Moist, Spicy Gingerbread Cake with Creme Fraiche Ice Cream, and Apple Cider Sorbet
Lately, I have been throwing these dishes together at the last minute because the weekends are so busy that Sunday evening sneaks up on me. I haven’t been happy with many of these last minute efforts because while not necessarily bad, they just weren’t fully thought out and therefore, not completely successful. This was an exception; although I came up with this dish at about 2 pm Sunday afternoon, I was actually pretty happy with it. This may have something to do with the fact it’s not very original. I used three elements from other dishes of mine and stole the plating from my fig dessert, but that’s an aspect of learning: figuring out what you liked of what you have done before and recreating it in a different context.
For this dish I made a gingerbread cake with fresh ginger as well as extra large amounts of dried spices and molasses. This cake was cut it into cubes which were stacked on top of a lavender-caramel swoosh and had apple cider sauce spooned over the top. This is complemented by quennelles of apple cider sorbet and creme fraiche ice cream. The combination is not innovative but it was delicious, and I really like gingerbread spice around the holidays.