A cozy, perfectly spiced gingerbread transformed into a layer cake and iced with a delicate, whipped brown sugar & bourbon frosting.
Hello, December.
I don’t know how this month got here so quickly, but here we are, and I’m welcoming the twilight hours of 2015 the best way I know how: with cake.
I can’t think of any better way to herald a month so chock-full-of festivities and my favorite holidays (and most importantly, my birthday 😉 ).
I played Christmas music in the background as I worked my way through four renditions of this cake, and every ounce of Christmas magic that I could muster went into contriving the perfect combination of butter, flour, molasses and spices (I suspect having a Christmas tree in the house would have helped, but our home is still woefully absent one, though I hope to change that this weekend).
While I usually prefer to make my cakes with oil, the attempts made with butter had a clearly superior flavor, and so butter it was.
This cake is soft, moist, and while it’s slightly heavier than I usually prefer my cakes, it is appropriately so, touched by a generous pouring of rich, dark molasses. It reminds me of a carrot cake, only minus the carrots, and more strongly spiced.
And forget sugarplums dancing in your head, this frosting is the stuff dreams are made of. A scant shot of bourbon lends an almost caramel-flavored undertone to the icing, subtle but warm and present. Whipped into a brown sugar infused cream cheese frosting alongside a freshly split vanilla bean, it is the perfect cozy frosting for this wintry cake.
I’ve included a second, super easy, recipe below for sugared cranberries, as well, just in case you want to decorate your cake with them, too. They make for an interesting, sweet-then-tart poppable snack that I’m not personally overly fond of, but that went over well at a family party last weekend (and looked amazing on top of the cake, if I do say so myself).
Happy December.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup molasses
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cups brown sugar tightly packed
- 3 large eggs preferably room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp buttermilk
Brown Sugared Bourbon Frosting
- 12 oz cream cheese softened to room temperature, 1 & 1/2 packages
- 12 Tbsp salted butter softened to room temperature, 1 & 1/2 sticks
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar tightly packed
- 1 tsp vanilla bean or 1 vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp bourbon
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and prepare 3 9-inch round cake pans by lightly greasing and flouring. Set aside.
- In KitchenAid, beat the butter on medium-low speed until creamed.
- Add molasses and sugars, beat until light, fluffy and well combined (pausing to scrape down sides of bowl as needed).
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- In separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices (ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice) until combined.
- With the mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, alternating with the buttermilk (add about 1/5 of the flour, as soon as it is mostly combined add about 1/5 of the buttermilk, continuing in this pattern until all of the flour mixture and all of the buttermilk have been added). Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl to be sure ingredients are well-combined.
- Evenly divide batter between prepared cake pans.
- Bake on 350F for 30-35 minutes (use a toothpick test to ensure done-ness; a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan should come out clean or with crumbs--not batter). Be sure to check each cake separately, as your oven may not cook evenly.
- Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the inside rim of the cake pan to loosen from the sides. Allow cakes to cool completely in pan before inverting and icing.
Icing
- In KitchenAid (or with hand mixer) cream together butter and cream cheese.
- Add brown sugar, stirring until combined.
- Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds from the inside and scoop into cream cheese/butter/brown sugar mixture.
- Add bourbon and stir until well-combined.
- Gradually (about 1/2 cup at a time) add powdered sugar to mixture. Pause occasionally to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
- Increase speed to medium-high and add heavy cream, beat until mixture is lightly whipped.
- Once cakes have cooled, ice/assemble cakes by generously icing between layers, applying an even layer on the top of the cake, and then applying a scant, semi-naked layer around the outside of the cake.
- Top with sugared cranberries if desired.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar + 2 cups sugar divided
- 3 cups fresh cranberries rinsed
Instructions
- Set out a wire cookie cooling rack over a piece of wax paper (to catch any spills) and set beside your stove.
- In medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine sugar and water, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved (do not let mixture come to a boil, it should just be warm enough to dissolve the sugar).
- Add the cranberries and stir well until completely coated.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove cranberries from the water and lay out on the wire rack (it's best if the cranberries are not touching each other).
- Allow to sit at least an hour (they will become very sticky).
- Place your 2 cups sugar in a large bowl and, working in batches (about 1 cup of cranberries at a time) toss the cranberries in the sugar until well-coated.
- Return to wire rack and allow to sit at least 1 hour.
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CL says
December 26, 2018 at 4:29 amI made this cake for Christmas dessert and it was excellent – a great blend of spices and the perfect amount of ginger to make it sing! I made a simple whipped cream and cream cheese frosting and it all turned out to be actually quite light. We were a group of 7 so I halved the recipe and used 3×6″ pans with a baking time of 23 mins. A perfect Christmas dessert! BTW I have also made your chocolate cake and it was outstanding as well!
Sam says
December 26, 2018 at 11:48 amI am so glad everyone enjoyed it! 🙂
Marisa says
December 23, 2018 at 10:02 amHi Cecilia, can I make this cake 1 day ahead? Would you recommend refrigerating it or leaving it out covered? Or maybe I should make a day ahead but assemble the day of? Just trying to do as much ahead of time as possible. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Sam says
December 23, 2018 at 11:39 amHi Marisa, this cake can be made a day ahead. If I were you, a day or 2 before I’d probably bake the layers, let them cool, then wrap them in plastic wrap and leave them at room temperature. You can also make the frosting a day or 2 in advance and store it in the refrigerator. Then, the day you’d like to serve you can simply assemble everything, just keep in mind that the frosting will firm up in the fridge and you may want to let it sit at room temperature for an hour or longer to make it easy to spread over the cake. I prefer to leave my cakes at room temperature because the refrigerator can dry them out, but if you’re keeping longer than a day or two I would store in an airtight container in the fridge. I hope that helps!
Marisa says
December 23, 2018 at 3:18 pmThank you so much for your quick response! I’m excited to make this beautiful cake!
Sara says
December 20, 2017 at 5:51 pmI want to use this frosting for cupcakes, but I’m worried it might be too thin to pipe on. Do you think it’d be okay, or can you recommend tweaks to ensure its thick enough for piping?
Sam says
December 20, 2017 at 11:07 pmThis one would be a little thin, I would try leaving out the heavy cream. If it’s still not sturdy enough you can add more powdered sugar (1/4 cup at a time), but leaving out the heavy cream should make it OK for piping. I hope that helps!
A Different Sarah says
February 7, 2018 at 1:46 amSorry, leaving out the heavy cream isn’t enough! I’m experimenting with adding powdered buttercream to stiffen the icing – it works for plain cream cheese icing, so might work for this. I’ll report back with my findings!
Other than that detail, fantastic recipe! The icing and cake compliment each other so well, and the cranberries just work with it somehow. (I’m not a fan of cranberries in general, so perhaps my liking it says something?)
Sam says
February 12, 2018 at 10:56 pmHmm, it’s hard to know without trying it myself but I wonder if cutting the butter to 6 Tbsp would also help, and then you could also always increase the powdered sugar if needed. I am glad you have enjoyed the recipe otherwise!! 🙂
Cecelia says
December 11, 2017 at 11:18 amHi! Beautiful cake! I’m planning to make it for Christmas Day at my in laws. Since I will be making it the day before and I have a three hour journey the day of, I wanted to create a thicker layer of frosting to make sure it doesn’t dry out. Is the frosting recipe as-is enough? Or do you think I should double it? Please let me know and thanks for the recipe!
Sam says
December 11, 2017 at 11:58 pmHi Cecelia! I’d recommend increasing the frosting by 50% or even doubling it. Another thing is that this is a pretty thin frosting to make it easy to do the semi-naked frosting, so if you want to fully frost the cake I think I would recommend leaving out the heavy cream, or maybe you could get away with just reducing it to 1 Tbsp so that it is firm enough to spread all over the cake without it sliding off in-transit. I hope that helps, but please let me know if you have any other questions!!! I hope everyone loves the cake! 🙂
Erin says
December 10, 2017 at 2:00 pmDried ground or fresh grated ginger?
Sam says
December 12, 2017 at 12:06 amDried ground
Patty Niemann says
November 2, 2017 at 4:04 pmCan this cake be made into cupcakes? I noticed you do have a gingerbread cupcake recipe but wondered about using this one. It was made for our son’s and daughter-in-law’s wedding reception as a cake “as is’. But now, I’d like to have smaller portions for another reception we are having here at our house for them.
Thoughts, please and thanks.
Sam says
November 2, 2017 at 10:39 pmHi Patty! I tried them as cupcakes but didn’t love them that way, which is why I developed the cupcake recipe. I like that one much more for cupcakes, so while you *can* make the gingerbread cake as cupcakes, I like the cupcake recipe I shared better. The biggest difference is they cupcakes are a bit softer and less dense. I hope that helps!
Cassie says
May 4, 2017 at 4:08 pmHey there! I’m a little late to the party, but what if I don’t have any equipment, electrical equipment. What do you suggest instead?
Sam says
May 10, 2017 at 12:25 pmHmm, do you at least have an electric hand mixer, or none whatsoever? I really recommend using an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugars together.
Alisha says
January 10, 2017 at 12:22 amHello! I’m a little late but I baked this cake for Christmas and wanted to let everyone know – since everyone’s mainly commented on how beautiful your cake is, which it definitely is, but nonetheless taste is at least half of it too 😉 – this cake is phenomenal! I did not buy all spice and subbed in a slightly smaller measurement of cloves. The first 2 layers didn’t bake as well (kind of flat) but that may have been due to my oven and the 3rd baked beautifully. It was better off as to prevent sliding since I added some milk and my icing was thinner (not recommended). ANYWAYS – the cake was PERFECT, moist, similar to a carrot cake in consistency although not quite as dense (plus), and the flavor was AMAZING. My mom doesn’t even like gingerbread but that night she DID and even had a piece the next day! If anything, I think next time I will add a touch more of ginger to it. Absolutely loved it though. Great recipe!
Sam says
January 14, 2017 at 3:06 amAlisha thank you SO MUCH for coming back and letting me know how you liked the cake!!! I’m so glad that you and your family enjoyed not only it’s appearance, but the TASTE, too! 🙂
Alisha says
December 24, 2016 at 1:46 pmHi! I’m using salted butter for the cake. What did you use? (I need to skip adding the extra salt if you used unsalted.) Hopefully you can answer in time! If not, I’m sure we’all all live 🙂
Sam says
December 24, 2016 at 1:53 pmHi Alisha! I used unsalted, so yeah I would just use 1/4 – 1/2 tsp if you are using salted butter. I hope you love the cake, Merry Christmas! 🙂
Alisha says
December 24, 2016 at 4:32 pmGreat!!! Thanks so much. I hope so too 🙂 Merriest of Christmases to you as well Sam!