This deeply spiced and moist gingerbread cake is great any time of day, whether or not served plain or dressed up with spiced cream cheese frosting. You can also make it as a single layer spherical or sq. cake, or strive the layer cake model detailed within the Notes. Irrespective of the way you bake and serve it, this can be a basic gingerbread recipe the entire household will love through the vacation season!
Reader MK commented: “Soooo scrumptious! My grandma used to make gingerbread yearly and by no means used a written recipe. That is the closest factor I’ve tasted to it in years. ★★★★★”
Nothing tastes extra like the vacations than the nice and cozy, cozy flavors of gingerbread. The odor of ginger, cloves, and molasses can immediately transport anybody’s mindset to December.
Each vacation season, I make my favourite gingerbread cookies, and gingerbread waffles are quick turning into a favourite winter weekend custom in my home, too. However what about simply, merely, gingerbread? A candy, spiced stick-to-your-fork-moist cake that may do double-duty as Christmas morning breakfast and dessert… welcome to my quintessential gingerbread recipe!
Whereas including a layer of cream cheese frosting makes it a beautiful vacation dessert, this cake can be simply as welcome as a particular vacation breakfast, snack, or late-night last-minute gift-wrapping gasoline.
Gingerbread has no time-of-day limitations. 😉
Why You Will Love This Gingerbread Snack Cake
- A 1-layer cake, excellent for once you aren’t feeding a giant crowd
- You may even make it as an the wrong way up pear gingerbread cake
- Heat, comforting vacation flavors of molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves
- Moist cake crumb, not dry or dense in any respect
- High with spiced cream cheese frosting, get pleasure from it plain, with whipped cream, or with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar
- Adaptable to different pan sizes—see under
- Fast and simple prep makes for a low-maintenance vacation dessert
Substances You Want:
- Flour: The bottom of the gingerbread cake recipe.
- Baking Soda: As you might have learn in my baking powder vs. baking soda put up, molasses and brown sugar are each acids. So we want baking soda to present the cake its carry!
- Spices: Floor ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt—the gingerbread mainstays.
- Molasses: Along with the spices, molasses is the opposite signature taste in most gingerbread recipes. I like to recommend utilizing unsulphured or darkish molasses, not blackstrap, which has a extra intense taste that’s a bit an excessive amount of in baked items. (I at all times use Grandma’s model molasses.)
- Scorching Water: As you’ll examine under, whisking the thick, sticky molasses with sizzling water earlier than including it to the batter makes every thing come collectively simply. The water additionally provides supreme moisture to every chew.
- Butter: You simply can’t beat the flavour of this baking staple!
- Brown Sugar: Sweetening with brown sugar gives additional moisture + additional molasses taste.
- Egg: 1 egg serves to bind the elements collectively, and provides richness.
- Vanilla Extract: As a result of, you recognize, cake. 🙂
Find out how to Combine Sticky Molasses Into Cake Batter
Whisk the molasses with sizzling water earlier than including it to the batter. Why? As you recognize, molasses may be very thick. The thick goop, for lack of higher phrases, doesn’t combine simply into cake batter. It’s superb for cookie doughs comparable to iced gingerbread oatmeal cookies and gingerbread cookie bars, however sizzling water helps loosen the viscous consistency of molasses, which helps incorporate it right into a thinner cake batter.
The ensuing cake is dense, but tender. Buttery and tender. Completely spiced and impeccably flavored.
The remainder of the prep work is fairly easy, too. You’ll cream the butter and brown sugar collectively, so an electrical mixer is undoubtedly useful (you’ll want it should you make the frosting, too). Because the recipe instructs under, add the dry elements and water/molasses combination to the moist elements in separate additions.
The batter is somewhat thick, and a few small lumps are OK:
Totally different Pan Dimension Choices
It is a versatile gingerbread cake recipe. It may be made a large number of the way: as a 1-layer spherical, sq., or 11×7-inch rectangle cake; as a gingerbread loaf cake; or as a layer cake. I initially printed this recipe in 2015, and when testing this recipe once more this 12 months, we tried all of those variations so we might inform you which pans do and don’t work. We went by means of a LOT of molasses, and had a LOT of cake to present away.
Right here’s what we all know: The recipe as written makes about 3 cups of batter, and weighs about 850–890g. A 9-inch springform pan is greatest as a result of this gingerbread cake rises fairly excessive. It doesn’t matter what dimension pan you employ, bake the cake at 350°F (177°C). Insert a toothpick within the heart of the cake to check for doneness. If it comes out clear, the cake is completed.
Listed below are the most effective pans to make use of (about 35 minutes bake time for every):
Listed below are the pans that gained’t work:
- There’s an excessive amount of batter for a 9-inch spherical cake pan.
- There’s not sufficient batter for a 9×13-inch pan or a Bundt pan.
Sure! I recommend making the batter twice, and decreasing the molasses (see Observe under). This will probably be plenty of batter (about 6 cups or 1745g) and is the right quantity for a 3-layer cake. Grease three 9-inch spherical cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Fill the cake pans midway (about 575g batter in every). Bake for 22–25 minutes. In the event you don’t need to make the batter twice, you may make it as soon as and bake it in three 6-inch spherical cake pans, to make a 3-layer 6-inch cake.
Sure! For about 14 cupcakes, fill liners midway and bake for 20-22 minutes. Or strive my barely completely different recipe for gingerbread cupcakes.
Topping Gingerbread Cake
This gingerbread snack cake is completely implausible by itself—you don’t even want frosting! However if you wish to make it somewhat extra particular, slather on some candy and tangy spiced cream cheese frosting. (Included within the recipe card under.) It’s like absolute heaven on this not-too-sweet cake.
You too can give it a easy dusting of confectioners’ sugar, a dollop of whipped cream, or strive the lemon glaze I pair with these just-as-tasty gingerbread muffins.
I additionally like to garnish it with recent cranberries for coloration. Sugared cranberries are particularly festive, and see my notes in that tutorial for sugared rosemary. Right here’s a slice from my 9-inch springform pan:
And right here’s the gingerbread cake baked in a 9-inch sq. pan with festive Christmas sprinkles. The little holly decorations are by the model Wilton, and I can’t appear to search out them on-line anymore. These Christmas timber are related, although!
In the event you love smaller-scale cake recipes like this, do that small chocolate cake or my straightforward 1-layer sprinkle cake.
Extra Gingerbread Recipes
Spiced Gingerbread Cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Prepare dinner Time: 35 minutes
Whole Time: 3 hours, 55 minutes (contains cooling)
Yield: serves 8-10
Class: Cake
Technique: Baking
Delicacies: American
Description
That is my timeless basic gingerbread. You may get pleasure from it plain or with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar or dollop of whipped cream. You too can prime it with spiced cream cheese frosting (recipe included under). You can also make it as a single layer spherical or sq. cake, or strive the layer cake variations detailed within the Notes.
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting (non-compulsory)
Directions
- Alter the oven rack to the decrease third place and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9-inch springform pan, 9-inch sq. pan, or 11×7-inch rectangle pan. Put aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt collectively till mixed. Put aside.
- In a separate bowl or in a liquid measuring cup, whisk the molasses and sizzling water collectively.
- In a big bowl utilizing a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on excessive velocity till easy and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and beat on excessive velocity for 1 minute till creamed collectively pretty properly. Scrape down the edges and up the underside of the bowl with a silicone spatula as wanted. On medium-high velocity, beat within the egg and vanilla till mixed. Scrape down the edges and up the underside of the bowl with a silicone spatula as wanted. With the mixer on low velocity, add the dry elements in three additions alternating with the new water/molasses, starting and ending with the dry elements, and mixing every addition simply till integrated. Keep away from over-mixing. Give it a whisk by hand on the finish to verify there aren’t any giant lumps (a number of small lumps are OK). Batter is barely thick.
- Pour batter into ready pan. Bake for round 35 minutes, or till the cake is baked by means of. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clear with solely a pair moist (not moist) crumbs, it’s completed.
- Enable cake to chill fully within the pan set on a wire rack. The cake should be fully cool earlier than frosting.
- Make the frosting: In a big bowl utilizing a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter collectively on medium-high velocity till creamy and no lumps stay, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, milk, and pinches of spices. (Observe that the video doesn’t embrace the spices within the frosting, however the photos do!) Beat on low velocity for 20 seconds, then enhance to excessive velocity till every thing is totally mixed and the frosting is creamy. Style. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is simply too candy. Unfold on prime of cake. Unfold across the sides in case you have additional frosting.
- Slice and serve.
- Cowl leftover cake tightly and retailer within the fridge for as much as 5 days.
Notes
- Make Forward & Freezing Directions: Put together cake by means of step 6. Wrap the baked and cooled cake tightly and preserve at room temperature for 1 day or freeze as much as 3 months. Carry to room temperature (if frozen) then proceed with step 7. Frosting can be made 1 day forward of time. Cowl tightly and refrigerate in a single day. Beat the frosting on medium velocity for a number of seconds so it’s creamy once more, if wanted. Frosted cake freezes properly, as much as 3 months. Thaw in a single day within the fridge, then deliver to room temperature or serve chilly. See Find out how to Freeze Desserts.
- Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): 9-inch Springform Pan | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electrical Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack | Offset Icing Spatula
- Totally different Dimension Pans: It doesn’t matter what dimension pan you employ, bake the cake at 350°F (177°C). A 9-inch springform pan or 10-inch springform pan is greatest as a result of this gingerbread cake rises fairly excessive. 9-inch cake pans are too brief. You too can use a 9-inch sq. pan or 11×7-inch rectangle pan. For all of those pans, the bake time will probably be about 35 minutes. Insert a toothpick within the heart of the cake to check for doneness. If it comes out clear, the cake is completed. There’s not sufficient batter for a 9×13-inch cake pan or a Bundt pan.
- Gingerbread Cupcakes: For about 14 cupcakes, fill liners midway and bake for 20–22 minutes. Or strive my barely completely different recipe for gingerbread cupcakes.
- 9-Inch Layer Cake: You can also make this as a 3-layer 9-inch cake. I recommend making the batter twice, and decreasing the molasses to 1/2 cup (150g) in every (for 1 cup (300g) complete within the layer cake). Don’t double it—make it twice after which mix the batters; the batter is simply too heavy to double unexpectedly. You should have about 6 cups or 1745g of batter. Grease three 9-inch spherical cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Fill the cake pans midway (about 575g batter in every). Bake the layers for 22–25 minutes. The most effective quantities/ratio of elements to make use of for the frosting can be the identical cream cheese frosting from this carrot cake recipe. Be at liberty to nonetheless add a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves to it if desired.
- 6-inch Layer Cake: You can also make the batter as written above and divide it between 3 6-inch spherical cake pans, to make a 3-layer 6-inch cake. The cream cheese frosting written above is sufficient for the 3-layer 6-inch cake.
- Tailored from Gingerbread Muffins.
Key phrases: gingerbread cake
