Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce & Cream Cheese

Enjoy a traditional Christmas dessert with this easy recipe for Gingerbread Cake topped with lemon sauce and sweet cream cheese. It’s an old-fashioned gingerbread cake that only needs regular pantry staples and just one bowl! Amazingly, a dessert so simple can taste so amazing. Seriously, you can whip up the cake along with both toppings in less than an hour. 

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Christmas is often the time of year when we dust off the old cookbooks and remake traditional recipes from the past. One bite of this cake will take you back in time!

This Gingerbread Cake recipe is one of those vintage recipes, passed on by Gramma Ruthie. She loved to bake it at Christmas in small loaves and send us each home with a loaf pan and little jars of the yummy toppings.

Go beyond the gingerbread cookies and gingerbread houses, with this easy kind of cake.

Why Make This

It’s simple. This flavorful gingerbread cake feels and tastes fancy, but doesn’t take more work than opening a boxed mix. You only need one bowl and a handful of regular baking ingredients.

It’s delicious. Truly, the combination of the warm gingerbread cake with Sweet Cream Cheese Topping and a Lemon Sauce drizzle is so good. It’s got the perfect amount of sweet, tart, and warm spices. It’s also delicious served simply sprinkled with powdered sugar or topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. For even more gingerbread flavor, add a drizzle of Gingerbread Syrup.

It’s make-ahead. You can bake this cake the day ahead or freeze it weeks in advance. Both the toppings freeze well, so you can also freeze any leftovers to enjoy long after the holiday season rolls to an end. It’s a great cake to pair with this Christmas Bundt Cake – they’re different but both festive.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make homemade gingerbread cake:

sugar – I use regular white granulated sugar for this simple gingerbread cake batter.

salt and baking soda – You’ll need both these leavenings to help lighten the cake. Don’t omit either one.

warm spices – I use ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves, but you could also substitute pumpkin pie spice if you have it on hand.

neutral oil – I use avocado oil in my baking, but you can use whatever you normally use for baking.

molasses – Molasses is a sugarcane product with a really strong flavor and is a key ingredient in gingerbread. Depending on where you live it may come in a variety of types: light molasses, dark molasses, and blackstrap molasses. The difference is how many times it’s boiled. This recipe has been tested with Grandma’s brand Original unsulfured which is closest to light molasses. The darker the molasses you use, the stronger flavor your cake will have.

boiling water – You’ll dissolve the baking soda in the hot water to give it a kick start and to make sure it’s well incorporated throughout the batter. 

flour –  I use unbleached, all-purpose flour in my baking, but you can also use bleached, all-purpose flour.

eggs – You’ll need a couple beaten eggs for this recipe. I don’t recommend an egg substitute.

Gingerbread Toppings

Don’t forget the toppings because they really take this gingerbread cake over the top. There are a number of different toppings you can serve with gingerbread.

My favorite is to make one batch of Sweet Cream Cheese and one batch of Lemon Sauce to serve atop the cake.

You can also serve any of the following gingerbread toppings with your cake:

• powdered sugar – sift this over the top for a pretty presentation
• whipped cream – this can be canned or frozen whipped topping or make your own whipped cream.
• caramel sauce – make your own or pick up a jar at the store
• orange buttercream frosting – this homemade frosting is amazingly good on all kinds of cakes.
• vanilla ice cream – serve a scoop on the cake while it’s still warm
• fluffy cream cheese frosting – the best cream cheese frosting, this is great on gingerbread cake

If you’re looking for a smaller gingerbread dessert, be sure to try our Gingerbread Loaf Cake, a Starbucks Copycat.

Step-by-Step Recipe Instructions

Here’s how to make this easy gingerbread recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan with baking or cooking spray and/or line it with parchment paper. This makes cleanup easier and allows the cake to release from the pan best.

In a large bowl combine the sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Whisk until well combined.

Stir in the oil then the molasses, mixing well.

Place the boiling water into a small bowl. Mix the baking soda into the boiling water and immediately stir it into the molasses mixture.

Gradually blend the flour into the wet mixture, then add the beaten eggs.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. 

When the cake is finished baking, remove it from the oven and let the cake cool on a rack.

Serve the cake warm or at room temperature with the sweet cream cheese and warmed lemon sauce.

How to freeze gingerbread cake

To freeze: cool the cake completely. Wrap it well in plastic wrap and place in a ziptop freezer bag. If you don’t have a bag large enough, wrap with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Store in the freezer for up to 6 weeks. To serve, thaw in its wrappings on the counter and then serve.

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This post was originally published on December 19, 2008. It has been updated for content and clarity.