TWD: Gingerbread Baby Cakes
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie is Gingerbread Baby Cakes and is hosted by Karen, who has the recipe at her blog.
I was excited to try these because I love gingerbread, and because I had just gotten the awesome ramekins I used for the pot pies a couple of weeks ago. The ramekins worked perfectly for the cakes, and there was just enough batter for all six.
However… no one really liked these 🙁 They smelled amazing while they were baking, and I couldn’t wait for them to cool enough to give them a try. I served them up for dessert night with some whipped cream, and only one kid finished hers (actually, I cut them all in half because each cake was pretty rich).
I really can’t say what it was that put us off. Maybe we’re used to overly-sugared gingerbread cookies? But it just tended too far on the bitter side of things.
I thought it might have been the coffee extract I used in place of the instant espresso powder (I have never been able to find instant espresso powder), but I only used 1-1/2 teaspoons for the whole batch, so I don’t think that was the problem.
Anyway, so I’ve got three cakes left that I can’t stand the thought of tossing. I’m thinking I might freeze them and add them to a batch of homemade ice cream — I think the ice cream could temper the richness of the cakes. I guess we’ll see!
No don’t ruin your ice cream! We are just tossing ours, it just tastes so strongly of molasses. I do love ginger but this cake didn’t work for us. Your little baby cakes are cute!
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Your ramekins did make perfect little cakes. I too was excited for these cakes, as I love gingerbread. And it did smell good baking. But we took one taste and didn’t like it at all.
I need those ramekins!! I can picture perfect little red velvet cakes. mmmm. :o)
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The cakes didn’t go down too well with me as well – though the family did manage to eat their way through half a batch – albeit slowly.
Your cakes are cute though!
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My husband thought they had a bitter taste to them too, so maybe that’s just how they are? I thought they were good, but not the greatest. They really need something to go with them to mellow them out. Yours look adorable though! Very cute!
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Love your photos! So sorry this didn’t turn out as well as you’d hoped… however, I love your idea to mix it in with ice cream! 🙂
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My husband thought it was too bitter too! Your ramekins produced beautiful cakes though!
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It is probably fortunate I didn’t have any molasses and used cane syrup instead. These were just perfect.
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Your baby cakes look just beautiful. Too bad that the taste of the molasses was so overwhelming. We found that by having to accidentally reduce the amount of the molasses (we ran out), it helped harmonize the other flavors.
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Your cakes are absolutely perfect!
We felt the same about the taste though. Mine sat there for a while and eventually I threw it out, good idea freezing it!
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I threw mine away..felt bad cus there so cute! Yours look great..to bad they taste nasty:)
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Interesting idea about adding ice cream. What about using them in a trifle or a bread pudding? Your cakes do look delicious, even if they weren’t.
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We didn’t love them either. Don’t feel bad if you toss them.
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Your cakes look so perfect! No one here really cared for these either. 🙁
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adding them to ice cream sounds awesome!
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