Gingerbread Latte Layer Cake with Gingerbread Men - Bakemas Day 16

I think I’m pretty much on the way to being better and it’s all thanks to this cake! Okay, maybe not but I mean cake usually makes most things better especially if it involves a triple whammy of flavours and gingerbread men.
Side note: One little snag, you will need a big ol’ tin! This is by no means a big cake but we have an old, and I mean old, quality street tin that looks like it would feed a chocolate hungry village and I still had to kick the gingerbread men over so it would fit in.
Making cakes like this is relaxing to me, I know you probably wouldn’t think it but this is based on the basic cake recipe I know off the top of my head. When I’m in need of any cake this is my go to and I can honestly say it’s the best. I didn’t use a typical ginger cake recipe in this because I wanted the textures to all be the same a little tweak here and there and I’d say it’s pretty close to the flavour of a traditional ginger cake but without the more dense texture.
This would be perfect for a Christmas party; it’s pretty quick to make, serves a lot of people and you can’t really go wrong if there’s gingerbread men on top of your cake!

Vanilla Cake
4oz/115g/1 stick butter/margarine
4oz/115g/½ cup caster sugar
2 free range eggs
4 oz/115g/1 cup self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Drop of vanilla

Coffee Cake
4oz/115g/1 stick butter/margarine
4oz/115g/½ cup light brown sugar
2 free range eggs
4 oz/115g/1 cup self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp hot water

Ginger Cake
4oz/115g/1 stick butter/margarine
4oz/115g/½ cup dark muscavado sugar
2 free range eggs
4 oz/115g/1 cup self raising flour
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking powder

Spiced Coffee icing
7oz/200g1¾ sticks butter/margarine
14oz/400g/3⅕ cup icing sugar
2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp water
⅛ tsp ground ginger

I used the Gingerbread man recipe here and cut them out with a tiny cutter and baked for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350/Gas 4 and grease and line three 8 inch sandwich tins
All the layers of cake have the same method.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until you have a smooth batter. Spoon into a cake tin and spread out evenly, bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes.

For the icing whisk the butter until light and fluffy, add in the icing sugar slowly and whisk together finally add in the coffee mixture and the ginger and mix again.

To assemble the cake first place the ginger cake on a cake board, spread a thin layer of icing and repeat with the coffee cake then vanilla. Finish with piping blobs around the outside of the cake and add the gingerbread men on top.