Gingerbread Loaf Cake!
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A sweet and spicy gingerbread loaf cake that’s perfect for christmas, and anytime you fancy something gingerbread! Delicious gingerbread sponge, ginger buttercream frosting, and more!
Gingerbread loaf cake
Tis the season to be jolly, and completely full of gingerbread. (I did sing that to myself in the tune, and it worked!). But anyway… IT’S SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS NOW!
I have always adored gingerbread cake because it is so full of lovely warming flavour, yet makes a change from gingerbread biscuits (not that there is anything wrong with them because helloooo yummy!), but something about ginger cake is just delightful.
Gingerbread
The flavours are similar to sticky toffee pudding in a way, and the mixes are too dissimilar either, but I just adore them both. The thing about gingerbread though? As soon as you even just make the mix of this cake, you house will have a warming smell that reminds you of christmas.
Now, I do often bake cakes similar to this year round, and I know that gingerbread is technically more bonfire night than christmas, but I just relate it to christmas so much more. I love the little gingerbread men you can put on top, and I just loooveeee it.
Repost
This cake was originally up on my blog near four years ago, but through the years of updating my blog and switching all the background stuff around (the stuff that makes my blog work and function) meant that I lost the images for the post!
Yes you could say “what about backups” but I also had an issue with that… so bye bye recipe. Therefore, I decided to repost the cake in all it’s glory, with a bit of an update to the decoration and style, but the sponge is still the classic and delicious it was.
Tin
For the tin, I really do recommend using this loaf tin. I will say this in every loaf cake recipe I do – the tin size can vary SO MUCH, and this has a lot of cake mix. You can switch it up to a different tin if you fancy, but honestly? I just recommend this one to the moon and back.
Decoration
I tend to drizzle my loaf cakes with something sweet just as it can look pretty, but this time I just went for some mini shop bought gingerbread men, and some cute little sprinkles. You can easily use homemade ones, but I find that they always come out so big, and the detail is never the same!
Piping
For the piping, I used my trusty 2D closed star piping tip, and swirled along one way side to side, and then again in the opposite direction. It gives it such a beautiful swirl on the side, and on the top. You can of course pipe on the cake however you fancy, but as we all know I love a thick slab of buttercream on a cake so it worked well!
Old recipe
I’m sorry that this cake was gone for so long – I would have brought it back sooner but I have just been so so busy! If you want to do it the original way, the sponge is the same – it just had a simple water icing dripping instead with some freeze dried raspberries on top!This cake is my ideal for this time of year – it’s easy, delicious, and utterly perfect for winter. I hope you all love this cake as much as I do! Enjoy! x
Gingerbread Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
The Cake
- 225 g unsalted butter
- 225 g dark brown sugar
- 125 g black treacle
- 375 g plain flour
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 medium eggs
- 225 ml whole milk (warmed)
- 2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
Decoration
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 300 g icing sugar
- 2 tsps ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Gingerbread men
- Gingerbread crumbs
- Sprinkles
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin! (***please see notes below)
- In a pan, gently heat the butter, sugar and treacle together in a pan until smooth, allow to cool for 10 minutes!
- In a large bowl, sift the flour, ginger and cinnamon together and pour in the treacle mix – stir to combine.
- Add in the eggs and stir to combine.
- Mix the bicarbonate of soda in with the warm milk and allow it to froth and thicken a little!
- Mix in with the rest of the mixture and pour into the tin!
- Bake in the oven for 50mins-1 hour, or until baked through! Once baked, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then fully cool on a wire rack.
For the Decoration
- Beat your butter on it's own for a few minutes to loosen it and make it lovely and soft!
- Add in the icing sugar, and the spices, and beat again! Continue beating until the buttercream is lovely and fluffy and perfect!
- Pipe your buttercream onto the cake, and decorate with some gingerbread men, and gingerbread crumbs!
Notes
- ***I recommend using this loaf tin for the cake! 2lb loaf tins can vary in size LOADS so please do not over fill your tin. Fill max 2/3 of the way, and make cupcakes with spare mixture if you have any.
- This cake will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days! The flavour keeps on getting better as the days go on.
- You could add some stem ginger to the recipe if you like when you beat in the egg!
- This cake is beautiful with a bit of custard, or a drizzle of cream, or just as it is!
- I also recommend using this piping tip as I just love it!
- And finally, Iced Jems does the BEST sprinkles!
ENJOY!
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J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
What a treat! Loved it. So moist , light and delicious. I did cream cheese and lime icing. Works excellent
Hi Jane, love your recipes this is the 1st one I’ve had a bit of bother with. The mixture didn’t mix well and there were small little lumps when pouring in to loaf tin. Did I do something wrong? Allowed mixture to cool and all but the flour didn’t mix properly.
Unfortunately if the flour was a little lumpy or you haven’t mixed it well enough there will be lumps – try and sift the flour well and use a whisk or similar to gradually add it to prevent it if you struggle x
So delicious and looks great! Made it for Christmas for the family
This was soooooooo delicious!!! My new favourite receipt… am wondering if I made the same recipe but put it in muffin cases instead of a loaf tin, would I still put it in the oven for 55 mins? (Sorry if that’s a dumb question)
Hiya – no the time will reduce. The timings are based on an entire cake not individual ones. Cupcake versions take about 22 minutes!
Hi can you freeze the gingerbread loaf cake ?
Yes you can!
Made this with my daughter who is 9. It is so tasty and a great recipe to do with kids who are interested in baking!!
Made this last Christmas and it was delicious. I absolutely love gingerbread and this did not disappoint!! I’m making it again this year but this time with the buttercream, gingerbread men sprinkles etc and I am so looking forward to it!!! A gorgeous sticky gingerbread loaf 😍
Hi Jane,
These look great! Could I use golden syrup instead of treacle? Thanks!
Yep!!
Amazing cake, good recipe easy to follow
Brilliant recipe, I made a loaf and 12 cupcakes with the amount I had, we don’t use milk so I used coconut milk, it didn’t make the bicarb fizz but it still worked great and is so lovely and moist. I thought id done something wrong as the mixture was so funny but like with every JP recipe it came out great x
I made this over the weekend. A practise cake on Saturday and then 5 more on Sunday for work colleagues and friends. I used the cake tin suggested for some and similar sizes for the rest. Loved how easy it was and even more I loved how much everyone enjoyed it. Thank you for a fab cake. Now I need to see what to bake next.
Amazing cake and easy to follow recipe