Gingerbread Loaf Recipe

Moist and spicy Gingerbread Loaf Cake is whipped up in just a few minutes with simple ingredients. Baked to golden brown perfection and topped with a tangy and sweet cream cheese frosting. Perfect hostess gift for Thanksgiving or Christmas! 

This recipe was requested by my dad. My dad rarely requests baked goods so when he does I know I need to go all out and make it the best ever. His reason for this gingerbread loaf request was because he enjoys a slice at Starbucks. I am happy to say he thought my gingerbread loaf had much better flavor and was overall much nicer. This time of year I can't get enough of the gingerbread flavors- whether its cookie or cake form!

Lets' get to the recipe.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• What frosting should go on a gingerbread loaf? 
• How long does this cake last
• Recipe Card
• Recipe Ratings & Comments

Ingredients

Of course, the star of this recipe is ginger. I personally love a strong ginger flavor- must be the English in me- loads of ginger biscuits growing up. For this recipe, I do use 2 ½ teaspoons of ground ginger- to give you that nice ginger kick. If you are not interested in a strong kick of ginger, by all means, reduce to 1 ½ teaspoons.

Also, I added molasses to this recipe-gingerbread flavor to me always includes a little bit of molasses. I actually HATE the smell of molasses out of the jar- its way to potent for me- but baked in a treat? I am all about the little hint of molasses.

Fresh lemon is also an ingredient I love using- the fresh lemon zest brings everything together so well.

Then you have butter, sugar, eggs, applesauce, flour, some more spices- ground cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg.

Instructions

It's really quite easy, first start off by creaming together your butter and sugar- until it gets very light and fluffy- 3-5 minutes on medium speed- in either your stand mixer or hand-held mixer and a bowl.  Then add the egg- mixing to combine.

Next comes the molasses, applesauce, fresh lemon zest. The mixture will look funny and curdled a bit, that is totally fine. Then I add the spices, salt and baking soda.

I add these first so that I can gently fold the flour in- you don't want to over mix the flour into the batter- this can create a tough gingerbread loaf- we don't want tough. 

Once the flour streaks have just gone pour the gingerbread batter into a greased 9"X5" loaf pan.

What frosting should go on a gingerbread loaf? 

I personally love either a cream cheese or brown butter frosting with gingerbread. I also don't want the frosting to be sickly sweet.

For this gingerbread loaf recipe, I chose a cream cheese frosting - the tang goes beautifully with the gingerbread flavors.

Again I added fresh lemon zest to the frosting- just gives it that something extra. My frosting was on the runnier side- not super runny but not super stiff either. I actually placed my loaf in the fridge for about 10 minutes to help the frosting set.

Then I added chopped up pieces of crystallized ginger.

I love the glisten of the cream cheese frosting and the gorgeous chunks of the crystalized ginger.

How long does this cake last

I stored my cake in the fridge- I tend to store most things in the fridge. Living in Southern California my kitchen is always a bit warm- so I tend to keep things in the fridge to get a longer life out of them. But I didn't have to worry about a long life for this gingerbread. You can totally store it on the counter in an airtight container- the frosting will just be very sticky.

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★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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