Gingerbread Cake is a boldly spiced and moist cake that perfectly captures the essence of the season! This classic cake is topped with a refreshing orange glaze for a balance of flavors with a nostalgic charm.
Looking for delicious holiday flavors? Try out my Gingerbread Loaf, Easy Homemade Eggnog (alcohol-free), Overnight Cinnamon Pecan French Toast Casserole, Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, and Gingerbread Sugar Cookies.
Why This Recipe Works
Cozy Spices: Gingerbread cake has all the coziest spices that you and your family love during the holiday season! Using cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, along with deeply flavored molasses and brown sugar, you get all of the deep, bold flavors of gingerbread in one sweet and delicious cake! If you want a slightly lighter flavored cake, I have included some recipe variations in the instructions!
Decadent Yet Simple: This gingerbread cake is a decadent dessert recipe that is so much simpler to make than gingerbread cookies! If you love gingerbread, then you are definitely going to want to try this classic gingerbread cake. I love this cake as a sweet treat during the cold winter months because of its warming spices! Plus, it is easy to make but also so impressive to serve.
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Cake
- Flour: All-purpose flour works well.
- Baking Soda: To help the gingerbread cake rise in the oven.
- Spices: To spice this cake up to perfection, you will need ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves! Cloves are optional and will make this even more boldly spiced.
- Salt: This helps balance all the flavors!
- Oil: For added moisture and a tender cake.
- Brown Sugar: To make things sweet!
- Molasses: Molasses lends the classic gingerbread flavor here.
- Eggs: Eggs add structure to the cake and help give it some extra rise!
- Orange Zest: Divide the orange zest to save some for the glaze, too!
- Water: Boiling water is added to help the molasses flavor and bold spices open up in flavor!
For the Orange Glaze
- Powdered Sugar: To make it sweet!
- Orange Juice: Use freshly squeezed orange juice from the orange you zested for the cake.
- Heavy Cream: To make it a little creamy!
Here’s How to Make It
Step by Step Instructions
- Preheat & Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 9×13 pan with baking parchment. (not pictured)
- Combine Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves. For a strongly flavored, European-style gingerbread, use the full amount of ginger and the cloves. For a lighter, milder (but still boldly spiced!), gingerbread cake, omit the cloves and just use 2 tsp of ginger. (photo 3)
- Combine Wet Ingredients: In another bowl or large jug, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, molasses, eggs and 3/4 cup of orange zest. (photos 1-2)
- Mix: Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you have a thick batter. Whisk in the boiling water until the mixture is smooth and glossy. (photos 4-6)
- Transfer to Tin & Bake: Transfer the batter to the prepared tin. Drop it down on the countertop a few times to knock out any air bubbles, and bake for 30-35 minutes until a wooden skewer or the tip of a sharp knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. (photos 7-8)
- Cool: Once the tin is cool enough to touch, remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack. (not pictured)
- Add Glaze: To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth, then stir in the heavy cream and the reserved orange zest. Pour over the cake once it is completely cool and enjoy! (photos 9-12)
Expert Tips
- Not a fan of molasses? Whether you don’t have molasses on hand, or you don’t like molasses, you can use a molasses substitution of 2 tbsp of maple syrup and 2 tbsp dark brown sugar!
- To store, keep leftover gingerbread cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- The batter will be runny! After you add the boiling water, the cake batter will seem runny, but don’t worry! It will bake up great in the oven and be perfectly moist and flavorful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! In order to make this cake in a 2lb loaf pan, simply cut the recipe in half and increase the baking time by 5-10 minutes.
You can tell that gingerbread cake is done cooking by sticking a toothpick or wooden skewer into the middle of the cake towards the end of the baking time. If the toothpick comes out relatively clean with just a few crumbs on it, then the cake is done! If you see any wet batter sticking to it, then let it cook a few minutes longer and check again.
More Cake Recipes to Try
- Caramel Apple Dump Cake
- Carrot Cake
- Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting
- Flourless Chocolate Cake
- Eggnog Pound Cake
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 Cake
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread Cake
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2-3 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground cloves - optional
- ⅔ cup oil - plus 2 tbsp
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup blackstrap molasses
- 2 eggs
- zest of 1 orange - divided to add to glaze, too
- ½ cup boiling water
For the Orange Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 tsp heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 9×13 pan with baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves. For a strongly flavored, European-style gingerbread, use the full amount of the ginger and the cloves. For a lighter, milder (but still boldly spiced!) Gingerbread cake omit the cloves and use just 2 tsp of ginger.
- In another bowl or large jug, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, molasses, eggs and 3/4 of the orange zest.
- Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until you have a thick batter. Whisk in the boiling water until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared tin. Drop it down on the countertop a few times to knock out any air bubbles, and bake for 30-35 minutes until a wooden skewer or the tip of a sharp knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Once the tin is cool enough to touch remove the cake and leave to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth, then stir in the heavy cream and the reserved orange zest. Pour over the cake once it is completely cool.
Notes
- This cake will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- If you don’t have access to molasses or you’d like an even milder flavor, (the flavor is not for everyone!) substitute it for 2 tbsp of maple syrup mixed with 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, and switch the brown sugar in the cake for more dark brown sugar.
- Half this recipe and it will fit exactly in a 2lb loaf pan – you might need to bake it for 5-10 minutes longer, however!
Family loves these.
Thrilled to hear that!
Hi Tiffany, Have you ever made this recipe as sheet pan pancakes? I was wondering if you might have any suggestions to make this recipe work well when cooked on a 1/2 sheet pan
I have not but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! If you end up trying it, I would love to hear how it goes! 🙂 I would try and cook them at 425 for 10-15 minutes or so. Good luck!
We make these several times during the holiday season. It’s become a family tradition, and we all absolutely love them! I have to make a double batch every time.
That’s great!😊 so glad you and your family enjoy this recipe so much!