High Altitude Gingerbread Cake with Mascarpone Buttercream
A high altitude gingerbread cake for Christmas, with warm spices, sweet and creamy mascarpone buttercream, and sparkling sugar.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 6-inch Round Cake Pans (x3)
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tbsp molasses (see note)
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 4 oz mascarpone cheese, cold
- ½ cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- 1 tbsp whole milk, only if needed
- 2 tbsp sparkling sugar
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch cake pans with nonstick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices, then whisk until everything is evenly distributed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and apple cider vinegar, and let it sit for several minutes to curdle. Add the brown sugar, molasses, eggs, melted butter, oil and vanilla extract, and whisk until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until combined.
- Divide the cake batter between the pans. Bake the cakes for about 22 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a wire rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the mascarpone cheese, softened butter and vanilla bean paste for several minutes until well combined and there are no lumps.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar and the meringue powder, mixing until combined. Increase speed to medium and whip for about 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy. Only add the milk if the buttercream seems too stiff, but don't add too much, as the buttercream will become softer as the mascarpone warms up.
- Stack and fill the cooled cake layers with the buttercream. Frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, chill for 30 minutes, then frost all over with a final coat of buttercream. Before the frosting crusts over, sprinkle some sparkling sugar on top.
Notes
Light vs Dark Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is just granulated sugar with the addition of molasses, with dark brown sugar containing more molasses than light brown sugar. However, most of the light and dark brown sugar for sale in grocery stores is pretty much the same. I've never noticed a difference between them in taste or color, except for a very, very dark brown sugar I used last year in my Gingerbread Sheet Cake. As it turns out, that particular brown sugar, which I received from a company I was working with, was made with blackstrap molasses, which gave the brown sugar, as well as the cake, a much darker color and richer, deeper flavor. If your brown sugar isn't very dark, and you want a dark color and rich gingerbread flavor in your cake, then you should use dark or blackstrap molasses in today's cake batter.
Light vs Dark Molasses. There are several types of molasses, each distinguished by how many times it's been boiled. After the first boil, light molasses is produced, which is mild and sweet tasting. After the second boil, dark molasses is produced, which is a little thicker and less sweet than light molasses. After the third boil, blackstrap molasses is produced. Blackstrap molasses is the darkest and thickest molasses, with a very robust flavor and distinct bitterness.
Gingerbread is best made with dark or blackstrap molasses, but if you only have light molasses, your cake will still taste great. It will just be lighter in color and less robust in flavor. Note that I only had "original" (light) molasses on hand to use in today's cake, so my cake's color is a bit light. If you use light molasses, you should increase the spices a little to add more flavor.
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