Gingerbread Layer Cake

For the gingerbread cookie lovers! This spiced gingerbread cake packs warm and toasty Christmas vibes in every bite! It features all the classic elements of gingerbread cookies but in beautiful layered cake form and frosted with velvety cream cheese frosting. This cake is rich and decadent but still so soft and moist!

what make this gingerbread cake SO GOOD?

• cozy flavor: This cake features all the ingredients you'd find in a classic gingerbread cookie, but with a few additions to turn it into a delicious cake! It's full of cozy spices and molasses flavor, which also gives it its beautiful deep brown color.
• spongy texture: This cake is adapted from my favorite vanilla cupcakes recipe, but with a few tweaks to allow it to withstand the added moisture from the molasses! A combination of cornstarch, molasses, brown sugar, oil, and sour cream all help give the cake it's beautiful texture. The result is an unbelievably soft and spongy cake that is SO MOIST.
• decorations: When I made my shortbread Christmas tree sticks, they got A LOT of love on Instagram, so I thought it would be really cute to do the same kind of idea but with gingerbread cookies! They look so cute on top of this cake paired with the little gingerbread men!

how to make gingerbread layer cake

Considering what you're getting, this cake is relatively easy to make. It's mostly just a whole lot of mixing and whisking! Here's a quick little look at how this cake is made, but as always, you can find the full ingredient amounts and instructions further down in this post.

To make the gingerbread cake layers:

1. Whisk together dry ingredients.
2. Cream together butter, oil, and sugar.
3. Whisk in eggs followed by molasses and vanilla.

4. Alternate whisking in dry ingredients and milk & sour cream.
5. Portion into cake pans and bake!
6. Cool the cakes for about 5 minutes in the pans then on a wire rack until fully cooled.

The nice thing about these cakes is that they bake up quite even and flat on top, making them extra easy to layer and assemble later on. If you do notice some doming, feel free to trim the tops to even out the cakes if you'd like.

Make the cream cheese frosting:

1. Cream together butter and cream cheese until lump free.
2. Mix in half of the powdered sugar and then the remaining half once combined.
3. Whisk in salt and vanilla.
4. Whip until smooth and fluffy.

tips for assembling this cake

Cream cheese frosting is famous for being softer and more difficult to work with, but there are a few tips and tricks that will help make it just as sturdy as buttercream!

1. Temperature: It's important to allow the cream cheese and butter to soften to room temperature to ensure your frosting whips up nice and smooth, but there is also such a thing as over softened butter - and it can make the frosting extra soft and difficult to work with. Usually butter is perfectly softened after sitting out at room temperature for around 1 hour (but this can change depending on the season and hot warm / cool your home is. If you poke the butter with your finger and it mushes into a misshapen blob, it's too soft.
2. Dealing with soft frosting: If you find the frosting is too soft to work with once it's all whipped up (it happens sometimes and that's normal!) then my favorite trick is to pop the frosting into the fridge for a few minutes to allow it to firm up enough to use. This is especially helpful if you want to use the frosting to pipe details on the cake!
3. Frosting the outside of the cake: This cake really benefits from a crumb coat before you actually frost the outside. If you're not familiar with it, a crumb coat is simply a very thin layer of frosting your spread on the outside of the cake to essentially seal in any stray crumbs. The cake is then chilled (for the crumb coat to set) then the actual outside coating of frosting is spread on. This creates a flawless outside without little pieces of cake.
4. When in doubt, chill: If at any point you have difficulty, simply stop what you're doing and pop the cake and frosting into the fridge to allow everything to set up enough to comfortably work with.

how to decorate gingerbread cake

Now it's time for the fun part! You can really get creative when decorating this gingerbread cake! For my cake, I had some leftover gingerbread cookie dough that I used to make little Christmas tree toppers and a few gingerbread men. If you want to create the same decorations as my cake, here's how to do it:

1. Make the gingerbread cookie dough: You can use your favorite recipe for this, but I always use this one!
2. Roll and cut the dough: Use a small gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut out a few cookies and then cut out a few little sticks of cookie dough. I used sticks of dough that are a little over ⅛th inch thick, ¼ inch wide, and then varied the lengths of the sticks between 2 to 4 inches to create different heights for the trees.
3. Chill the cutouts: To help the cookies keep their shape, arrange the cutouts on a parchment lined baking sheet and chill in the freezer for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they feel solid.
4. Bake: I recommend baking the gingerbread men and the sticks in separate batches in the oven because the sticks will bake faster. If you used my gingerbread cookie recipe, the sticks will need to bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 7 to 9 minutes and the gingerbread men will need around 8 to 11 minutes. The cookies are ready to come out of the oven once the bottom edges are slightly darker brown and the surface no longer appears wet. I personally like to slightly overbake the sticks just so they're more sturdy.
5. Cool COMPLETELY then decorate: I decorated the gingerbread men with just some leftover cream cheese frosting from the cake. For the trees, I used melted green candy melts to pipe branches then topped with a mix of white nonpareils and dragee sprinkles while the candy was still wet. For more detailed instructions for making Christmas tree cookie sticks, you can also follow the steps in my shortbread Christmas tree sticks recipe here!

If you do decorate your cake with gingerbread cookies, I recommend waiting until right before serving to wedge them into the cake. The moisture from the cake, frosting, and the fridge can soften the cookies and make them more prone to breaking. After wedging in the cookies, I also sprinkled some shredded coconut and dusted powdered sugar on top of the cake for a snowy look!

more tips

1. Preparing your pans: The molasses in this cake means it's going to be extra sticky, so make sure to thoroughly grease the pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper rounds. Dusting the sides of the pans with some flour also helps the baked cakes slide out smoothly.
2. Room temperature ingredients: In order for the batter to whip up evenly, with enough air, and without baking up greasy, it's important to use room temperature ingredients!
3. Measuring the flour: Flour is very easy to accidentally overmeasure and it can lead to a dry and crumbly cake. It's always best to measure by weight if you can, but if you are using cups, make sure to gently spoon the flour into your measuring cup and use a flat utensil to level off any excess.
4. Mixing the batter: Overmixing the cake batter will lead to a sunken in center and dense texture. This is mostly a potential problem after the flour is added, so make sure to stop mixing the batter as soon as the ingredients are combined!
5. Baking: This cake can easily go from soft and spongy to dense and dry in an instance, so keep a close eye on it when it comes closer to the end of the bake time. A skewer inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean with a few moist cake crumbs!
6. Cooling: Cakes can continue to dry out as they cool in the pans from the residual heat of the pan. So it's important to turn them out as soon as you can. Cakes need about 5 to 10 minutes of cooling in the pan just to allow the fats and sugars to solidify slightly before turning them out.

gingerbread layer cake storage

To store the unfrosted gingerbread cake layers, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. The less air the cake is exposed to, the longer it will last!

To freeze the cake layers, wrap tightly in plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. Freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature for a few hours or in the fridge overnight before frosting.

To store the frosted cake, keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. The frosted cake can remain uncovered, but once you slice it, cover any exposed cake with plastic wrap pressed against it to keep it soft. The cake is best served at room temperature, so I would recommend setting it out on your countertop for about 30 minutes before serving!

Check out these other recipes!

• Sugar Cookie Cheesecake
• Gingerbread Cookie Bars
• White Christmas Cake
• Giant Sugar Cookie Cake
• MOIST Maple Cake

Lastly, if you made this or any of my recipes, be sure to leave a comment and review below! I love hearing your thoughts! Also tag me on Instagram @eatsdelightfulblog so I can see what you're making.

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Enjoy!

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