Gingerbread Cake

A couple days ago, I received my December Bon Appetit magazine. This issue has SO many amazing recipes that I'd like to try. The first one up was the "Gingerbread Pudding Cake" that is in the letters section of the magazine. It looked simple, I had all the ingredients and one of my colleagues had a birthday today - so the fates declared it was time to bake the cake.

After reading over the recipe several times, and deciding that I needed to double it to make a 9x13" pan rather than an 8" square pan's worth - I also made some adjustments to the recipe on the fly - as I was putting things together. This recipe here reflects those changes.

Gooey Gingerbread Cake
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t allspice
1 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t kosher salt
1 t baking soda
1 egg
3/4 cup molasses dissolved in 1 cup warm water

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
10 T (1 stick + 2T) unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350F. Generously butter a 9"x13" cake pan.

With stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and continue beating. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 2-3 additions, alternating with the diluted molasses.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then evenly sprinkle the brown sugar over the top of the batter. Pour the melted butter over the sugar (it will likely dissolve in).

Bake for 45 minutes at 350F.