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My favorite recipe for a beautifully classic and flavorful gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting. Add sugared cranberries to dress it up for the holidays!
I have had this cake in my head for years and never mustered up the guts to make it. The cranberries scared me. The gingerbread scared me. The whole fancy-holiday-dessert thing scared me.
But I did it, and it wasn’t scary at all! In fact, it was reallyreally easy. And REALLY good. I can’t believe I put this off for so long!
So first off: these cranberries. As it turns out, these whimsical sugared cranberries are incredibly easy to make. And they don’t even take a very long time– especially if you’re just making them for show. (If you want to make them really sweet, it would actually be best to leave them in a simple syrup for a fewdays.) If you don’t mind your cranberries a little tart, then you can have these little jewels ready in about 30 minutes or less!
Holly jolly indeed!
I’ve also read that by combining two different sugars with different-sized granules (for instance: turbinado sugar has larger granules than run-of-the-mill granulated sugar), these cranberries can look even prettier!
But I wasn’t in the mood to buy a small box of turbinado for $8, so I just used the granulated sugar I had on hand, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. But that’s up to you 🙂
As for the cream cheese frosting, I used my standard go-to recipe. It’s the perfect buffer between the spiced cake and the tart cranberries both in looks and in flavor. I love how the red berries POP against the white frosting!
I’ve always been a little nervous working with ginger, which is why the thought of a gingerbread cake scared me so much! It’s one of those dangerous flavors that can go very wrong very fast.
I can’t stand the smell of ginger. I know It’s supposed to help with nausea, but I swear it has the completely opposite effect on me. ????Bleh!
The thought of accidentally “overdosing” the cake completely grosses me out, which is why I’ve procrastinated this recipe for years and years and years. But I finally worked up the nerve last week, grabbed my bottle of ground ginger, and made it happen. After 7 years of baking dessert for a living, Ifinallymade my very first gingerbread cake 🙂
The flavors are simply beautiful. The ginger pairs harmoniously with the other spices and the molasses so that there is absolutely no overpowering ginger taste. Instead, you get a perfectly spiced cake with subtle flavors that work together.
The texture is rich and moist, thanks to my favorite secret cake ingredient: sour cream. Greek yogurt works well too, so feel free to use whichever you have on hand!
Enjoy! And happy baking this holiday season!
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Yield: 12
My favorite recipe for a beautifully classic and flavorful gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting. Add sugared cranberries to dress it up for the holidays!
Ingredients
- 3 cups cake flour*1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons ground ginger1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg4 large eggs, room temperature1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar1 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled1 cup sour cream, room temperature1/2 cup molasses
- 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
- Optional: 1 recipe Sugared Cranberries
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Generously spray a bundt cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, butter, sour cream, and molasses.
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ingredients into the center of the bowl. Gently stir to combine ingredients until a lumpy batter forms.
Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 20 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Let cool completely.
Top with cream cheese frosting and cranberries.
Notes
*You can sub 2-3/4 cup all purpose flour + 1/4 cup cornstarch
