This easy Gingerbread Cake recipe is topped with homemade vanilla cream sauce, bananas, and whipped cream. It could be my favorite holiday cake ever!
Do you love gingerbread? Try our Gingerbread Waffles, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Build a Gingerbread House, or make Gingerbread Cookies!
Why I love this cake:
- Light – The texture of this easy gingerbread cake is perfectly light, fluffy, and moist. Plus, your house will smell of freshly baked gingerbread.
- The Toppings – You must add a drizzle of the vanilla cream sauce, with sliced bananas and whipped cream, to get the full experience!
- Family Favorite – My mom shared this recipe with me from one of her best friends (thanks Kristen!) and its been a highlight of our season ever since.
How to make Gingerbread Cake:
Mix Wet Ingredients: Cream the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the eggs and molasses then mix well.
Stir Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Combine the wet and dry ingredients then slowly pour in the hot water and stir until smooth.
Bake: Pour batter into a 9”x 13” pan. Bake gingerbread cake for 20-35 minutes.
Serve: This classic gingerbread cake recipe is delicious by itself (and totally acceptable to eat it as a stand-alone), but I just can't resist the combination of fresh bananas, whipped cream, and the most amazing warm vanilla cream sauce drizzled on top. It's outstanding!
Make Ahead, Storage, and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The vanilla cream sauce can be made a few days in advance, stored in the fridge in an airtight container. Rewarm before serving.
To Store: The ginger cake recipe keeps well at room temperature for 2 days, or in the fridge for about a week.
To Freeze: Wrap the gingerbread cake in plastic wrap then aluminum foil, and place in a freezer safe bag or airtight container. Freeze for up to 2 months. Let thaw overnight at room temperature before serving. If you'd like it warm, heat it in the microwave for a few seconds.
More Christmas Treats:
- Peppermint Brownies
- Chocolate Fudge
- Homemade Caramels
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake
- Red Velvet Bundt Cake
- Super Soft Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Raspberry Cake
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Recipe
Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cake:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 large egg , beaten
- 1 cup unsulphered molasses
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup very hot water
- bananas for topping
- fresh whipped cream , for topping
Vanilla Cream Sauce:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13” pan with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter until smooth and light.
- Add the egg and molasses then mix well. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together: flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir to combine. Slowly pour in the hot water and stir until smooth (batter will be thin).
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Serve warm, topped with fresh sliced bananas, whipped cream, and vanilla cream sauce.
For the Vanilla Cream Sauce:
- Add sugar, butter and cream to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until butter has melted.
- Bring mixture to a boil then boil, stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
- Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving over cake.
Notes
Nutrition
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*I originally shared this recipe November 2015. Updated December 2018 and December 2023.
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This cake was so yummy! Each Christmas we choose a cake recipe and make a birthday cake for baby Jesus. My 12 yr old daughter made this independently and it was a cake worthy of the King.
Absolutely delicious recipe! I love it. We made it for our new year party! Our friends are going to love it!
I unfortunately didn’t have heavy whipping cream so I made an orange buttercream frosting instead. While I would have liked the vanilla topping on this better, the orange buttercream frosting recipe I found still tastes delicious.
But back to this recipe: This cake tastes FANTASTIC even without the frosting/topping and could be eaten on its own. It is not overly sweet nor is it bitter, it’s just perfect!
This is the only Gingerbread cake recipe I will be using from now on. So thank you very much for this recipe!
WOW! If there was an option to rate this dessert with more stars I would be all over it. It was the absolute BEST gingerbread cake I have ever eaten, let alone made. The recipe is clear and easy to follow. I followed the recipe to a “T” and would not change a single thing. It was moist, fluffy, full of gingerbread deliciousness and everything I was hoping for and more. I brought it to our family holiday get together, and it was the star of the show! The vanilla sauce and bananas were such a great addition as well. I cannot say enough good things about this recipe. We decided that it will be a new yearly tradition for our holiday get togethers from now on. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! <3
Loved this though I accidentally only added a half cup of molasses and it actually came out perfect. Because this was an accident I didn’t sub anything else in for it and it was still amazing. So if you feel 1 cup of molasses would be too strong than just cut to half a cup and make the cake as it and I can guarantee that will come out perfect!! It was a very happy mistake especially after reading all the reviews that it was too much molasses.
This cake is so good. We modified it and used Lakanto Monkfruit sweetener instead of sugar to lower the carbs a bit, and it was still REALLY good.
This cake is delish. At other reviewer suggestions I did increase to 1 tablespoon cinnamon and 2 teaspoons ginger. My cake took 26 minutes to bake. Super moist, flavorful and perfect crumb. The sauce, banana and whipped cream topping sounded like a lot on paper, but it was not and instead was crazy good.
Bland and flavorless. Should have bought a box mix…
My husband hates gingerbread and he absolutely love how this came out. Donated 2 to our church fundraiser today.
perfection
My family loves this, we want to make it a new holiday tradition! Thanks for the recipe!
One of my new favorites! It was SO good!