Baking with Dorie: Gingerbread Baby Cakes

Soon it will be spring - but it's so not spring now!  Minutes ago the weatherman said it was 14 degrees F and that we could expect another 3 inches of snow.  A report like that just confirms that it's still gingerbread weather.

This week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats is for spicy gingerbread baby cakes.  The recipe comes from Johanne Killeen, who, with her husband, George Germon, is chef-owner of  the legendary Rhode Island restaurant, Al Forno.

Johanne is an inspired baker and she made this gingerbread cake and other mini sweets when she came to Cambridge to work with us on Baking with Julia. 

If you're in a place as cold as my corner of Connecticut, I'd suggest you rush to your oven, bake these cakes and stir up some hot chocolate as a sip-along.  If you're lucky enough to be someplace warm, bake the cakes anyway - they're too good to pass up - and top them with ice cream.

Comments

[dorie]

With so many lovely comments -- how can I be so late in responding???? I'm sorry. I've been swamped.

Thank you all so much for your comments -- I hope you've all had fun with the gingerbread and that Kelly-Jane used marrons glaces for the caramel-chestnut cake. It can only make the cake -- and probably everything else -- better.

And that a Frenchman gave a "oui" to my Opera Cake, fills my heart with joy. Shannon, thanks for sharing.

[Karen]

This is a wonderful alternative to the warm chocolate cake, for those of us Scots who like chocolate but prefer the "old" spices... The beauty of Dorie's recipes is that each one turns out just as she predicts! Thank you!

[Kelly-Jane]

Hi Dorie, gingercake...yum. I was loking at your ginger jazzed brownies this morning, it's cold here in Scotland as well, ginger must be a March thing especialy!

I'm also looking at your chocolate caramel chestnut cake, and do you think it would be ok to use marron glaces for the whole chestnuts?

Made your Brrrrownies this week, they are so good! Thank you.

[Julie]

Oooh, another gingerbread-with-a-hit-of-chocolate recipe, and in adorable individual cakelets, too -- be still my beating heart!

[Anticiplate]

I have seen these little cakes made with chocolate, but not gingerbread! This is perfect for a cold winter dessert!

[Anali]

Gingerbread is my trademark dessert, but I never thought to make it in babycake form. Great idea!

And I have to tell you that your "Swedish Visiting Cake" saved me last night. I had to whip up a quick dessert and it was perfect!

[Shannon Hughes Grochowski]

I absolutely love your blog, books, and articles because it seems that you write straight from your heart. And it truly warms my heart in the middle of this cold, grey Rocky Mountain winter. Thank you. I assembled your Opera cake recipe for my French husband recently - he loved it. (He is quite sensitive when Americans adapt French recipes, by the way!)
I cannot wait to read your next book.
Shannon
La Chatelaine Chocolat Co. Owner

[juli savage]

I have had Baking with Julia for quite awhile. Now PBS in Miami is running the baking with Julia Series. They are wonderful because I pull the book out and follow along!

Dorie, I love your new baking book and I also have Paris Sweets! I love to listen to you on Eat Drink on Martha Stewart and you should do more radio shows!

I'm a huge fan! By the way your madeline cookie recipe is the best!

Your biggest fan in Miami! Juli

[Vida]

Dorie I have ordered your book from Amazon and I wait with bated breathe for it's arrival... the only sad part is that it will not be signed... so if you are EVER in Australia please let me know!!! Vida x x x x

[Liz]

These look gorgeous (and, as you point out, are perfect for the frigid weather we're experiencing in CT at the moment). Thanks!

[Linda]

Baking with Julia is a superb recipe book and all of Johanne's recipes for baby cakes are delicious. Yum yum. Time to bring out Julia again!
Thanks Dorie

[Casey]

Those look adorable. It's nice and balmy here in the Bay Area so I'm glad I have your permission to have these with ice cream.