Gingerbead Loaf with Orange Icing. Old-fashioned, moist gingerbread loaf cake with a sophisticated orange icing drizzled on top. Place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and black treacle into a pan and heat. Traditionally where I grew up gingerbread cake is eaten with good salty butter.

Making the icing for this Gingerbread loaf really is very easy. Let me first share with you that it is more of a orange glaze rather than a royal icings that you will find on many gingerbread cookies. Just remember that you need this tool though. You can cook Gingerbead Loaf with Orange Icing using 16 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Gingerbead Loaf with Orange Icing

1. You need 2 cups of all purpose flour.
2. It's 1 tsp. of baking soda.
3. It's 1 1/2 tsp. of ground ginger.
4. It's 1 1/2 tsp. of ground cinnamon.
5. Prepare 1/4 tsp. of ground cloves.
6. Prepare 1/4 tsp. of salt.
7. Prepare 1/8 tsp. of black pepper.
8. It's 3/4 cup of unsulphured or dark molasses.
9. It's 3/4 cup of hot water.
10. It's 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
11. Prepare 1/3 cup of brown sugar (light or dark fine).
12. It's 1 of large egg, at room temperature.
13. It's 1 tsp. of vanilla extract.
14. Prepare of Orange Icing :.
15. Prepare 1 cup of confectioners' sugar, sifted.
16. You need 2-3 tbsp. of orange juice.

For the orange cream cheese icing: Beat the cream cheese, butter, orange zest and vanilla extract together until creamy. Beat in the icing sugar until smooth. Spread over the top of the cake. If you ice the gingerbread with the cream cheese icing, you'll need to leave the cake in the fridge.

Gingerbead Loaf with Orange Icing step by step

1. Adjust your oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9x5" loaf pan and set aside..
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper. Set aside..
3. In a small bowl, whisk the molasses and hot water together. Set aside..
4. In a large bowl, using a hand held mixer (or stand mixer with paddle attachment), beat the butter on high speed until it is smooth and creamy...about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and beat until they are creamed together, about 1 minute more. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined..
5. With the mixer on low speed, start to add the dry ingredients. Alternate between adding the dry and adding the hot water and molasses mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Batter will be very thin. Avoid overmixing..
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake around 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean, with just a few moist crumbs..
7. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow the loaf to cool completely in the pan, before removing and icing..
8. To make the icing : Simply whisk together the sifted confectioners' sugar and the orange juice. Once the loaf is completely cooled, drizzle the icing over the top of the loaf..
9. Store covered in the fridge for up to 5 days. If not frosting, then it can be stored at room temperature..
10. This recipe can also be made into muffins. Fill greased or lined muffin tins up 2/3 of the way with the batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until toothpick comes out mostly clean with just a few moist crumbs. Cool completely before drizzling the glaze over them..

Cinnamon glaze can be omitted completely or substituted with frosting/glaze of your choice. You can also omit the cinnamon and lemon juice. Another great option is using Gingerbread Spice Mix instead of cinnamon. To make this loaf look pretty I topped it with candied orange peel and chocolate chips. Orange gingerbread loaf swirled with perfectly spiced gingerbread batter and delicious, sweet orange batter.