This Friday a couple of my friends hosted a potluck-style dinner party (or “pitch-in” as we would have said when we lived in Indiana, but for some reason I have found that only people from Indiana know what a “pitch-in” is, everyone else looks at me like I grew a second head). Of course I spent the entire week pondering what I was going to bring. Normally I would consider a known crowd-pleaser such as my family’s favorite green bean casserole or blackberry cobbler (both of which I promise to write about in the near future), but in this case, I had a bit of a conundrum – working wacky hours on Thursday and all day on Friday meant that I needed something that I could make on Thursday morning and still have taste good on Friday night.
In my pondering, I stumbled across the answer on one of my all-time favorite food blogs: Eat, Live, Run. If you have never read Jenna’s blog, get with the picture! Her daily musings are not only entertaining, they are full of helpful kitchen tips and tricks and her recipes are amazing.
So, at any rate, I’m reading along and I come across a recipe she found in her great-grandmother’s recipe box called Ginger Cremes. The name was a little wonky (for the sake of reducing confusion on the recipe page, I am calling them Gingerbread Cake Cookies, since it is a somewhat better descriptor), but the concept of a super soft, gingerbread cake-like cookie instantly hit a mental comfort zone for me. Somehow I knew I could bake these on Thursday morning and that they would only get better by Friday night.
I decided to whip up a simple orange glaze to drizzle over these super soft pillows of spicey goodness. The glaze adds just the perfect amount of sweetness to balance the flavors of the molasses and spices in the cookies. I chose to unleash my inner Jackson Pollock with these cookies, but if you wanted a more traditional-looking icing, you could certainly add more powdered sugar to achieve a thicker, more spreadable icing.
With the holidays coming up, these might be just the perfect cookie to add to your baking list. They hit all the right comfort notes, and would be perfect to eat while snuggled in a blanket (maybe with a special someone) by a fire.
Oh, and by the way, they were a big hit at the party. I’ll chalk that one up as a success.
Gingerbread Cake Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
For the Orange Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
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Instructions
Make the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Cream together the shortening and the sugar until light and fluffy; add the egg and molasses and beat well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Alternate adding the dry ingredients with the baking soda water to the sugar mixture, beating well after each addition*.
- Drop by large spoonfuls on prepared cookie sheets and bake for eight minutes, until puffy. Allow to cool on a baking rack before icing.
Make the glaze:
- In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth. This will produce a glaze perfect for drizzling; for a thicker, more spreadable icing, use a bit less orange juice or add a bit more powdered sugar.
Notes
About Stephie
Stephie is the creator of Stephie Cooks, a food blog that focuses on creating memories around the food we share, with family recipes at the site’s heart. Stephie lives in Central Illinois with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of cats and dogs. When she’s not in the kitchen or at her computer writing, you can usually find her curled up with a book or working on one of her many grandma-esque hobbies. Learn more >
I was Wondering if you could use a gingerbread man cookie cutter on these??… I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for a long time!!! Thank you!!
These wouldn’t cut out very well, at least not in their current form. What you might be able to do is bake the cookie dough in a rimmed sheet pan (maybe a half sheet pan? You’d have to play around with it – Make sure you line the bottom of the pan with parchment so you can get them out, though) and then you might be able to cut shapes out from that. Let me know if you try it!
Can you sub butter or margarine for the shortening
I haven’t tried it myself but it should work ok as long as it is softened. The texture might end up a tiny bit different, but it should be pretty close.