The best gingerbread cake festively spiced, layered with orange marmalade, studded with preserved ginger and with maple glaze on top. It is devastatingly delicious.

Gingerbread or gingercake?
I used to think ‘gingerbread’ referred only to biscuits and houses until I saw cranberry gingerbread cake in New York Times Cooking, promptly tested. (This is actually a further variation on that good template). It turns out gingerbread cake, though sounding like a tautology, is a legit culinary term.
I guess the English language and cuisine struggle with ginger productions.
Polish piernik is piernik after all. Likewise in other, culinary conscious tongues that bake with honey and ginger: Honigkuchen, pain d’epices, panforte and peperkoek are all decisively cakes not biscuits.
The only similar English bake I can think of is parkin, but if I tried calling my cake parkin, everybody would go ‘ee ba gum’ while suppin’ t’ brew.
Ginger is not so important
Gingerbread encompasses a whole range of bakes, from cakes to gingerbread houses. It doesn’t originate from a type of bread though, because the name comes from Latin via Old French, gingembras, and meant ‘preserved ginger’.
So not only it wasn’t bread, but not obligatorily associated with the spice, ground ginger: in the old days the spice mix might include predominantly saffron or pepper.
These days, regionally varied, the gingerbread flavour is a mix of all or some of cardamom, coriander, allspice, pepper, aniseed, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and pepper.
And the dough or batter can be more or less rich, with eggs, butter or milk, but always – or so you’d think – includes honey.
Not always honey
But honey is expensive, making cakes like the French pain d’epices quite costly. Some, again geo-varied, gingerbread confections are made with brown sugar, golden syrup, or molasses and maple syrup like the recipe below.
Are they inferior for the lack of honey? I don’t think so.
How to make gingerbread cake batter
The other wonderful thing about gingerbread cakes, apart from the gorgeous festive flavour, is how easy they are to make.
Whichever recipe you reach for, French, German or Italian, it’s going to be really basic: warm up the butter, milk, honey and/or an alternative, plus anything else liquid as required, then pour it into the dry ingredients.
The proportions will vary, the spice combination may differ, it will be sweeter or less so but the principle is always the same.
And likewise this recipe. The flour with the raising agents and all the spices in a bowl, the sugars and butter melting together in a pan. Then all it takes is to combine them, add eggs and whisk the batter until smooth and lump-free but still very runny.
The ginger element in this instance is some fresh, grated as well as some finely chopped preserved ginger, for the interest and texture.
Baking, filling and glazing
After it’s baked which takes just over half an hour, and cools completely, slice it horizontally in half with a sharp knife, a bread knife or a cake cutting wire.
Spread the bottom half generously with your preferred marmalade or jam and sandwich with the top half.
The glaze is simple but delicious: milk whisked into icing sugar with cinnamon and some maple syrup. You can of course decorate the top before the glaze sets, using almonds, walnuts, more preserved ginger or festive sprinkles of your choice.
And like all gingerbread, this cake keeps extremely well, wrapped in foil or parchment.
More gingerbread cakes recipes
Old fashioned Yorkshire parkin is a sticky, glorious cake full of ginger and spice, treacle and golden syrup, thoroughly traditional for the Bonfire Night and as good for Christmas.
Sticky cranberry gingerbread cake with molasses and maple syrup. Easy to make, sweet, spicy and tart, it's just perfect for the festive season.
Pain d’épices is a delicious honey and spice French gingerbread cake, not overly sweet in spite of the huge amount of honey it contains. It’s spiced with cinnamon, ginger, star anise, cloves or whatever spice combo is your personal favourite.
More Christmas bakes recipes
Pandoro means 'golden bread' and it's Italian festive brioche-like cake baked in a tin shaped like a star. It's deliciously rich and fluffy but unlike panettone, its famous Christmas rival, has no candied fruit or peel.
Danish marzipan kringle, the perfect cake for festive times is easier to bake than most Christmas breads and it is insanely delicious. Especially with homemade marzipan remonce (filling).
Traditional Christmas fruitcake, my family recipe going back three generations. Polish Christmas keks, teacake or fruitcake is lighter and more delicate than its English counterpart, though its name is derived from English Christmas cake.