Ginger Cheesecake Filled Gingerbread

 

One of my favourite baking ingredients has to be preserved Stem Ginger in Syrup.   We just love ginger in this house and this is a fabulous way of getting great ginger flavour into most baked goods.   Chopped it adds a delicious sweet heat in cakes and cookies and puddings . . . and the syrup I confess . . . is lovely stirred into  hot lemon drinks.

 

When I found this delicious looking recipe on Baker Girl the other day I knew I wanted to try it.   We adore Gingerbread in this house . . . and a ginger bread stuffed with Cheesecake?   Why not!   It sounded fabulously delish!



I decided to amp it up a bit though, by flavouring the cheesecake mixture with preserved stem ginger and wowsa, am I ever glad I did.   It was just wonderful!  You get the gingerbread cake . . . with a tunnel of cheesecake running through the middle . . . rich cheesecake studded with little nuggets of sweet and syrupy ginger root . . . oh my . . . but this was really, really good.

 

I dusted mine with icing sugar . . . just to give it a bit of prettiness . . . but a lemon glaze would also be very good I think.   Do be careful not to over bake the cake as it has a tendancy to be a bit on the dry side, if you do . . . not something that a nice scoop of ice cream or a drizzle of cream or lashings of custard wouldn't make up for . . . but you know . . . you don't want to be too much of a glutton.

 

I did have a problem filling it with the cheesecake filling.  She suggests adding it with an ice cream scoop.   I think the cream cheese over here must be vastly different than the cream cheese in America . . . because mine was not scoopable at all.  It was rather runny actually and so I kind of put half of it down in the middle, and then spooned cake batter around the edges to make a deeper tunnel and then put in the rest of it.

 

That seemed to work well.  I always have the same problem making Cream Cheese Icing as well.   It's always runny, not fluffy.  If anyone out there knows how you can compensate for that here in the UK, I would surely appreciate your advice and tips!

In the meantime . . . enjoy.   This is a winner.

 
*Ginger Cheesecake Filled Gingerbread Cake*
Makes one bundt cake, 16 servings
Printable Recipe

Adapted from a recipe I found at Bakergirl, who got it from Taste of Home.  I had to vary the method slightly as our cream cheese  appears to be quite different over here and results in a somewhat more liquid consistency.  Delicious.

For the filling:
1 (250g) package of cream cheese (8 ounces)
190g golden caster sugar (1 cup)
33g of plain flour (1/3 cup)
1 large free range egg
2 knobs of preserved ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp ginger syrup

For the Cake:
300g of plain flour (3 cups)
96g of golden caster sugar ( 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
2 large free range eggs
180ml of sour milk (3/4 cup)
180ml of vegetable oil (3/4 cup)
62ml of golden syrup (1/4 cup)
62ml of dark treacle (1/4 cup)
or 125ml of molasses (1/2 cup)

Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.   Spray a nonstick bundt pan with cooking spray and lightly dust with flour, shaking out an excess.

Whisk together the cream cheese, flour, sugar, egg, ginger and ginger syrup for the filling.  Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and ground cardamom.   In a large beaker, beat together the eggs, milk, oil, and syrups (molasses).  Add to the flour mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon to combine, just until no clumps of flour remain.  Don't overmix.

Spoon 1/3 of the batter into the bundt pan.  Smooth over and make a slight well in the centre all the way around. Very carefully spoon the cheesecake mixture down the centre of the cake, taking care not to let it touch the sides.  If need be, spoon another round of cake batter around the centre touching the cake tin, and around the outsides as well, adding more cheesecake mixture after until it is all used up.  Dollop the remaining cake batter over top and carefully smooth it over top.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to stand in the cake tin for 15 minutes before carefully turning out onto a serving plate.  Allow to cool completely.   Dust with icing sugar prior to eating.