Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce

For our YW in Excellence night I made Gingerbread Cake for the dessert, I have had several people ask me for the recipe so I though I would post it on my blog. This recipe has two sauce choices, lemon or vanilla, I made both and everyone had their favorite so you can decide for yourself. I also double the cake recipe and use a cake size pan or bundt cake pan.

Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce

Cake:

1/2 stick butter

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 cup white sugar

1 lightly beaten egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup light molasses

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Lemon Sauce:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 stick butter

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray an 8 inch square or 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

Cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar until fluffy.

Beat in egg, buttermilk and molasses until well blended.

Combine flour, spices, soda and salt and add to creamed mixture and beat well.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool 15 minutes in the pan then turn out of pan.

For sauce, combine all ingredients in a small heavy saucepan.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat while stirring constantly.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens a little bit.

Garnish as desired. Grated lemon peel is pretty if you used the juice of a fresh lemon.

Vanilla Sauce for Gingerbread Cake:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups boiling water

4 Tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

dash nutmeg

Directions:

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a pan.

Add the water gradually, stirring constantly.

Simmer over low heat for 5 minutes or until clear and thickened, while stirring constantly.

Then stir in remaining ingredients.

Serve hot; this is not as good cold. Leftovers can be reheated.

Makes 2 cups.