Wholesome Old Fashioned Gingerbread

Its been smelling like gingerbread around our house....we've been baking cakes, cookies and even cinnamon salt dough ornaments; It smells wonderful. Beginning in Fall and into the New Year, Gingerbread is a favorite I like to bake.  This year I found this fun Gingerbread Pan at the "Tuesday Morning" store, and couldn't resist it.  Cute isn't it?

A little powdered sugar makes a simple sweet topping, and puts a little snow on the roof... really cute and fun for the kids.  Of course, a glaze, or frosting, or sticky topping would be delicious, and those of you that have the inclination, can get your cake decorating tips out, and really deck this out.

This recipe is a wholesome somewhat healthy recipe, which is nice at Christmas time, when there are so many sugar and dye loaded goodies going around; it is a wholesome alternative. Gingerbread is a wonderful cake to make  using all whole wheat or whole grain, because it comes out so moist and delicious.

It takes a little more than one of my Gingerbread recipes, to fill this pan up, so I make a double recipe for this one and pour the extra into muffins.

Wholesome Gingerbread

Ingredients:

2 and 3/4 cup Whole Wheat flour (I used Whole Einkorn Flour, you can use any whole grain or gluten free mix you would like)

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground clove

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup coconut sugar

3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup organic molasses

1/8 cup raw honey

1 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

1.  Heat oven to 325 degree
2.  Grease and lightly flour the baking pan; (to grease and flour this pan is very important for it to turn out well, however, if you are using a bread pan, you can simply spray with cooking spray).
3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, stir and mix together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine softened butter and coconut sugar; mix until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after add each one.
6. Add vanilla, molasses, and honey and mix well.
7. Add buttermilk and mix until well blended
8. Pour flour mixture into wet mixture, folding and blending as you pour.
9. Mix until well combined.
10. Pour into prepared baking pan. For this gingerbread pan, I put the mixture almost to the top, being sure to fill in the tree indentations.
11. Place on a foil lined cookie sheet and place in oven.
12. Bake 55-65 minutes.
13. Allow to cool upright in the pan about 10 minutes.
14. Using a long bread knife, slice across the base of the cake, removing the uneven top, making it level with the pan; this allows a nice even base to hold your cake up, once it is flipped over.
15. Place a plate over the top (which is really going to be the bottom) of the cake, and flip the cake pan over.  Allow to slowly come out of the pan.  
16. Remove pan, and cool.
17. Dust with powdered sugar, or frost with frosting or icing.
18. Enjoy!

Enjoy!