Gingerbread Cake

This super moist Gingerbread cake is a holiday classic made in under 1 hour! Topped with a cream cheese frosting and filled with spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, this recipe results in the delicious signature flavor and soft texture we all love.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Cooling Time 5 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings

Calories 358kcal

Author Sherri Hagymas

Ingredients

For the Cake

Dry Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ¾ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 cup water
¼ cup molasses
½ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs whisked
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

16 ounces Cream cheese softened
1 cup butter softened (2 sticks)
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
Spray a 9x13 baking dish with spray oil.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and salt and blend well.
In a large saucepan, combine the butter, water and molasses and heat on medium until the butter is melted
Bring the mixture to a light boil then gradually add in the dry ingredients mixture, whisking continually
Remove the saucepan from the stove and allow to cool for a 5 minutes
Add the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined well.
Pour the batter into the greased baking dish and place the pan on a cookie sheet.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
Allow to cool completely before icing the cake.
For the icing:
In a medium bowl, add the cream cheese, butter, sugar,, heavy whipping cream, cinnamon and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.
Spread evenly over the top of the cooled cake and sprinkle some more cinnamon.

Notes

Substitute whole milk for the heavy cream.

Top with chopped pecans or walnuts if desired.

For lighter calorie option, substitute 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce for the 1 cup of butter in the cake ingredients.

Use gluten free on to one flour, if desired.

Carefully to measure or weigh flour so the cake will not turn out dry. The best technique if you don't have a food scale is to spoon flour from the bag into a measuring cup until heaping and then scrape off evenly with the flat edge of a knife.

Make sure the butter and eggs are at room temperature.

Do not over mix the batter or the cake with become too dense.

Store up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

The ginger spice flavors the cake will improve with age

Nutrition