How cute are these mini gingerbread loaves? Almost too cute to eat. Almost.
It’s basically a scientific fact* that anything in miniature looks and tastes about 5x better than full sized versions. Mainly because it’s totally justifiable to eat 5 in one go. They’re only little, after all…
I made these mini gingerbread loaves for a charity bake sale at work a couple of weeks ago and am so pleased with how they turned out. The sponge is dark and sticky whilst the icing and candied orange add the perfect amount of sweetness. This combination is a good’un, I’m telling you!
These are quite strong on the dark treacle flavour but feel free to swap out some of the treacle for more golden syrup if you’d prefer a lighter sponge. You can also bake these in a muffin tray (same timings) or a 2lb loaf tin (add about 30-40 minutes to baking time). If you do want adorable little loaves (yes I did just refer to cake as adorable, deal with it) then I’d recommend this mini loaf tin from Lakeland.
*OK, not actually that scientific. At all.
Ingredients
- 110g treacle
- 110g golden syrup
- 100g light brown sugar
- 100g butter
- 250g plain flour, sifted
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbsp milk
- 2 small eggs, beaten
- 200g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 2 oranges
- 50g caster sugar
Instructions
- To make the candied orange, thinly peel both oranges and cut into thin strips. Add to a frying pan with the sugar and juice of the oranges. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Drain and pat dry with a paper towel then spread out on a baking sheet and leave to dry.
- Preheat oven to 180°c. Add treacle, syrup, sugar and butter to a saucepan over a medium heat until butter has melted.Stir to mix.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl add the flour, ginger, cinnamon and baking soda. Mix to combine. Gradually fold the syrup mixture into the dry ingredients. Once well combined, add the beaten eggs and milk.
- Divide between 12 mini loaf tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If baking in a large loaf tin bake for 50-60 minutes.
- For the icing, mix together icing sugar and orange juice to form a slightly runny icing. Once the sponges have cooled, drizzle over the icing and top with the candied orange.
These look absolutely delicious. I love ginger cake! I sometimes drizzle mine with rum and add a lime buttercream! I don’t use my mini loaf tins anywhere near enough either but they are great.
Oh rum and a lime buttercream sounds like it would be amazing with a ginger sponge! I only just bought it recently but I plan on making mini loaf versions of everything!
Yum, look soo good, I agree mini cakes are the best for the reason you gave, you get to eat more.
Definitely!
They look so divine! <3 xx
These are the cutest things ever! Love the mini loaf pans! x
Madeleine, The Daily Mark
Thanks Madeleine – I can tell I’m going to use this pan loads!
These are so cute! I love ginger loaf, like the addition of the candied orange. x
Ginger + orange is such a good combination!
Just made these loaves and they have really strong ginger flavour. Will make them again with less treacle and ginger. They look lovely though.
They are pretty strong – I’m a total ginger fiend so like them that way but I know not everybody loves ginger as much as me! Hope your second batch are more to your taste 🙂