Gingerbread Loaf with Frosting

I'm home sick for day number two but you know I just couldn't stay away from blogging. Plus I've been stuck on the couch all day mostly watching Law & Order SVU and bopping around pinterest.com. I believe this is medically recommended to get over a bad cold.

Anyway, I was a little baking machine for the lead-up to Christmas and I have a success and a fun baking-fail to share. Listen, they aren't all winners people. Good friends were coming in for a visit and suggested a little baking project while they spent the night and you know me I was game.

This was the suggested project.

Cucidati Cookies

So the scene is set. Friends arrive. We chat until the we-hours of the morning while the dough sits in the fridge ready to go. Anyway, we were too tired to bake them and I decided to just finish them off another day. Here are the results.

I am sad to say these aren't even the worst batch. I forgot to snap a picture of those hot messes. As rough as they looked I will say they turned out quiet tasty with their fig-date-walnut-marmalade centers. Check out the link above to check out a successful batch. Then make them and share some with me. :)

Since I am not easily deterred, oh and I'm nuts, I thought it might be fun to make mini loafs of quick breads for friends and family. I set out to find a delicious holiday breads, two per family. Why oh why do I do this to myself. Let's just say like many other projects I take on this one took a bit longer than I initially anticipated however I must say the results were worth the efforts.

One of the breads I stumbled upon was marketed as a "Copy-cat" of Starbucks Gingerbread loaf. I have never had SBs gingerbread but I can tell you this turned out fabulous. Plus SB's never fails so if someone went through the trouble of figuring out a recipe then I was game to try it out.  The recipe called for applesauce instead of eggs but there is frosting so I'm pretty sure the benefit is canceled out.

This bread is so good. I know my friends and family loved the bread and I also believe they enjoyed it's mini-loaf size.

Gingerbread Loaf with Frosting
Adapted from FreeStarbucksRecipies.com
Yields 3 mini loafs

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 1/4 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon orange extract, optional

1 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray loaf pan or pans with nonstick cooking spray. I used three mini pans. Cream the butter, sugar, and orange extract. Add in flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda,  and salt and mix until just combined. Stir in applesauce. Distribute the mixture between the three mini- baking pans.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until a wooden tooth pick comes out clean. 

In the meantime, in a separate bowl cream the cream cheese. When the cheese is fluffy add in vanilla and orange extracts. Mix confectioner's sugar until light and fluffy. 

* A note on the frosting. This makes a lot of frosting and I actually doubled the loaf recipe and made 6 loafs and one frosting serving. Each loaf still had ample frosting per loaf. 

Enjoy!

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