Just like honey cake, spice cake is simply a part of the Christmas season. As a traditional Christmas pastry, the cake consists of a fairly simple batter that is refined with a few spices and special ingredients. However, it has nothing to do with gingerbread (Pfefferkuchen), but is simply a variation of Lebkuchen.
Spice cake recipe
Tips and alternatives
- The spice cake can also be baked in a Bundt pan or a loaf pan. Then dust with powdered sugar or glaze. When choosing glazes, look for high-quality chocolate couverture. Alternatively, a red wine glaze or nut couverture is a successful change.
- Instead of nuts and spices, you can also use clove or ginger powder.
- In England, raisins and a little cardamom are also found among the ingredients. You can also add the mentioned spices to a carrot cake. This creates, among other things, a Swiss carrot spice cake (Rübli-Gewürzkuchen).
- If you like it particularly fruity, top the raw cake batter with some fruit that also fits the Christmas season. Pears, cherries, and apples are a good change.Tip for the pear variant:simply boil the fresh pears in a pot with some water and a cinnamon stick until soft, dice them, and finally add them to the dough.
- The milk can also be replaced by sour milk, buttermilk, mulled wine, or children's punch as a substitute. Cola or lemonade also work excellently and make the dough even fluffier. You can also play with the spices – you can vary here according to taste and preferences.
Note:if other ingredients are used in the recipe, the quantities and cooking times should be related or adjusted to the original quantities specified here.
Image by Janine, meinhaushalt.at
Read also: Instructions for a gingerbread house
