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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I was wanting to make gingerbread. This is perfect! I will try adding more spice next time but over all w the vanilla creme amd banana, it was awesome!
This cake was to die for with the sauce!
I did add additional Cinnamon & Ginger (1 Tbs Cinnamon & 1 Tbs Ginger instead of what was listed). I also added zest of 1 medium orange.
The flavor & texture of the cake was GREAT!!!! Everyone raved about it!!
The cake was very moist & not dry at all. Anyone who had issues with dryness or texture, probably didn’t measure flour accurately or overbaked it. Mine was done in 22 minutes with Convection Bake setting.
I weigh my ingredients for accuracy. These measurements may be helpful:
2 1/2 C Flour = 300 g Flour
1/2 C Sugar = 99 g Sugar
The sauce tastes like a “white” Caramel. It is soooo good! I let the sauce cool to luke warm and dumped it over the cake, rotating the pan to distribute than spreading with an off set spatula. I refrigerated the cake and the sauce set up and did not make the cake soggy.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!
BEST GINGERBREAD!!!!!
Great ideas and thank you for the weighed measurements, I plan to make this today for our family Christmas tomorrow.
How long would I bake in a decorative loaf pan?
I take a treat to our church every Wednesday evening. This Wednesday it will be Gingerbread.
❤️
This is a 5-star recipe by all accounts. ITS SIMPLY DELICIOUS!! Very moist and full of flavor. I made the cake according to the recipe without substations. I served it with the topping and cool whip (no need for bananas). Perfect💕💕
In general, I like lightly-sweetened deserts, but 1-cup of molasses/ 1/2 c sugar is not sweet enough for this cake without the sweet cream sauce or other sweetener.
I recommend 1/2 c molasses, 1/2 c br sugar, 1/2 c wh sugar if no topping is used.
My family loved this. I am gluten free, so made it with Outrageous Baking flour mix. It was wonderful. We used whipped cream instead of the sauce, but I will definitely be saving this recipe to use again!
Made this recipe today. I am celiac, so I used Outrageous Baking flour mix instead of regular flour.
It’s fabulous. We use wiped cream instead of the sauce, because that’s what we do with gingerbread. But, the recipe is fabulous!
I wondered about the pan size (9×13) but followed instructions. I checked at 30 minutes and it was already a bit dry. I would try it again but in an 8×10 pan.
I made this today and turned out amazing. I made cupcakes and doubled the recipe. Didn’t have any problems with doing so. I made big cupcakes, and it took almost 20 minutes to bake. I’ll use this recipe again.
Does this taste nice when cold too? Had anyone tried ?
I made the cake and had to leave…the cake cooled and when I returned, I made the vanilla creme. Poured it over the cake and it was delicious!