Maple-Gingerbread Layer Cake with Salted Maple-Caramel Sauce

Maple-coated pecans:

3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted

1/4 cup pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B)

Coarse kosher salt

Cake:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger (1 1/2 to 2 ounces)

1 cup maple sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

3/4 cup hot water

2/3 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses

Frosting:

1 1/3 cups chilled crème fraîche

1 1/3 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup maple sugar

6 tablespoons powdered sugar

Ingredient info: Chinese five-spice powder-a spice blend that usually contains ground fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves-is available in the spice section of most supermarkets. Crème fraîche is sold at most supermarkets and at specialty foods stores.

• I found this cake a bit dry and with the frosting and sauce, overly sweet

• This cake is truly amazing. The perfect balance of sweet, spice and salt. I made it for my caramel & pecan-loving mother for her 75th birthday. I consider myself a rather experienced baker and followed the recipe nearly to the letter, but like the other reviews, I would probably skip the expense of maple sugar ($11 for 8 oz bag!) next time. The reviews about dryness worried me so I split the batter into 3 8-inch round pans, watched the oven like a hawk and eventually removed the cakes at about 20 minutes. This enabled me to incorporate more frosting. I supplemented the amount of frosting by increasing the whipping cream (whole pint) without additional creme fraiche. I also doubled the caramel sauce and used it all. My mother (a MUCH more experienced baker) said it was the best cake she’s ever tasted! Worth the trouble? Yes.

• This was a very disappointing recipe. The frosting although was very good. I love ginger flavor but I thought it was too overpowering. The cake was darker than the picture but it was moist. Will not make a gain due to the fact that it was not worth all the trouble it took to find the ingredients. It should have been mentioned that organic and natural food stores are the only way to find maple sugar and light molasses and 100%.

• Loved this cake, the frosting was amazing! I had trouble with the caramel. I made it ahead and tried to rewarm it. Apparently I heated it too quick and it separated. It still tasted wonderful, but it wouldn’t drizzle, instead it made firm puddles. Made the cake a bit hard to cut! But my mom said they would make wonderful pralines, so I may have to figure out how to duplicate it!

• I made this cake today and it turned out great. The cake was moist and flavorful. The icing was tangy and sweet and the caramel sauce was just “icing on the cake.” I followed the recipe as precisely as I could. The only substitution I made was using dark molases instead of light – I couldn’t find the light molases. My cake was much darker than the picture – it looked like chocolate cake. I had a little trouble getting it out of the cake pans – it was a bit crumbly. Other than that everything was delightful. I would definitely make it again – for a special occasion.

• I am making this cake this weekend and am glad to see other substitutes for the maple sugar – I have some golden castor sugar that my mother in law brings over from England for me when she visits, so I may use that.

• This cake was delicisous though slightly dry but the caramel sauce compensated for that. I was hoping for a cake that really tasted strongly of maple (especially with all the expensive maple sugar) but though the flavours were delicious, I didn’t feel the maple taste was strong enough.

• This cake was a disappointment. I am an experienced cake baker, so I am confident in my abilities. I found this cake to be very dry. The consistency of the frosting was too fragile and was not really stable enough to support the weight of the layers. I was excited by the ingredients in this cake and looked forward to making it. The flavors were good…the maple, five spices, ginger, but the end product disappointed. It was an expensive list of ingredients, and I think some could be subsitutued, as suggested by other reviewers, such as brown sugar for the maple sugar. I would suggest using cream cheese, and or mascarapone in place of the creme fraiche in the future. These are similar in taste, but much more stable when usedwith the whipped cream. Overall, a disappointment.

• This was perfect for Thanksgiving. The caramel sauce was delicious and really easy to make. Replaced the five-spice with cinnamon and cloves and regular ginger instead of crystallized. Time intensive but worth it for a special occasion.

• I tried this recipe because I’ve
  never seen a cake recipe that called
  for Chinese five-spice (very
  unique). Wow this cake took a lot of
  time. I couldn’t fine creme fraiche,
  I had to surf to get that recipe.
  That took forever to get thick
  enough cause I couldn’t find
  anything else but Ultra Pasturize
  heavy cream. I also had to surf for
  the salted maple caramel sauce,
  althought the cake is fine without
  it. The candied pecans are
  addictive! Good thing I doubled the
  recipe. Aside from all of the
  expensive ingredients, I want to make this again.

• This is a very good cake. The only problem that I had with this recipe was the maple sugar. I could not find it anywhere in the city and so eventually had to order some online.

• I loved this cake. I wanted to make a Maple Cake for Thanksgiving, and this was delicious. I didn’t have maple sugar for the cake part, so I just used organic cane sugar and then a little extra maple. I also forgot about the caramel sauce, but we didn’t need it; between the cake, the frosting, and the candied pecans, it didn’t need anything else sweet. I would make the frosting with sour cream next time, but I loved it and so did my entire family.

• I’m making this cake tonight. Have
  to say, I’m both excited and
  nervous. Excited because the
  reviews here are encouragingly
  positive, but nervous because I’ve
  spent more than $70 on the
  ingredients (which really is pretty
  excessive if you think about it) and
  if it comes out badly, I’m going to
  be brokenhearted. Wish me luck.

• I haven’t made this recipe yet, but
  I’m bothered, once again, by the
  negativity of people’s comments.
  yasky6 from Vancouver – you just had
  to use the Epicurious search engine
  to find the recipe for the Salted
  Maple-Caramel Sauce. The recipe
  isn’t useless!! Be happy, cooking
  is supposed to be enjoyable.

• Nice job of supplying the recipe for the Salted Maple-Caramel Sauce
  A rather useless recipe