Gingerbread Bundt Cake: Soft and Festive Holiday Dessert
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This soft and spicy Gingerbread Bundt Cake is perfect for the holidays, or an evening curled up in front of the fire. It’s a super moist, classic gingerbread cake recipe packed with ginger and festive spices, finished with an optional but recommended chocolate drizzle.
While this Spicy Gingerbread Bundt Cake might resemble a chocolate cake, and there is cocoa powder in it, one taste and you’ll know the difference. It’s spicy and gingery, soft and moist… and incredibly delicious. Every bite bursts with the flavors you expect in gingerbread.
I also love that you can decorate it however you want, be it for every day during the holidays or to serve to guests. Melted chocolate, powdered sugar, freshly whipped cream, or even a cream cheese glaze would all work.
Gingerbread Bundt Cake Ingredients
Measurements are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but here is a list of the needed ingredients.
- All-purpose flour
- Butter softened to room temperature
- Large eggs for texture and stability
- Baking powder and salt for leavening and flavor
- Brown sugar plus granulated sugar for the perfect sweetener
- Molasses: use your favorite, but I do prefer a milder flavor instead of blackstrap.
- Instant espresso powder is optional but highly advised!
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Gingerbread Spices: Vanilla extract, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Milk of choice
Chocolate Drizzle Ingredients
All you need is two ingredients to make this simple Chocolate Drizzle recipe:
- Chocolate chips (in your preferred flavor– milk, dark, semi-sweet, or bittersweet).
- Butter (salted or unsalted)
How to Make Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Preheat oven to 325°F—grease and lightly flour the Bundt pan and set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, espresso powder, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, pepper, and baking powder. Set aside.
With an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy; about 3 minutes. Don’t rush this step; you want the butter mixture to be smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla, molasses, and milk. Continue to beat until the batter is smooth. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour mixture.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Place the pan on a baking sheet lined with foil for easy cleanup and bake for 45 – 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Gently remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a cooling rack. Dust the cake with powdered sugar, drizzle with melted chocolate sauce, or dollop with freshly whipped cream.
What sort of cake tin should I use? Do I have to use a bundt pan if I don’t have one?
There are so many baking options for this cake. Most often, I make this cake in a traditional Bundt pan. I’ve been asked several times about which Bundt pan I use. I use the Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt on Amazon.
However, I also love to use my Gingerbread Cake Bundt Pan (if you’re looking for something a bit simpler, I also have a Gingerbread Cake recipe), mini Bundt pans, or even a 10-inch round cake pan.
Adjust the baking time to 40-45 minutes when baking the cake in mini Bundt pans.
If baking in a 10-inch round cake pan, increase the oven temperature to 350° and bake for 20-25 minutes. The recipe below is written for a traditional Bundt pan.
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Soft and Spicy Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cup 352 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup butter 227 g, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar 200 g, (dark is my preference)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup 340 g molasses
- 1/4 cup ⅔ dl milk
Chocolate Drizzle
- 6 ounces chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
- 6 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F and grease and lightly flour a Bundt pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl sift together flour, espresso powder, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, pepper, and baking powder. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy; about 3 minutes. Don't rush this step; you want the butter mixture to be smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla, molasses, and milk and continue to beat until the batter is smooth. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour mixture.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Place the pan on a baking sheet lined with foil for easy cleanup and bake for 45 – 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Gently remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a cooling rack. Dust the cake with powdered sugar, drizzle with melted chocolate sauce, or dollop with freshly whipped cream.
- While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate drizzle sauce. Add chopped chocolate to a microwave-safe bowl and set it for 2 minutes. Stop the microwave at 15 to 20 second intervals and stir the chocolate, this helps distribute the heat. Remove from the microwave when the chocolate is almost melted (a few chunks are fine)– this will likely be before 2 minutes. Immediately stir in the cubed butter and stir until it's glossy and smooth. Drizzle the cake immediately.
Notes
Baking Options:
There are so many baking options with this cake. Often I make it in traditional Bundt pans, but I also love to use my Gingerbread Cake Bundt Pan, or mini Bundt pans, or even in a 10-inch round cake pan (affiliate links). When baking the cake in the mini Bundt pans, adjust the baking time to 40-45 minutes. If baking in a 10-inch round cake pan, I’ve increased the oven temperature to 350° and baked it for 20-25 minutes.Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
How did you make the chocolate glaze. I’m sure it’s simple but I would love to know. Thank you!!
Hi Wendy! Thank you for asking that question! I should have put the ingredients and directions into the post– which I’ve now done. All you need for the chocolate drizzle is 6 ounces of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate and 6 tablespoons of butter. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stopping at 15-20 second intervals, until melted. Likely before 2 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir in the cubed butter, stir until smooth and glossy. Then, use immediately.
This is so good, a new favorite for the holidays!
Wonderful!!!
Thank you, Michelle!
Virtually unusable this recipe, as it dealing in cups! As cups are different around the world.
It reads like a great recipe Would try it out if possible.
Really sorry for my negative comments
Best
I’m sorry for the inconvenience. We are located in the U.S. and use U.S. standard measurements. However, using a metric conversion tool at https://convertrecipe.com/convert_US_to_metric.php, I’ve added their conversions to the recipe. I have not tested this using metric measurement though.
METRIC WEIGHTS ARE GIVEN!
Wonderful!!!