Kris Kringle Ginger Cakes and Baby Jesus Birthday Cake - Foodie Friday

Kris Kringle Ginger Cakes with Green Cardamom Icing

Baby Jesus Birthday Cake and the Christmas Pageant Link

All families develop Christmas traditions that are passed from one generation to the next. I suspect that any of us expecting a visit from Santa, set out a "little something" to help ease the burden of that heavy sack and sustain him through the journey of the night. Our Santa, spoiled rotten, looked forward to hot buttered rum and a Scandinavian or German treasure. I happen to adore ginger bread, so Santa, too, learned to love it. These ginger cakes are lovely. My only caution is not to get carried away with the lemon zest. Too much will bury the wonderful flavors of ginger and cardamom that set these cupcakes apart from others like them. They are really easy to do, as you'll see when peruse the recipe. If there are small children in the house use multi-colored sprinkles to decorate the cake. Adults, who don't seem to know how to have fun, prefer crystallized ginger. Pity, that!

I've also decide to resurrect the story of the Christmas pageant and our family's Baby Jesus Cake. Of all we wrote and published last year, this proved to be our most popular entry. I hope those of you who were with us last year will revisit it and those of you who joined us after the holidays will follow the link above to the recipe and the stories that accompany it.

Kris Kringle Ginger Cakes with Green Cardamom Icing...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon baking soda

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest

1 teaspoon ground green cardamom

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 12 standard-size muffin cups or line them with paper cups.

2) Cream butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses, egg, and vanilla.

3) In a small bowl, stir together boiling water and baking soda until dissolved. Stir baking soda water into molasses mixture.

4) Sift flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, lemon zest, and salt into a small bowl.

5) Whisk flour mixture into the molasses mixture until batter is combined.

6) Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in center of one or two of them comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

7) While cupcakes are baking, make frosting. Cream together cream cheese and sugar in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, and cardamom and beat until fluffy and smooth. Chill frosting until ready to use.

8) Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Place cupcakes on a rack to cool for 30 minutes. Spread cream cheese frosting generously over cooled cupcakes. Yield: 12 servings.

This recipe is being linked to:

Designs By Gollum - Foodie Friday

Recipe adapted from The Spice Kitchen by Sara Engram and Katie Luber

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