Homemade Gingerbread Cake topped with a cinnamon maple cream cheese frosting! You’ll love this easy cake recipe flavored with molasses, ginger, all spice, cloves and a touch of nutmeg. It’s the perfect holiday treat.
Homemade Gingerbread Cake
If you’re looking for an easy, holiday-themed cake to bring to a party or serve for dessert, look no further than this easy gingerbread snack cake. Yes, snacking on cake is a thing – am I the only one?
This moist, tender cake is overflowing with flavor, using a combination of molasses, ginger, all spice, cloves and a touch of nutmeg. It’s so light and fluffy, I love it!
Plus, it’s topped with the silkiest cream cheese frosting with hints of cinnamon and maple syrup. This cake will have your kitchen smelling just like Christmas morning.
How I Developed This Recipe
Last year, I shared my Gingerbread Cupcake recipe, and I’ve gotten a few questions about making them as a cake instead of cupcakes. The recipe will work both ways!
I love to bring cupcakes to a party because they’re easier to eat, but they also require a little bit more effort than a cake. It’s nice to be able to enjoy the same dessert but with a little less work.
The cake recipe is really easy to put together. There’s more brown sugar than white which enhances the molasses flavor but also makes for a very tender crumb.
This cake is made with oil instead of butter, so you don’t need to worry about creaming together and butter with sugar. It also calls for sour cream, which keeps it nice and moist. If you don’t want to use sour cream, you can substitute Greek yogurt.
Tips for Success
- Ensure your ingredients are well mixed at each stage
- Slowly adding the dry ingredients together with the milk will help prevent you from over mixing the batter
- This cake is fairly thick, be sure it’s baked all the way through in the center. Use a toothpick or a knife to check the center for doneness
This Gingerbread Cake Has the Best Frosting!
The best way to top off this gingerbread cake is with a favorite cream cheese frosting. If you don’t like cream cheese frosting, vanilla frosting would be a good alternative.
I absolutely LOVE my cream cheese frosting. It uses equal parts butter and cream cheese, and it starts with cold ingredients, as it straight out of the fridge.
If you use room temperature ingredients, it tends to make the frosting a lot weaker or runnier- and then you need to overcompensate with powdered sugar, leaving you with a frosting that is entirely too sweet.
I recommend cutting the butter into 1 tablespoon size chunks so that it’s easier to work in the mixer. Beat the butter for several minutes until it’s fluffy and then add the cold cream cheese. Spend a couple minutes creaming the butter and cream cheese together.
As you start adding the powdered sugar, you can alternate adding the liquid ingredients: heavy cream, maple syrup and vanilla extract.
The frosting recipe calls for 3-4 cups of powdered sugar so that it will allow you to control the consistency and taste of your frosting. Since you’re spreading it over a cake, you don’t need to worry about it being as stiff as you’d might want if you were making cupcakes.
Decorating Your Gingerbread Cake
When the frosting is ready, simply spread it over top of your cooled cake and garnish it with your favorite festive sprinkles. It may seem at first like you have a lot of frosting, but the cake itself is actually fairly thick, so you’ll want that nice thick layer of frosting on top. I used festive Christmas sprinkles in the photos shown here!
How to Store this Cake
You can store this cake at room temperature in an airtight container unless you live in a hot or humid environment. If you’d prefer to store in the refrigerator, be sure to serve it at room temperature for best results.
Can I Freeze Extras?
If you’d like to make this cake ahead of time, you can freeze the cake. I recommend freezing it unfrosted. Cool the cake completely and then place layers of parchment paper on the top and bottom, then tightly wrap in plastic wrap twice. Thaw completely prior to frosting.
Let this Gingerbread Cake be the star of your holiday party. No one has to know how easy it is to make this cake!
Print
Gingerbread Snack Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 32 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 2 minutes
- Yield: 15 servings
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Gingerbread Snack Cake is one of my favorite treats to bake for the holidays! Topped with rich cream cheese frosting and festive sprinkles, it’s sure to put a smile on each and every face.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 cup (220g) Light Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup (95g) Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 cup (118ml) Vegetable Oil
- 4 large Eggs
- 1/2 cup (118ml) Molasses
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup (118ml) Light Sour Cream
- 3 cups (420g) All-Purpose Flour
- 3 teaspoons (11.2g) Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon (2.5g) Ground Ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon (1.2g) Ground Nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon (1.2g) Cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon (1.2g) Ground Cloves
- 1 cup (236ml) Milk
For the Frosting:
- 1/2 cup (113g) Unsalted Butter, cold
- 8 ounces (226g) Cream Cheese, cold
- 3–4 cups (390-520g) Powdered Sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) Pure Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) Heavy Whipping Cream, or Milk
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 teaspoon (1.2g) Cinnamon
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugars, vegetable oil, eggs, molasses and vanilla extract and sour cream. Beat on medium speed until the well combined. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine all remaining dry ingredients. Then, add half the dry ingredients to the batter followed half the milk and beat until it starts to combine.
- Finally add the remaining dry ingredients, mixing on low speed while pouring in the milk and beating until all of the ingredients are well combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir the batter from the bottom to the top to ensure it’s well mixed.
- Bake in a 9×13-inch pan at 350°F for 30-32 minutes. Test the cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cupcakes are done. Cool Completely.
For the Frosting:
- Cut the butter into 1-inch blocks. Beat the butter for 1-2 minutes until it is slightly softened.
- Then add the cream cheese and cream together for 2-3 minutes until they are fluffy and free of lumps, scape down the bowl occasionally.
- Slowly add 2 cups of confectionary sugar, followed by the heavy cream, maple syrup and vanilla extract and beat until desired consistency is reached.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until desired consistency, at least 2 minutes.
Notes
- Sour Cream: The sour cream can be substituted with Greek Yogurt.
- How to Store this Cake: You can store this cake at room temperature in an airtight container unless you live in a hot or humid environment. If you’d prefer to store in the refrigerator, be sure to serve it at room temperature for best results.
- How to freeze this cake: If you’d like to make this cake ahead of time, you can freeze the cake. I recommend freezing it unfrosted. Cool the cake completely and then place layers of parchment paper on the top and bottom, then tightly wrap in plastic wrap twice. Thaw completely
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 513
- Sugar: 55g
- Sodium: 92mg
- Fat: 21g
- Carbohydrates: 77g
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 84mg
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This recipe originally appeared on Food Fanatic.
Hola Julianne, como siempre deliciosos tus cakes, pero me quedó muy oscuro casi negro, porque le adicioné melaza y aquí es muy densa, me podrías aconsejar qué hacer para una próxima oportunidad. Muchas gracias.
Hola, no estoy seguro de qué hay disponible en su mercado local. Nuestra melaza también es espesa. Puede intentar reducirlo la próxima vez para que sea menos denso. Lo siento, no puedo ser de más ayuda.
Looks delicious!
Thanks Erin!