Ultra moist, perfectly spiced holiday Gingerbread Loaf with rich cream cheese frosting!
If you love all the holiday breads, then you’ll also love my recipes for Cinnamon Swirl Monkeybread, Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls, and Cream Cheese Frosted Pumpkin Bread.
Why This Recipe Works
The perfect holiday loaf: If you, like me, love to make bread for the holidays then you need to try this gingerbread loaf. Sure, pumpkin is great, and so is banana bread of course but gingerbread is so unexpected, yet delicious and so full of holiday flavor. Plus, baking this makes your whole house smell AMAZING.
Easy: Now, just because it’s slightly different doesn’t mean it’s hard. In fact, quite the opposite. Mix the wet ingredients, mix the dry, combine and bake. Make a simple cream cheese frosting and dig in!
Simple ingredients: Start with flour and end with a cream cheese topping. In between are common spices, sugars, milk, butter, and a little applesauce. You can make this gingerbread loaf today!
Perfect for gift-giving: Sure, store-bought gifts are fun but (as you can probably guess) I like to bring a home baked item for hostess gifts and to parties. Wrap up this loaf in a pretty package and top with a bow for the perfect party addition.
Ingredients
- Flour — Because what bread starts without flour? All-purpose is fine.
- Ground Cinnamon, Cloves, and Ginger — All essential gingerbread spices, any brand is good. Although I do think the name-brand spices have a bit more flavor to them.
- Salt — Regular table salt or sea salt is good in this gingerbread loaf recipe
- Baking Soda — Baking soda helps the loaf rise and keeps it from being too dense.
- Butter — I use unsalted butter in both the bread and the icing.
- Sugar — You need that sweetness in this bread. Regular white sugar is good, or brown sugar is amazing too!
- Unsweetened Applesauce — Unsweetened applesauce gives the loaf some moisture, a little (natural) sweetness and just a hint of apple flavor which complements the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves so well.
- Powdered Sugar — Powdered sugar makes that icing come to life!
- Cream Cheese — I use full-fat cream cheese but you can use reduced fat.
- Vanilla — A pinch of vanilla for flavoring to the icing. I like to use real vanilla flavoring instead of imitation.
- Milk — Use whatever milk you have in your fridge or even heavy cream. You use milk as your thinning agent for the icing.
Here’s How You Make It
You’re just a few steps away from the best holiday gingerbread loaf ever.
- Line a 9×5 inch bread pan with nonstick foil and spray with nonstick spray, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (not pictured)
- Get out a medium-sized bowl and add the dry ingredients together (flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt, and baking soda) and whisk. (photos 1-2)
- In another, large bowl, cream together the wet ingredients (butter, sugar, and applesauce). (photos 3-4)
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the larger bowl and mix it all together until blended well. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and put it in the oven to bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the gingerbread loaf to cool on a cooling rack. (photos 5-8)
- Next, make the frosting while the loaf cools. In a clean, medium-sized bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk until smooth and spreadable. (not pictured)
- Spread the icing over the cooled gingerbread loaf and allow it to set up for 1 hour. (photos 9-10)
Note: If you can’t wait, serve it immediately. However, I think it tastes best when the frosting has a chance to set up a bit!. Store in an airtight container.
How to Keep Icing from Sticking
I mentioned before how wonderful it is to take this gingerbread loaf as a hostess gift or to a potluck, but I know when I do that, I always run into one very annoying issue: the icing sticking to the plastic wrap or foil and coming right off when it’s time to eat it. I have a few solutions for this problem:
- If you’re just wrapping in plastic wrap, you can add toothpicks to the top of the loaf. Make sure to only stick them in about halfway. Then place the plastic wrap on top of the toothpicks. They will keep the plastic wrap from touching the icing directly.
- You can use foil as well, just spray the foil lightly with cooking spray first to keep it from sticking. Do not wrap tightly.
- Put the gingerbread cake in a cake box with a lid that has enough space to clear the top of the icing by about ½ an inch.
If you’re finding your loaf too dry, it could be because you packed the sugar in to measure it. I scoop the flour and use a knife to lightly level off the top. Another reason could be that you’ve reduced or omitted the wet ingredients. My suggestion would be to use the wet ingredients and as listed for a moist cake.
Also be sure you’re not overcooking it by testing it with a toothpick after about 45 minutes. It’s better to check it on the early side than the later side as you can always allow it to cook another five minutes at a time till it’s done.
Expert Tips & Tricks
- This gingerbread loaf will keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to three days. After that, refrigerate for another two days. After that, you should definitely eat it!
- This loaf will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months in an airtight container or Ziplock bag. Freeze it un-iced and make the icing and add it when you’re ready to eat it.
- A fun way to top the icing is to sprinkle a small amount of cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top of the icing while it’s still wet. Or you could even use a bit of finely crushed, crystalized ginger.
More Recipes You’ll Love
- Carrot Cake Bread
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
- Gluten Free Banana Bread
- Lemon Blueberry Bread
- Frosted Pumpkin Bread
Did you make this recipe? FANTASTIC. Please rate the recipe below and be sure to tag me on social when you share a photo on social – I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Gingerbread Loaf
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup sugar - or brown sugar
- ½ cup butter - at room temperature
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
Frosting
- 2 ounces cream cheese - softened
- 3 tablespoons butter - softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 4-6 tablespoons milk - as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray OR line with parchment OR grease and flour.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and baking soda.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and applesauce.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined.
- Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (a few loose crumbs are fine, no wet batter). Allow to cool completely before frosting.
- To prepare the frosting, cream together butter and cream cheese. Mix in vanilla and 4 tablespoons milk. Mix in powdered sugar one cup at a time until completely incorporated. Add more milk as needed until frosting is creamy and fluffy. Spread over cooled cake. Slice and serve.
Notes
- This gingerbread loaf will keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to three days. After that, refrigerate for another two days. After that, you should definitely eat it!
- This loaf will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months in an airtight container or Ziplock bag. Freeze it un-iced and make the icing and add it when you’re ready to eat it.
- A fun way to top the icing is to sprinkle a small amount of cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top of the icing while it’s still wet. Or you could even use a bit of finely crushed, crystalized ginger.
What gives the bread the dark color?
I would assume the spices give it the dark color 🙂
This is yummy, but the pictures show a VERY dark bread, and like the other comments, mine was the color of cinnamon, and not as dark as you showed. Yummy though.
I don’t generally comment, but have to because this was the simplest recipe and it was SO good and full of nice warm flavours! It is one of the few recipes I’ve found off Pinterest that ACTUALLY turned out great. I made it a bit healthier by replacing all of the butter with the same amount of applesauce and made half the flour whole wheat. It was pretty dense, so some may not like that, but we really enjoyed it. So I did 1 1/2 cups applesauce and 3/4 cup white flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat.
I’m an experienced baker with a food blog and I still have no clue how you got your gingerbread so dark? The spices alone won’t make it that dark. I added 2 tablespoons of molasses and it still didn’t come close to that color. Are you sure you didn’t omit something like cocoa from the recipe? Just doesn’t make sense.
The first time I made this loaf, the color was dark. The second and several times after that, the loaves were light (still tasted amazing). I made this 2 days ago and the loaf was dark again. I took note and here are the only things I can think affect the loaf… I greased a white loaf pan and did *not* use a foil lining. It was a rainy, chilly day. I covered the loaf with foil about 40 mins into the baking time because I thought the edges were getting burned (they weren’t). The center ended up becoming the same color as the edges. This loaf was the best one yet. Unbelievably moist all the way through. Only problem with not using foil was a small spot in the bottom’s center stuck to the pan. Anyway, The color can change, but the taste REMAINS the same.
HI, this bread looked deelish to make on a rainy Oct day. So, i made it. The applesauce and butter and sugar never creamed together,actually looked curdled. Should the butter and sugar be creamed before adding applesauce? Also,the picture makes the bread look like a real gingerbread,nice and dark. However. it came out much lighter in color. I measured the spices as recipe stated. Tastes good,but wish it came out true to pic! Thanks,my house smelled nice at least!! :0)