One of my all-time favorite desserts from the Bakehouse is back at it for the 2023 season! Five or six years ago Amy Emberling, Co-Managing Partner at the Bakehouse, shared:
This cake was the catalyst for the most passionate disappointment expressed about a single recipe that was not included in our Zingerman’s Bakehouse book. The cake clearly has a dedicated following for its deep and satisfying flavors along with its moist texture contrasting with the crispy, sugary exterior. The response inspired me to bring one home for our personal holiday celebrations and it was the biggest hit of all the choices. Family members literally couldn’t resist going back for more. It was fun to watch. If we do another book I promise the recipe will be in it.
Sure enough, it shows up in Celebrate Every Day (it’s on page 177 if you’re in a hurry to have at it!). In its first week, the book is getting a wonderful response. Congrats to the quartet of authors—Amy, Lee, LJ, and Corynn—on this great collaboration!
As with everything made in the ZCoB, the quality of ingredients contribute to the flavor here. The Gingerbread Coffee Cake is another good illustration of what I wrote about in “A Taste of Zingerman’s Food Philosophy.” Additionally, Amy explains:
The process for making gingerbread is quite simple. It’s a one-bowl quick cake. What makes ours particularly good I think is the combination of ingredients that add many layers to the flavor—brewed Zingerman’s Coffee Company coffee, hot mustard, Indonesian long pepper, crystallized ginger, and orange juice. It actually takes more time to measure all of the ingredients than it does to make the cake!
And in case you’re one of the few folks who hasn’t yet heard, we have begun using the remarkably delicious Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter in more and more of our Bakehouse pastries (this included). Between the Bakehouse and the Roadhouse, the cultured butter has now been effectively and deliciously incorporated into about two dozen different items. Each of them was already a great product but has been made markedly better still by the excellence of the butter. Bakehouse scones and Sour Cream Coffee Cakes, as well as Roadhouse Buttermilk Biscuits and Butterscotch Pudding, are a few of the products benefiting from being made with better butter!
The Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter, as I’ve been saying, is made as great butter would have been made up until the end of the 19th century. High-quality cream is allowed to ripen so the natural bacteria develop their flavor just as they would in yogurt, cheese, the chorizo I wrote about last week, and even sourdough bread. Modern butters are nearly all what is now known as “sweet butter,” which is a lovely though slightly deceptive way to describe something that actually has less flavor than its cultured cousin.
Everything comes together to make a dark, mysterious, marvelously gingery flavor that seems to appeal to most all ages and taste preferences. Like I said, I love it. It gets this really thin sheen of a sugar crust on the outside, too—sort of like that very first bit of ice crystals that start to form on the lakes early in the autumn (be sure to let the cake breathe for about 20 to 30 minutes after you open its plastic package). It ships well, too—making it a very good winter gift for a friend, relative, or business connection you’d like to impress.
The Gingerbread Cake is great on its own any time of the day or with vanilla gelato from the Creamery—or the handcrafted Cream Cheese, too! If you’re putting together a dessert plate, consider some of that marvelous Pear Mostarda from our friends at Quince & Apple in Wisconsin that we stock at the Creamery—the spicy, fruity flavor makes a great counterpoint to the cake. If you’re one of the world’s many fans of the combination of ginger and chocolate, drizzle some chocolate over top! You can also crumble some of the Gingerbread Cake into your coffee or over top of a hot chocolate! If you’re going to pick something to send—or receive—as a corporate gift this fall, consider putting the Bakehouse Gingerbread Cake at the top of the list!
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
One of Zingerman’s Guiding Principles is being an active part of the community and in 1988, Zingerman’s was instrumental in the founding of Food Gatherers, a food rescue program that delivers over 5 million pounds of food each year to the hungry residents of Washtenaw county. Every year Zingerman’s donates 10% of its previous years profits to local community organizations and non-profits. Ari has served on the board of The Ark, the longest continuously operating folk music venue in America.
Over the decades, the Zingerman’s founding partners have consistently been the recipients of public recognition from a variety of diverse organizations. In April 1995, Ari and Paul were awarded the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County’s first Humanitarian Award. In 2006, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. In 2007, Ari and Paul were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Ari was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cheese Society in 2014. And Ari’s book, Building a Great Business was on Inc. magazine’s list of Best Books for Business Leaders.
Notwithstanding the awards, being engaged on a daily basis in the work of 10 businesses and 21 partners, writing books on business and in-depth articles on food for the Zingerman’s newsletter, Ari finds time to be a voracious reader. He acquires and reads more books than he can find room for. Ari might soon find himself the owner of the largest collection of Anarchist books in Ann Arbor outside the Labadie collection at the University of Michigan library!
