I have had the biggest Christmas craving ever since the tree went up. It’s not preggas related, it’s definitely Christmas and that craving is ginger as in gingerbread. I just can’t get enough of the the suff. I have already made 4 batches of gingerbread cookies would you believe and not all of them were for gifts.
I have one more lot of dough in the freezer ready to come out on Thursday and be made up as another edible present.
This month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop theme is Heavenly Holiday Truffles and the second I saw the theme, I thought of gingerbread. I just had to make gingerbread truffles there was no question. I’ll admit these aren’t really truffles in the traditional sense.
They’re more of a cake pop without the stick but you do eat them with your fingers and they’re relatively round-shaped so I think they fit the bill.
The recipe started with a Google search for best ever gingerbread cake. There were quite a few results (turns out I’m not the only one who loves gingerbread) but one seemed nice and simple and had all the compulsory ingredients like golden syrup, brown sugar and lots of ground ginger.
I baked the loaf cake and the second I turned it out of the tin I wanted to stuff it all in my mouth. I didn’t, I waited until it had cooled then I snuck a bit of the end. It was so delicious I squirrelled away two slices for morning tea the next day.
After crumbling the remainder of the cake (by hand – really could have saved some time using the food processor), I mixed it with melted chocolate, rolled it in balls and chilled it until it set. Then they just needed a quick dipping in chocolate and some decoration with writing icing.
We had our first ever street Christmas party on Sunday afternoon and this was my contribution to ‘bring a plate.’ Yes they were seriously melted sitting outside at 3pm in 30C+ heat but they were a hit. We had such a great time at the party meeting all the lovely neighbours I didn’t even realise how sore my feet were until we got home.
I think these would make a pretty good foodie Christmas gift too. One of my favourite ways to wrap them is in recycled egg cartons. The holes are perfect to hold each truffle in place and then you just wrap a little cellophane around it with a bow and you’re done. Enjoy!
What about you? What’s your Christmas addiction?
- 50g butter
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 free-range egg
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¾ cup milk
- 300g dark chocolate
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C and grease and line a loaf tin.
- Place the butter and golden syrup in a microwave-proof bowl and heat for 30 seconds. Stir and then heat again 10 seconds at a time, until the butter has melted.
- Whisk in the egg and sugar then fold in the flower, baking powder, ginger and mixed spice.
- Stir the baking soda into the milk and then fold into the batter.
- Spread the batter (it will be really runny) into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Leave to rest for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When the cake has cooled, crumble it into a bowl.
- Melt 100g of the chocolate and fold it through the crumbled cake.
- Using a heaped teaspoon of mixture at a time, roll it into balls and place on a baking paper lined plate then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Melt the rest of the chocolate and using a fork, dip each ball in the chocolate to coat then put them back on the lined plate and refrigerate again until set.
- Decorate with writing icing if you like.
- Serve straight from the fridge.