Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake

A loaf of gluten-free gingerbread cake with icing, sliced.

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake

A fluffy Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Cake with molasses, ground ginger, and a luscious vanilla cream icing. Dairy-Free + Vegan options listed in the notes.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Holiday, Christmas

Keyword gluten-free gingerbread cake, gluten-free gingerbread loaf

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Servings slices

Calories 382kcal

Author Jamie

Ingredients

½ cup milk or dairy-free milk (120 ml)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ cup dark molasses* (120 ml)
¼ cup hot water (60 ml)
2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose fluten-free flour with xanthan gum (270 grams)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
⅓ cup vegetable oil or avocado oil (80 ml)
¾ cup granulated sugar - I used coconut sugar but white or brown sugar work too (100 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Gingerbread Spices

2 ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Icing

4 tablespoons butter or dairy-free butter softened at room temperature (56 grams)
2 ounces cream cheese or the solid part of a can of coconut cream, softened at room temperature (¼ cup, 56 grams)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar plus more to thicken to your desired consistency (130 grams)

Instructions

Gingerbread Cake

Prep + Milk: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 C) and line a metal loaf pan with parchment paper. Combine dairy-free milk and apple cider vinegar in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl. Stir together and set aside.
Thin the molasses: Combine molasses and hot water in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl. Stir until well-mixed and set aside to cool.
Dry ingredients: Add the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, and gingerbread spices to a large mixing bowl and whisk together thoroughly to combine.
Wet ingredients: Add the milk and vinegar mixture, molasses and water mixture, eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla extract to a medium mixing bowl and whisk together thoroughly to combine. Make sure the molasses has cooled to lukewarm before adding to the mixture so it does not prematurely cook the egg.
Make the batter: Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients. Whisk or stir until just combined. There should be no dry pockets of flour, but there will be small blueberry or pea-sized flour lumps, when mixed to the best consistency.
Bake: Pour the batter into the lined loaf pan and bake on a middle oven rack for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at a diagonal into the center of the cake comes out clean or with a dry crumb. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes before gently removing the cake from the pan using the parchment paper. Allow to cool completely on the rack before icing.

Icing (optional)

Add dairy-free butter, coconut cream or cream cheese, and vanilla extract to a medium mixing bowl. Beat on low speed using an electric mixer until smooth.
Add half of the powdered sugar and mix at low speed. Then add the rest of the sugar and beat until smooth. If needed, add dairy-free milk in small amounts to thin. Refrigerate briefly to thicken or add more powdered sugar in small amounts.

Notes

See the blog post for step-by-step photos, detailed ingredient notes and substitutions, and expert tips.

Use a digital kitchen scale for best accuracy in measurement. If you haven't invested in one yet, they're quite easy to use and I recommend this affordable kitchen scale.

I recommend using a metal loaf pan for this recipe.

Storage: Store leftover Gluten-Free Gingerbread cake in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 day or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

*Molasses: Most importantly, do not use blackstrap molasses. This type of dark sticky molasses is used for more savory dishes, like barbecue sauce. For best taste, you want to use a molasses labeled "dark", "robust", or unsulphured. I used Grandma's brand unsulphured molasses for my recipe trials. Wholesome brand has an excellent dark sticky organic molasses.

Dairy-Free: Use dairy-free milk in the gluten-free gingerbread cake. In the icing, use dairy-free butter and replace the cream cheese with the solid part of a can of coconut cream (refrigerate the coconut cream if liquid-solid separation is not obvious).

Vegan: Use the dairy-free substitution above. As an egg substitute, use either 6 tablespoons of whipped aquafaba or 2 tablespoons of corn or potato starch with 6 tablespoons of water. See details in the "Ingredient Notes + Substitutions" sub-section of "How to make it" in the blog post.

Nutrition