Gingerbread Baby Cakes {A Tuesdays with Dorie Post}

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I've received my first Christmas cards and attended the first party of the season already.  The neighborhood is beginning to resemble a good Griswold Christmas lighting scheme.  It's truly my favorite time of the year and I make no apologies for it.  Case in point- my husband told me that he was "assaulted" by the music from the Christmas station I had programmed on my car radio last weekend.  Assaulted?  Hardly.  He should have just appreciated the music stylings of Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and perhaps the Grinch thrown in for good measure.  I certainly do as it's the background soundtrack to everything I do these days.

And these little cakes fit into the mood of the season perfectly.  I'm so happy that my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers decided to go with this recipe to start off December.  Warm spices, molasses and a hint of the unexpected black pepper are just the sort of thing I am craving.  One bite in and my hubby exclaimed that this is like his favorite molasses crinkle cookie in cake form- just what I was going for!  Perfect!

I tested out one little cake with some lightly sweetened mascarpone and slices of Asian pear that had been poached in a chai-spiked syrup.  It was simple perfection.  But I had my eye on the rest of the cakes for something a bit more indulgent.  Let's just say it involved caramel and whipped cream.  But you'll have to check back later in the week for that recipe.  I know, I'm such a tease...

In the meantime, I implore you to try out the cake for yourself.  The recipe, shared by Karen, our esteemed hostess this week, says to use baby cake pans to bake the cakes.  Well, I don't have baby cake pans but I do have ramekins so that's what I used.  8 ramekins were just right.  A couple of other minor changes I made were to omit the espresso powder, which I didn't have, increase the cocoa powder by a tablespoon and add just a pinch of cinnamon and cloves. 

As always check out how my fellow bakers fared with this lovely cake and come on back for part two on Thursday!