This flavorful gingerbread cake is the perfect holiday dessert recipe. It’s one of our favorite winter treats as it’s full of warming spices and sweet molasses flavor. There’s nothing cozier than enjoying a big slice of this gingerbread cake. It’s so tender and moist that you’ll want to reach for a second slice.
This is an excellent cake for holiday gatherings as it’s easy to make. No mixer required! Simply mix together all the ingredients and pour the batter into a single baking pan. You don’t even have to frost the cake! A little dusting of powdered sugar is enough to impress your guests. For another cozy holiday dessert recipe, try my gingersnap cookies recipe, molasses cookies recipe, or Pfeffernusse recipe.
What You Need to Make This Recipe
Leavening agents — baking soda keeps the cake from being too dense and baking powder helps it to rise. Make sure they are fresh and are not expired!
Spices — the combination of ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves is what gives the cake its gingerbread flavor. Make sure the spices are fresh for the best flavor.
Molasses — this is a key ingredient to get that classic gingerbread flavor in your cake. Use unsulphured molasses, do not swap for blackstrap molasses. Unsulphured molasses is sweet with a warm flavor, whereas blackstrap molasses has a robust and slightly bitter flavor.
Water — you need to use hot or boiling water for this gingerbread cake recipe as you need to thin out the molasses to help incorporate it into the cake batter.
Butter — make sure to use unsalted butter.
How to Make Gingerbread Cake
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and baking soda.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the molasses and hot water until the molasses is dissolved.
3. Whisk in the sugar and the butter until well combined.
4. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
5. Pour the molasses mixture into the flour mixture and stir until well combined.
6. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 9×13-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the center is springy to the touch. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Serve with fresh whipped cream and dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Pro Tips for Making This Recipe
- This cake would be delicious topped with my perfect cream cheese frosting! For a little extra zing, add lemon zest from 1 lemon to the frosting.
- This recipe could easily be converted to a layer cake by dividing the batter among two 9-inch round cake pans. Coat with buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting.
- I highly recommend using a scale to measure your flour as it’s the most accurate method and will prevent you from ending up with a dense gingerbread cake. If you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour with a spoon and spoon it into your cups before leveling it off with a knife. This method prevents you from overpacking the measuring cup.
- Do not overmix the batter, or you’ll have a tough cake. Mix everything until just combined.
- I recommend bringing the eggs to room temperature, so they incorporate into the batter without overbeating. If you forgot to bring the eggs out, place them in a bowl of warm tap water to help warm them up.
- For the best flavor, use pure vanilla instead of artificial extract. Even better, try my homemade vanilla extract.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s best to store your cake in an airtight container, either in the fridge or at room temperature. If you’ve added frosting to the cake, then store it in the fridge. The cake will last longer in the fridge.
You can freeze this cake for up to 3 months. After the cake is entirely at room temperature, double-wrap it with plastic wrap or foil before freezing. Thaw overnight before enjoying.
If your gingerbread cake comes out dry, there could be a few reasons. Overbaking the cake, overmixing the cake, or the oven being too hot will lead to a dry cake.
If you love this recipe try these out!
If you’ve tried this Gingerbread Cake recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Gingerbread Cake
Video
Equipment
- 9×13-inch cake pan
- Mixing Bowls
- Wire cooling rack
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (360g)
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup unsulphured molasses (240ml/325g)
- 1 cup hot water (240ml)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted (170g)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9×13-inch baking pan or spray with baking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and baking soda.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the molasses and hot water until the molasses is dissolved. Whisk in the sugar and the butter until well combined. Lastly, whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Pour the molasses mixture into the flour mixture and stir until well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the center is springy to the touch. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Serve with fresh whipped cream and dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Notes
- This cake would be delicious topped with my perfect cream cheese frosting! For a little extra zing, add lemon zest from 1 lemon to the frosting.
- This recipe could easily be converted to a layer cake by dividing the batter among two 9-inch round cake pans. Coat with buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting.
- I highly recommend using a scale to measure your flour as it’s the most accurate method and will prevent you from ending up with dense cake layers. If you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour with a spoon and spoon it into your cups before leveling it off with a knife. This method prevents you from overpacking the measuring cup.
- Do not overmix the batter, or you’ll have a tough cake. Mix everything until just combined.
- I recommend bringing the eggs to room temperature, so they incorporate into the batter without overbeating. If you forgot to bring the eggs out, place them in a bowl of warm tap water to help warm them up.
- For the best flavor, use pure vanilla instead of artificial extract. Even better, try my homemade vanilla extract.
This turned out beautifully! The lemon buttercream is to die for! I made it for a friend so won’t know how it was for a bit. I posted a picture on insta and tagged you.
There are a couple of recipe discrepancies-all the spices in the cake ingredient list are not in the directions, so I didn’t notice until it was too late. Also, the Italian buttercream directions mention salt and vanilla but are not in the ingredient list.
Thank you for the great recipes and notes and tips-very helpful!
Hey Chrissy,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I added the two missing spices and corrected the buttercream list. I hope your friend still enjoyed the cake!
Best,
John
Hi. Did I miss the instructions on assembling the cake? I am confused as to why there are two buttercream recipes. Are they alternate recipes? Thanks. The cake looks lovely, by the way
Robert,
The lemon buttercream is piped between each layer and the Italian is used to coat the outside of the cake! The baking instructions are before the buttercream instructions! Hope you enjoy!
John
This was my first attempt at Italian buttercream and I found it was a little lumpy. Do you cream your butter before adding it to the egg white and sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time? Loved the cake recipe, so light and full of flavour 🙂
Brittany,
You don’t need to cream the butter before! Maybe try sifting your dry ingredients before adding them in next time!
John
Hi John- You left out the butter in your Italian buttercream recipe.
Ryan,
Thanks for pointing that out! Use 16 oz of unsalted butter for the Italian Buttercream!
John
Perfect timing!! How beautiful! I’ve tried two other gingerbread cake recipes this week and neither worked so I’m looking for the holy grail of recipes 😉 Both recipes caused major sinking (a first for me after tons of cakes). Your layers seem to have risen perfectly! I’m guessing you haven’t had any signs of sinkage troubles with this recipe…?
Jessica,
I didn’t encounter any sinkage with this cake because I always use my trusty cake strips! Let me know how it turns out! Hope you enjoy!
John