Gingerbread Cake Recipe

Gingerbread cake is the old-fashioned kind: a dark, tender, single-layer cake made with molasses, brown sugar and a heavy hand with the ground ginger, mixed in one bowl and baked in a square pan in about thirty-five minutes. It smells like December from the moment the pan goes in, and it stays moist for days, which is more than most cakes can say.

This is the recipe to reach for when you want gingerbread without the rolling pin. There is no chilling, no cutting out shapes and no icing to pipe. The batter is thin, almost pourable, because hot water goes in at the end, and that is exactly what gives the crumb its soft, plush texture. Dust the squares with powdered sugar, pile on whipped cream, or do what the photographs show and serve them with sliced banana and a warm vanilla sauce.

Pictured: the cake baked in a rectangular glass dish and cut into squares, then served with whipped cream, sliced banana and a warm vanilla sauce. The plain squares are how it comes out of the pan; the toppings are the serving idea described under What to Serve.

What Makes This Gingerbread Cake So Moist

Three things. The first is molasses, which is hygroscopic, meaning it holds on to water, so a cake made with it stays moist long after a plain sponge would have dried out. Dark brown sugar helps too, since it carries molasses of its own. Most important is the hot water stirred in at the end of mixing. It thins the batter, dissolves the sugar completely and starts the flour hydrating before the pan even hits the oven, and the result is a fine, even crumb with none of the heaviness that ginger cakes sometimes have.

The spices are balanced toward ginger, with cinnamon in support and just enough cloves and nutmeg to read as gingerbread rather than as a generic spice cake. Two teaspoons of ground ginger sounds like a lot for one small cake, and it is exactly right.

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Ingredient Notes

• All-purpose flour. Two cups, spooned into the cup and leveled. Scooping straight from the bag packs in extra flour and makes the cake dry.
• Baking soda and baking powder. A teaspoon of each. The soda reacts with the acidic molasses and gives the cake its dark color; the powder does the rest of the lifting.
• Ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Two teaspoons of ginger, one of cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of cloves and an eighth of nutmeg. Check the date on the ginger, because old ground ginger loses most of its heat.
• Unsalted butter. A half cup, softened enough that a finger leaves a dent. Cold butter will not cream properly with the sugar.
• Dark brown sugar. Three-quarters of a cup, packed. Light brown or granulated sugar works too, and the pictured batch used granulated; the crumb comes out a shade lighter and a touch less caramel.
• Egg. One large, at room temperature so it blends in without the batter looking curdled.
• Molasses. A half cup of unsulphured molasses. Not blackstrap, which is bitter enough to take over the whole cake. More on this below.
• Hot water or coffee. Three-quarters of a cup, just off the boil. Coffee deepens the molasses flavor without tasting of coffee.

Molasses: Which Kind to Use

Molasses is the syrup left behind when sugarcane juice is boiled and spun to extract the raw sugar, and the University of Illinois Extension groups it into three types: unsulphured, sulphured and blackstrap. Unsulphured molasses is what most supermarkets sell as plain molasses, and it is the one for gingerbread cake. It is sweet, dark and rounded.

Blackstrap is the syrup from the third boiling, and it is bitter, salty and almost black. It shows up in health food aisles because of its mineral content, and it will make this cake taste like medicine. If the label says robust or full flavor, that is a dark molasses and works fine; if it says blackstrap, leave it on the shelf.

How To Make Gingerbread Cake

Heat the oven to 350°F and grease a nine-inch square pan. Line it with a strip of parchment that hangs over two sides, because that is what lets you lift the whole cake out in one piece.

First, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and all four spices together in a bowl so the spices are evenly distributed. There is nothing worse than a bite of gingerbread cake with a pocket of raw ground cloves in it.

Next, beat the softened butter and the brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer for two to three minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy. This is where the cake gets its air, so give it the full time.

Then add the egg and beat until it disappears, and pour in the molasses. Beat again until the mixture is smooth, glossy and an even caramel color with no streaks.

Mixing and Baking

After that, add the dry ingredients and the hot water in alternating additions, starting and ending with the dry: a third of the flour, half the water, a third of the flour, the rest of the water, the last of the flour. Mix each addition only until you cannot see it anymore. The batter will be thin, and that is correct.

Finally, pour the batter into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for thirty to forty minutes. It is done when the center springs back to a light touch and a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. Cool it in the pan for ten minutes, then lift it out by the parchment onto a rack.

How To Tell When Gingerbread Cake Is Done

A dark cake is harder to judge by color than a yellow one, so go by touch and by toothpick. Press the center lightly with a fingertip; done gingerbread cake springs back and leaves no dent. A toothpick pushed into the middle should come out with a few damp crumbs clinging to it. Wet, shiny batter means five more minutes.

The edges are the other tell. They pull away from the sides of the pan by a hair when the cake is ready, and the top loses its wet sheen and looks matte. Overbaking is the main way gingerbread cake goes wrong, so start checking at thirty minutes and trust the toothpick over the clock.

Make It Ahead

This is a cake that improves overnight. The molasses flavor rounds out and the crumb settles into something even softer, so bake it the day before you need it, let it cool completely and wrap it well in the pan. Cut it just before serving.

If you are serving it warm with sauce, reheat individual squares for fifteen seconds in the microwave or ten minutes in a low oven, loosely covered in foil. Room temperature is fine too, and it is the better choice if the topping is whipped cream, which slides straight off a hot square.

For a party, bake two pans a day or two ahead, keep them wrapped and uncut, and make the vanilla sauce the morning of. Cut the gingerbread cake into squares an hour before guests arrive and leave the toppings in bowls alongside so everyone builds their own.

Storing Gingerbread Cake

Keep gingerbread cake covered at room temperature for up to three days. It does not need refrigerating, and the fridge dries it out faster than the counter does. If you have topped it with whipped cream, store the cake and the cream separately.

Gingerbread cake freezes very well. Wrap the whole cooled cake, or individual squares, tightly in plastic and then in foil, and freeze for up to three months. Thaw at room temperature, still wrapped, for a couple of hours. A square from the freezer with a spoonful of warm vanilla sauce over it is very nearly as good as one from the oven.

A square that has gone a little dry on day four is not lost. Ten seconds in the microwave brings the molasses back to life, and a spoonful of sauce or a scoop of ice cream covers the rest.

Variations and Substitutions

Spice and Flavor Swaps

Fresh ginger. Add a tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger with the molasses for a sharper, brighter heat on top of the ground ginger.

Crystallized ginger. A third of a cup, chopped small and folded in at the end, gives little chewy pockets of sweet heat.

Orange. The zest of one orange beaten in with the butter and sugar. Orange and molasses are old friends.

Coffee. Use hot brewed coffee in place of the water. The cake does not taste of coffee; the molasses just tastes more like itself.

Frosted. Once the cake is completely cool, spread a thin layer of cream cheese frosting over the top for a version closer to the Starbucks gingerbread loaf.

Pan Sizes and Doubling

A nine-inch square pan is standard. An eight-inch square gives a taller cake and needs five to ten minutes longer. The pictured batch was baked in an 11-by-7-inch rectangular glass dish, which bakes in the same time as the nine-inch square; glass runs a little hotter at the edges, so check it early. Double the recipe for a 9-by-13-inch pan and bake for forty to forty-five minutes.

What to Serve with Gingerbread Cake

With Banana and Vanilla Sauce (Pictured)

This is how the squares in the photographs are dressed, and it is worth trying. Top a warm square with a spoonful of whipped cream and a few slices of banana, then pour over a warm vanilla sauce. The banana is a surprise against the ginger, sweet and soft where the cake is dark and spicy, and the sauce soaks into the crumb.

For the vanilla sauce, whisk a half cup of sugar with a tablespoon of cornstarch in a small saucepan, stir in a cup of water and cook over medium heat, stirring, until it thickens and turns clear, about three minutes. Take it off the heat and stir in two tablespoons of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla. It makes about a cup and keeps for a week in the fridge.

Other Ways to Serve It

Plain with a dusting of powdered sugar is the classic. Lightly sweetened whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream both work, and lemon curd or a spoonful of applesauce cut through the molasses nicely. Alongside coffee it belongs in the same company as a cinnamon roll coffee cake.

For a holiday dessert table, cut gingerbread cake into smaller two-inch squares and set it beside a Texas sheet cake, so there is something dark and spiced next to something chocolate.

Gingerbread Cake FAQ

More Questions About Gingerbread

Bake a pan on a cold afternoon, let the kitchen fill with ginger and molasses, and eat the first square warm with a spoonful of vanilla sauce. The rest will keep until the weekend, if it lasts that long, and the carrot cake is a good one to bake next.