Gingerbread Cake

There's just nothing better than homemade Gingerbread Cake, especially this time of year. It is the perfect fall or winter cake for the holidays, when our cravings for all things cozy are in full swing!

What I love about this cozy dessert is that it incorporates all of the flavors of gingerbread into fluffy cake layers. The Spiced Cream Cheese filling and frosting pair beautifully with the moist gingerbread cake layers. It's a match made in heaven.

How to Make Gingerbread Cake

*You can find our full, printable recipe card further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of the steps!

• First, preheat the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. I also like to use a circle of parchment paper at the bottom of each pan.

• In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients: all purpose flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds and set aside.

• In another bowl, add these wet ingredients: hot water, vegetable oil and molasses. Stir and set aside.

• With an electric mixer (using a paddle attachment if a stand mixer), beat the unsalted butter until smooth. Next, slowly add the granulated sugar (white sugar) and mix 4 to 5 minutes on medium speed until fluffy and lightened in color.

• Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing after each just until the yolk is blended.

• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the wet mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet ingredients).

• Mix just until blended after last addition. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. 

• Divide the cake batter into each of the three prepared cake pans (8 inch) and bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes. Bake times can vary slightly--the cake layers are done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached).

• Cool the cake layers in the pans on a wire rack for ten minutes before turning our the warm gingerbread cake layers.

Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

There are many frostings that would taste great with this recipe, but we always love the combination of tangy cream cheese frosting with our spice cakes. There's just something magical about this pairing!

For our spiced cream cheese frosting recipe, we've altered one of our go-to cream cheese frosting recipes by adding a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon. The result is heavenly- you'll want to just dive right into the frosting bowl!

Keep in mind that cream cheese frostings are softer than most buttercream frostings that you may be used to working with.

If at any time the frosting becomes too soft, just pop it into the refrigerator to chill for several minutes to thicken the consistency. You can do the same with your piping bags as needed.

I also like to chill the crumb coated (thin layer of frosting) cakes in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm everything up before applying the final coat of frosting. It is just easier to decorate cakes when they are chilled! 

Alternative Frostings

**Since cakes frosted with cream cheese frosting should be refrigerated until closer to the time of serving, you can use a less perishable frosting if you need to.

Simply add the same spices to your favorite vanilla buttercream recipe for a spiced buttercream frosting! (Our classic vanilla buttercream or fluffy vanilla buttercream recipes are good options!)

Assembling the Gingerbread Cake

• This moist gingerbread cake couldn't be simpler to assemble! Place the first cooled cake layer on a cake plate or pedestal. Spread with a layer of spiced cream cheese frosting. Repeat for the next two cake layers.

• Frost the top and sides of the cake with a thin layer (crumb coat) of frosting. At this point, I like to chill the cake for 10-15 minutes in the freezer until firm. This is an optional step, but helpful!

• Next, frost the cake with the second (final) layer of frosting. We added additional texture around the sides (see our easy ridged buttercream technique tutorial)! 

• We also added a shell border with a medium sized star tip 21. (See our tutorial on piping with a star tip for more details on borders!)

• Decorate the cake however you like! The options are endless. Make sure to chill the frosting or piping bag for a few minutes if it becomes too soft!

Recipe FAQs

Favorite Spice Cakes

In addition to this amazing spiced gingerbread cake recipes, we've made several other favorites as well! If you love spice cakes, make sure to place these on your "must-bake" list!

Some of our favorites are Spice Cake, Pumpkin Spice Cake, Applesauce Spice Cake, Orange Spice Cake (from cake mix). We also have a great recipe for homemade spice cupcakes and Chai Cake as well.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this delicious Gingerbread cake.

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