Christmas Gingerbread Roulade
- 50g butter, plus extra to grease
- 50g treacle
- 50g golden syrup
- 2 balls stem ginger, grated, plus 1 tbsp of syrup from the jar
- 100g plain flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- pinch salt
- Finely grated zest 1 orange
- 3 medium eggs, plus 1 egg white
- 100g light soft brown sugar
- Caster sugar, for rolling
- For the filling
- 280g full fat soft cheese
- 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 225g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra to dust
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 3 tbsp Drambuie liqueur
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- Finely grated zest 1 orange
- To decorate
- Homemade or shop-bought festive gingerbread shapes decorated with Royal Icing
- Homemade or shop-bought honeycomb, chopped
- Gold decorative sprinkles
Preheat the oven to 190ºC / 170ºC fan / gas mark 5. Grease and line a Swiss roll tin, measuring about 25cm x 35cm with non-stick baking paper. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, treacle, golden syrup, stem ginger and ginger syrup over a medium heat until melted. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and spices. Add a pinch of salt and the orange zest and set aside.
In a large bowl beat together the eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until thick and light in colour. This should take about 10–15 minutes. If it leaves a trail when you lift the beaters out of the mixture, then it’s ready.
Add the flour mixture to the beaten egg mixture. Carefully pour in the melted butter mixture then fold it together gently until just combined.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 12 minutes until it’s springing back.
Lay a sheet of non-stick baking paper on the work surface, large enough to fit the sponge on. Dust with caster sugar. Turn the sponge out onto the paper whilst still warm. Remove the paper from the cooked sponge. Face the cake with one of the short ends next to you. Use a sharp knife to score a line 2cm in from the short edge, making sure you don’t cut all the way through. Use the sugar dusted paper to roll up the cake from the scored end, keeping the paper inside. Place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
To prepare the filling, beat together the soft cheese and butter until smooth. Add the icing sugar, spices, Drambuie liqueur and vanilla and beat again until well combined. Put in the fridge for at least half an hour to thicken.
Carefully unroll the cooled cake and spread two thirds of the filling all over the inside of the cake, then re-roll. Put the rest of filling in a piping bag and pipe along the top of the roulade. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes then decorate with gingerbread shapes personalised with Royal icing and gold sprinkles as desired, plus the honeycomb pieces when you are ready to serve.
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