Cooking
This gingerbread cake — with a swoop of molasses frosting — is rich and complex in flavor. It’s also a snap to make.
Hello! I hope you’re enjoying some very happy holidays.
Kwanzaa begins today, and my colleague Tejal Rao has a wonderful new article about the cookbook author and culinary historian Jessica B. Harris for The New York Times. Her book “A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook” was first published in 1995, and a new edition came out in November that includes this recipe for holiday gingerbread cake with molasses whipped cream.
“Her hot-water gingerbread spiked with ginger and cinnamon — the same one she made for Dr. Betty Shabazz while promoting this book in the 1990s — is simple, straightforward and rich with the smoky flavor of molasses,” Tejal writes. “For Dr. Harris, it’s dessert on the fifth night of Kwanzaa, celebrating Nia (purpose), served with molasses whipped cream.”
If you’re feeling a little baked-out at this point in December — and I do not blame you, we went hard on Cookie Week — know that this cake is a snap to make and not too sweet. The molasses in both the cake and the frosting adds deep, complex flavor, and the batter comes together in one bowl; no fancy equipment required.
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Holiday Gingerbread Cake With Molasses Whipped Cream
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As you might expect, we have lots of recipes for a Kwanzaa celebration; reader favorites include Yewande Komolafe’s robustly red jollof rice strewn with silky red onions, thyme and garlic and Millie Peartree’s Southern macaroni and cheese, adapted by Kiera Wright-Ruiz. I can’t top this comment from Isa, a reader, on Millie’s mac: “I inhaled it. I add a little ground mustard and cayenne pepper to mine, like my Nana does. You won’t find a richer, crispier, creamier, cheesier mac & cheese recipe.”
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