Gingerbread White Chocolate Snack Cake Recipe

Looking for a festive but non-traditional holiday dessert? This gluten-free cake might just fit the bill. It has the fudgy, luxurious texture of flourless chocolate cake, but it's flavored with seasonal gingerbread spices and white chocolate. This cake is leavened with whipped egg whites, which means that it moves less during baking and allows you to create a beautiful swirled design on top. Swapping the traditional chocolate for white chocolate gives the cake a more neutral flavor that forms the perfect base for the addition of molasses and spices.

Unlike standard cakes that rely on you to cream together butter and sugar, the trick with this cake is nailing the meringue. Too soft and the cake won't bake up to be as airy as it could. Too dry and overbeaten and the cake could deflate in the oven. Recipe developer Taylor Murray reveals one secret to avoiding those classic meringue pitfalls: "Separate the egg yolks from the whites very gently and transfer them to another vessel as you go. That way, if you break a yolk, you can use that for something else and won't contaminate your whole bowl of clean whites." Once you've mastered your meringue, you'll have a flavorful and elegant cake to snack on through the holidays.

The base batter for this cake is made by whipping egg whites and folding them into a mixture of sugar, almond flour, and melted white chocolate. Instead of beating sugar with butter, we use vegetable oil to provide fat, which is warmed with a little milk. After dividing the meringue, it is folded into the base cake, which is mixed with molasses and warm baking spices like ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. The rest of the meringue is mixed with white chocolate powder, which is a powdered version of white chocolate that is used to make white chocolate mochas and other treats.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Spray a springform pan with nonstick spray and line the bottom with a parchment paper round.

Heat oil, milk, and 1 teaspoon salt in a small pot over medium heat until just simmering.

Add chocolate chips and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

Whisk in egg yolks and vanilla.

Fold in almond flour, spices, and molasses and mix well.

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy, about a minute.

With the beaters running, slowly pour in sugar.

Increase speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form and mixture is glossy.

Scoop out a heaping cup of meringue to a separate bowl.

Stir 2 tablespoons white chocolate powder into the reserved cup of meringue. Set aside.

Transfer about half of the remaining meringue to a bowl and fold in the molasses-white chocolate batter to lighten it.

Fold in the rest of the meringue, minus the reserved cup, and mix until just combined.

Transfer batter into the prepared pan.

Spoon dollops of the reserved cup of white chocolate powder meringue over the batter.

Use a knife or toothpick to swirl patterns in the dollops of meringue on top of the batter.

Bake the cake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.

Run a small knife or offset spatula around the cake in the pan to loosen it from the sides and let cool completely.

Remove from pan, slice and serve.

In this recipe, the almond flour helps to add substance to the batter: Without it, this would end up more like a pavlova than a cake. By using almond flour you also ensure that the cake stays gluten-free. While almond flour is used in this recipe for its unique texture and flavor, you can substitute it with regular all-purpose flour if necessary. However, it's important to note that this substitution will alter the final texture and taste of the cake. Almond flour adds a nutty flavor and dense, moist quality to the cake, which regular flour may not replicate. 

If substituting, use the same measurement (¾ cup) of all-purpose flour. Keep in mind that the cake might turn out less moist and have a slightly different crumb structure than the cake made with almond flour. You could also use the same amount of a different nut flour, such as walnut or hazelnut with different though delicious results.

Making perfect meringue isn't as tough as it might seem, and a few simple tips can help you avoid some common mistakes in the process. First of all, make sure your egg whites are at room temperature before you start. This helps them whip up bigger and better. It's also very important to use clean tools — any grease in your bowl or on your beaters will cause the whole process to fail.

When you're adding sugar, do it gradually in a thin stream once the whites are foamy. If you throw it in too early or all at once, your meringue won't get as fluffy as it could. Finer sugar works best because it mixes in more easily, but regular granulated sugar is acceptable too. The real trick is in the beating — you want stiff, shiny peaks. If you overdo it, the meringue gets dry, but not enough beating means it won't hold up. Adding a bit of something acidic, like cream of tartar, lemon juice, or vinegar, can help to stabilize the whites and help them to hold more air, but it's not a strictly necessary ingredient.