect recipe to get me started.

It’s so simple and easy to make, and it uses ingredients I always have in the house. My favorite thing about pound cake is that it’s so rich and moist, while still tender, and this vanilla almond pound cake has that perfect pound cake texture! Did I mention it also tastes fantastic? It is seriously delicious!

What Is Pound Cake?
Traditional pound cake is made using a pound of each ingredient needed to make the cake; flour, sugar, butter and eggs.  Because you needed one pound of each ingredient, it came to be known as pound cake.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sour cream

FOR SERVING (OPTIONAL):

• fresh berries or any fruit
• whipped cream

The Best Banana Pudding Poke Cake Recipe Every! - Whenever I am in need of a quick dessert that I know everyone will love I almost always make a Poke Cake. Poke cakes are super easy to make and you really can’t go wrong with them, that’s why they they are my favorite. Last year I shared with you my recipe for Strawberry Poke cake and it continues to be one of my most popular posts. So I figured with the warmer weather quickly approaching I’d share with you another one of my favorite poke cake recipes. This time it’s for Banana Pudding Poke Cake and I promise, it’s oh so good.

BANANA PUDDING POKE CAKEDid you know that you can buy many of your grocery items on Amazon and they even deliver! This is one of my favorite places to shop because that means not having to drag the kids into the store. If you’ve never shopped on Amazon for groceries, give it a shot!

• 1 Box of Yellow Cake Mix (any brand) + Eggs, Oil and Water
• (2)  3.5 ounce boxes of Instant Banana Pudding + 4 Cup Milk
• 3 Large Bananas
• 1 Box of Vanilla Wafers
• 1 Large container of Whipped Topping such as Cool Whip-Thawed

First things first. You’ll need to make your cake. Simply follow the instructions on the box. After your cake is done cooking take it out of the oven and allow it to cool for about 5-10 minutes.  TIP* I recommend this cake pan for a fluffy moist cake! It comes out perfect every time.