This old-fashioned gingerbread cake is one of the easiest treats to bake for the holidays! It’s a soft, moist cake recipe loaded with classic gingerbread flavors of molasses and warm spice, topped with rich cream cheese frosting and festive sprinkles.
If you love the flavor of classic gingerbread cookies, this cake needs a spot on your holiday table. You might also like this no bake gingerbread cheesecake.
Easy Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Cake
After sharing my gingerbread cupcakes last year, so many of you asked about making the recipe as a cake instead. Here you have it! This moist, tender gingerbread cake recipe is overflowing with holiday flavor, and it’s a little less effort than baking cupcakes or a layer cake. It uses molasses, ginger, allspice, cloves, and a touch of nutmeg to pack each bite full of sweetness and spice. Plus, it’s topped with the silkiest cream cheese frosting with hints of cinnamon and maple syrup. It’ll have the kitchen smelling just like Christmas morning!
Why I Love This Gingerbread Cake Recipe
- Easier than cupcakes. 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 single-layer cake. It’s nice to be able to enjoy the same dessert but with a little less work.
- Moist and tender cake. 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. 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.
- Quick to make. This cake is made with oil instead of butter, so you don’t need to fuss with creaming butter with sugar. The batter is quick! Oil also makes the cake extra tender in addition to the sour cream and brown sugar mentioned above.
Ingredient Notes
Along with molasses, this gingerbread cake relies on a handful of spices to achieve that signature gingerbread taste. These are some notes on the important ingredients. Scroll down to the recipe card after the post for a printable list with the full amounts.
- Sugar – This cake uses a combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar.
- Oil – Most of the cake recipes on my site use vegetable oil in place of butter. I recommend canola oil, or similar, with a mild flavor.
- Molasses – Molasses is key to gingerbread’s flavor. I recommend dark molasses for this cake. Avoid blackstrap molasses as it’s very bitter.
- Sour Cream – This can be light or full-fat sour cream. If you don’t have sour cream, Greek or plain yogurt makes a good substitute.
- Spices – Ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves.
- Frosting – I include the recipe for my cinnamon maple cream cheese frosting. It’s the best way to finish off this gingerbread cake! Make sure that the cream cheese and butter for the frosting are cold from the fridge. If you don’t like cream cheese frosting, vanilla frosting would be a good alternative.
How to Make Gingerbread Cake
This gingerbread cake is super approachable since there aren’t layers to stack or individual cupcakes to frost. Follow the easy steps here, and refer to the recipe card for the printable instructions.
- Combine the wet ingredients. First, beat both sugars with oil, eggs, molasses, vanilla, and sour cream.
- Add the dry ingredients. Next, combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with milk. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and give everything a good stir to combine.
- Bake. Pour the batter into a 9×13” baking pan. Bake the cake at 350ºF for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely to room temperature afterward.
- Make the frosting. Meanwhile, cut cold butter into cubes, and give it a good whip so that it softens. Add cream cheese and heavy cream, continuing to beat the mixture until it’s light and fluffy. As you add the powdered sugar, alternate adding the liquid ingredients: heavy cream, maple syrup, and vanilla extract until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.
- Frost the cake. When the frosting is ready, simply spread it over top of your cooled cake and garnish it with your favorite festive sprinkles (like the Christmas ones shown here!). 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.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t overmix. You want the ingredients to be well-mixed at each stage, while also taking care not to overmix the cake batter (which can make the cake dense). Slowly adding the dry ingredients together with the milk helps to avoid overmixing.
- Check the cake for doneness. 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. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.
- Use cold butter and cream cheese in the frosting. My frosting recipes always start with cold ingredients, straight out of the fridge. Room temperature ingredients tend to make the frosting runnier, meaning you’ll need to overcompensate with powdered sugar, leaving you with overly sweet frosting.
- Cut the butter into cubes. I recommend cutting the butter into tablespoon-sized cubes so that it’s easier to work in the mixer. Beat the butter for several minutes so that it’s fluffy before adding the cold cream cheese. Spend a couple of minutes creaming the butter and cream cheese together. This way, you’ll end up with a smooth, airy frosting.
- Adjust the consistency. The frosting recipe calls for 3-4 cups of powdered sugar, which allows you to control the consistency and sweetness to taste. Since you’ll be spreading the frosting over the cake, you don’t need to worry about it being as stiff as if you were piping it over cupcakes.
How to Store
- At room temperature. The frosted gingerbread cake is fine to store airtight at room temperature for a couple of days. However, if your kitchen is especially warm or humid, consider storing the cake in the fridge instead. You’ll want to serve it at room temperature for best results.
- Freeze. You can freeze the baked and cooled cake for up to 2 months. I recommend freezing it unfrosted. Place layers of parchment paper on the top and bottom of the cake, and then tightly wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap. Thaw completely before frosting and serving.
More Holiday Cake Recipes
Gingerbread 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 cake is one of my favorite easy treats to bake for the holidays! Topped with rich cream cheese frosting and festive sprinkles, it’s a thick and soft, moist cake loaded with warm spice.
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
- 1/2 teaspoon (1.2g) Salt
- 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.
- Storage: 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 it in the refrigerator, be sure to serve it at room temperature for best results.
- Freeze: 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 it in plastic wrap twice. Thaw completely before serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 513
- Sugar: 55g
- Sodium: 92mg
- Fat: 21g
- Carbohydrates: 77g
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 84mg
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!