Gingerbread Cake with Orange Mascarpone Cream

Holidays without gingerbread? Never! 

For one of the holiday parties this year, I baked this robust, hardy and gently spiced gingerbread from Piece of Cake. I should probably get something for promoting this book so much ;). I love the range of flavors presented in the book. It's a treat to browse through the recipes and go through the pleasant dilemma of deciding which cake to bake.

For once, I didn't change anything much to the recipe. I used the exact same ingredients and measurements... well, almost. I used room temperature butter, not melted butter. The recipe uses vegetable oil in addition to butter, which I thought was interesting. It also includes boiling water. The other ingredients are pretty much the same as most standard gingerbread cakes - brown sugar, molasses, flour, eggs, baking soda. However, I didn't follow the prescribed one-bowl procedure :).

Here's the general procedure I followed. If it helps, you can use it to tailor your gingerbread recipe. I am specifying the spice measurements alone because that's the best aspect of the cake.

1. Sift the dry ingredients - all-purpose flour, 2.5 teaspoons ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom, baking soda and salt. 
2. Beat butter, add brown sugar and beat until pale and creamy. Adds eggs, beat until incorporated. Add molasses and beat until mixed. Whisk/beat in vegetable oil.
3. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and gently mix. 
4. Finally whisk in boiling water until just mixed. 
5. Bake at 350 F for 55 minutes. 

This cake is very mildly sweet and spicy. And that's what everyone liked about it. It was not heavy or cloying. And the frosting was really really good, and easy. 

Here's how I slightly adapted the frosting: Whip together 3/4 cup whipping cream, 8 ounces mascarpone, the zest of two oranges, 1 tablespoon orange juice and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar until soft peaks form. 

Spread on top of cake and serve.