It’s been so long since I posted a recipe here – and this Christmas I wanted to make something that was both festive-y and healthier…

And so I thought about the last few ‘snacking cakes’ I posted on my Instagram, and how much I love gingerbread (the past couple years I’ve used this gingerbread recipe here), and thought I’d combine the two.

So queue this ‘Gingerbread Snacking Cake’ — it turned out great, and I’d happily make it again.

THE RECIPE – HEALTHIER GINGERBREAD SNACKING CAKE

Ingredients – wet:

—1/4 cup ginger jam (I used a Mrs Darlington’s one, purchased from a nearby indie)
—1/2 cup apple sauce
—1/2 cup canola oil (or another light tasting oil)
—2 medium sized eggs

Ingredients – dry:

—1/2 cup granulated sugar
—1+1/4 cup sifted spelt flour*
—1 tablespoon ground ginger
—1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
—1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
—1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
—1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
—1 tsp baking soda
—1 tsp baking powder
—1/2 teaspoon salt

* I used Doves Farm’s organic wholemeal spelt flour. You can put it through a metal sieve if you don’t have a sifter, I really suggest doing this.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160 C fan (=320 F fan or 180/350 if using non fan). Whisk the wet ingredients together in a mixing bowl then add the dry and combine with a spoon. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for ~30 minutes, keeping an eye on it so it doesn’t become too dark.

Icing:

I wanted to keep this healthy, so I topped with a vanilla yogurt (an Alpro one) … you could also mix greek yogurt with sugar or go with whipped cream which usually tastes pretty good with gingerbread. If you use yogurt for icing as well, just make sure you store it in the cake in the fridge.

I froze half of mine for later since I have other sweet xmas things on the go right now too!

Enjoy 🎄🎄