Gingerbread mountain
Bread
This cake is so big, it took a poll on my Facebook page to come up with a name!
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<br />It’s gingerbread layer cake, with buttery sliced apples, a light cream cheese filling and a rich custard topping. It’s gingerbread overload. It’s gingerbread gone crazy .
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<br />It’s Gingerbread Mountain.
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<br />I knew I wanted the cake to be 3 layers, but I only own 2 cake pans. Since I didn’t want to go out and buy another cake pan, and assuming that other people would only have 2 cake pans, I set out to make 3 layers out of 2 pans. Finally, I came up with the scheme to put 1/3 of the batter into one pan, and 2/3 in the remaining pan. Then I knew they wouldn’t bake at the same rate, so I removed the first pan after 20 minutes. Worked like a charm. I figured I could cut the larger layer in half horizontally; although, I didn’t have much experience in slicing cakes in half. What do ya know–worked like a charm also.
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<br />So how did it taste? I wasn’t sure. And I broke a cardinal rule. I served it at a church potluck the next day. Yep, the good folks of Southside Christian Church were going to be my guinea pigs, without my having tasted it first! Well, it’s not like I could whack out a slab and taste it. That would ruin the presentation! On the other hand, I couldn’t serve anything that tasted like crap.
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<br />So this is where we come to the good news/bad news. Which do you want first?
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<br />Good news: the cake tasted great! And it held up strong like a steel tower as people cut slices from it.
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<br />Bad news? I never got a picture of it; but I figured that was no problem, because I had planned to make another one for Thanksgiving. A few days later, I made the 2nd cake and the custard layer did not set properly. I stuck the cake in the freezer so that the custard would set faster, and when I checked on it later, the layers had slid all over inside the freezer! I figured out that I didn’t mix the gelatin properly and that’s why the custard didn’t thicken as it should. Needless to say, Cake #2 ended up being a gingerbread trifle instead of a cake!
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<br />Cake #3–I mixed the gelatin more thoroughly and layered the apples on the bottom to make it more sturdy. Success!
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