Gingerbread Cake Recipe: 4 Tips for Making Gingerbread Cake
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Jun 14, 2021 • 2 min read
Come Christmas—or any particularly chilly evening—nothing captures the cozy mood of sweater weather like gingerbread cake.
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What Is Gingerbread Cake?
Gingerbread cake is a variation of butter cake, featuring gingerbread’s signature flavors, including ground and fresh ginger, molasses, and baking spices. Bakers can frost or serve the cake on its own, similar to a quick bread. A Yorkshire variation on gingerbread cake made with oatmeal is known as parkin.
Gingerbread and gingerbread cake share the same gingery, spiced DNA, but while one denotes a whole realm of desserts, the other refers to a specific cake recipe.
4 Tips for Making Gingerbread Cake
Here are a few elements to consider when making gingerbread cake:
- 1. Choosing the baking pan. Gingerbread cake lends itself to many different formats, depending on how you’d like to present and serve it: Bake it in a square pan, a loaf pan, an ornate Bundt pan, or a standard cake pan for layer cakes.
- 2. Mixing the batter. Gingerbread cake batter is wetter than most because of the molasses, but avoid the temptation of overmixing to thicken it. Overmixing will lead to a dense crumb, so only mix in dry ingredients until the floury streaks disappear.
- 3. Serving with accompaniments. Gingerbread cake is moist and flavorful enough to serve on its own, alongside a cup of coffee or tea. It also pairs incredibly well with a layer of buttercream or cream cheese frosting, a drizzle of lemony custard sauce, or salted caramel sauce for a more traditional dessert.
- 4. Storing. To keep gingerbread cake from drying out, keep it tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
Gingerbread Cake Recipe
makes
1 9x9 cakeprep time
10 mintotal time
50 mincook time
40 minIngredients
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a square 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper, leaving overhang on two sides.
- 2
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and salt. Set it aside.
- 3
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy, 3–4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the fresh ginger and the vanilla extract.
- 4
In a medium bowl, whisk together the molasses and hot water.
- 5
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture a ⅓ cup at a time, mixing at low speed just until incorporated.
- 6
Remove the bowl from the mixer and add molasses; fold with a rubber spatula to combine. Fold in the crystallized ginger.
- 7
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 40–45 minutes, depending on your oven.
- 8
Let the cake cool slightly in the pan, then lift it out and transfer it to a wire rack to cool further. Serve with a dollop of homemade whipped cream.
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