Warm gingerbread cake with caramel sauce

In searching for an appropriate and easy birthday cake for my son's Harry Potter party, I came across this recipe for gingerbread cake at Thibeault's Table. It was just what I wanted, and it's perfect for holiday baking season, too! I thought of cutting it into rounds and calling it cauldron cakes, but ultimately, the kids were too full from potions and dragon burgers and cockroach clusters to bother serving the cake. Guess who ate it for breakfast the next morning??? Don't worry, my kids helped.

The cake is quite good, but the caramel sauce is AMAZING! It is so good that when my cake was gone, I licked the plate. I licked the serving spoon. I found some pretzels to dip in it. It would be delicious over ice cream or pancakes, as a dip for apples, and could probably even make dirty socks palatable. It is THAT GOOD.



Warm gingerbread cake (I doubled the original to fill a 9x13 pan):

3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
12 Tbsp butter (1.5 sticks)
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups boiling water

Grease a 9x13 pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, baking poser, soda, salt, and spices. (Feel free to add more spices according to your preference. It was not terribly spicy. Next time I may add more cinnamon.)

In a large bowl, cream the butter and the brown sugar. Add molasses.

Beat the eggs until thick and mix into the butter mixture. Stir in the vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients a bit at a time, stirring well each time.

Gradually add the boiling water, stirring well. At this point, the batter will be fairly thin. Pour/scrape into your 9x13 pan and bake for 50 minutes. Serve warm.

Caramel sauce:
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
tiny bit of salt

Melt butter and add other ingredients. Bring to a slow boil, then simmer for about 5 minutes.

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Chicago Metallic.