This gluten-free gingerbread cake is rich with molasses, cinnamon and ginger. It tastes just like old-fashioned gingerbread cake and makes an elegant holiday breakfast or dessert!
Gingerbread cake is one of my favorite things to make during the holiday season. It’s perfect for breakfast, brunch or dessert and is a great easy cake to bring to parties and holiday meals.
This gingerbread cake recipe turns out like old-fashioned traditional gingerbread. It’s rich in ginger and molasses flavor and has a moist crumb and lovely texture. You’d never guess it’s gluten-free!
This gluten-free gingerbread is delicious topped with a cream cheese glaze or simply dusted with powdered sugar. Either way you make it it’s sure to disappear at your holiday gathering!
For another bundt cake, try this gluten-free pumpkin cake! You also might like this gluten-free apple cake.
For more holiday recipes, try these gluten-free gingerbread bars, this gluten-free yule log, these gluten-free Little Debbie Christmas trees, these gluten-free ginger snaps, these gluten-free sugar cookies or these gluten-free Christmas cookies.
Video: How to Make Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients You’ll Need
Gluten-Free gingerbread cake has a few very specific, classic ingredients. I also have some ingredients I include in this gluten-free version to help it turn out perfect every time.
- A high-quality gluten-free 1:1 baking flour: I like to use gluten-free measure-for-measure flour blend like King Arthur Flour in my baked goods. It works best to use a gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum in this recipe.
- Almond flour: Adding a little almond flour gives this cake richness and flavor. If you’re looking to make this nut-free see the recipe card for instructions. It will still turn out great!
- Ginger + Spices: Ground ginger, of course, is the main spice in gingerbread! And this recipe has plenty of it. A few other seasonal spices like cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg also round out the flavor.
- Lemon juice: A little lemon juice gives gluten-free baked goods some extra lift and helps the crumb to be tender rather than dense.
- Molasses: A quintessential ingredient in gingerbread! I use easy-to-find unsulphured molasses. I don’t recommend blackstrap molasses. I also use unsulphured in these gluten-free gingerbread cookies.
- Hot water: If you look at any classic gingerbread recipe they all use boiling water to thin the cake. This gluten-free version uses the same trick!
How to Make Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cake
These how-to numbered pictures match up with the instructions below.
- Mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Add the butter (or shortening) and white sugar or to the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer). Mix to combine.
- Mix in the molasses, eggs (room temperature) and vanilla.
- Gradually add the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time.
- Slowly drizzle in 1 cup of hot water.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake. It will smell amazing!
Once the cake is cooled you can top it with a dusting of powdered sugar for a simple cake or drizzle it with some cream cheese frosting for a more decadent dessert. Either way is delicious!
If you don’t have a bundt pan, you can also make this classic gingerbread cake in a 9×9 square pan.
You also might like this gluten-free cranberry orange bread.
More gluten-free holiday recipes
I hope you love this gluten-free gingerbread cake recipe as much as we do. If you try it, be sure to leave me a comment/rating below. I’d love to hear from you!
Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cake
Video
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups (300g) gluten-free 1:1 baking flour
- 1/2 cup (48g) almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
Other:
- 1 1/2 cups (320g) brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup (113g) butter (1 stick) softened
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (120ml) molasses
- 1 cup (235ml) hot water
Cream Cheese Glaze (Optional):
- 1/4 cup (56g) butter softened
- 1/4 cup (56g) cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar sifted if needed
- 1-2 tablespoons hot water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 10 to 12 cup bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the brown sugar and butter. Mix until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Mix in the lemon juice and molasses. Mix well to combine, scrapping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Add the flour mixture in three additions alternately with the water starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with, at most, a few moist crumbs. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Cool completely.
- MAKE THE GLAZE: Using a hand or stand mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese. Make sure they are both softened so the glaze isn't lumpy. Add the powdered sugar and mix to combine. Thin the mixture with 1-2 tablespoons of hot water. Microwave the glaze for 15 seconds to make to pourable (but not too hot), then drizzle over the cake.
Notes
Nutrition
RECIPE ORIGINALLY PUBLISH 11/2015. Post updated 11/2022.
Can I make ahead and freeze cake. Then ice before serving
Hi Lotraine, yes you can freeze it then glaze before serving. Let the cake cool completely, then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap (2 layers) followed by a layer of foil and freeze. We hope you enjoy the cake!
Delicious and comes together quickly.
We’re so glad you loved it! Thank you for your kind feedback. Happy baking!
Hi. Just curious…the description above the official recipe mentions adding vanilla, but the recipe itself doesn’t have it. Do you use vanilla? (It also says to “drizzle” the hot water, but doesn’t below so I just dumped it. Hope it turns out ok.)
Hi Jonell, thank you for you catching that! It looks like we need to update the photo instructions. The recipe card is correct, no vanilla needed and you alternate adding the dry mix and water to the egg mixture. We hope this helps!
Do you think flax egg substitute would work? I’ve got vegetarians at work and I want to include them, but I have NO experience with subbing for eggs. Maybe I should buy ready made egg replacer(Bob’s Red Mill?)
Hi Laura, we don’t typically bake with egg substitutes so we haven’t tested it with this recipe ourselves, but Bob’ Red Mill egg replacer or flax eggs would be our top choices to try. We’d love to hear how it goes!
Firstly a million thanks for fulfilling my request for measurements in grams ….so grateful
I am pleased to say I made this yesterday and it is amazing I even made the glaze – which was equally fantastic
The only change I made was I used treacle instead of molasses because that’s what I had in my pantry oh and I did add some uncrystallised chopped up ginger …..yummy
I give this recipe 10/10 for taste and it was sooo easy to make
I never saw an answer about a 9×13 pan. Do I need to do anything different?
Hi Karen, to use a 9×13 you’d want to scale up the recipe 1.5x and start watching the cake 5-10 minutes earlier to make sure you catch it before it overbakes. If you use the recipe as-is in a 9×13 pan the baking time would need to be reduced even more as it will be a much thinner cake. We hope these ideas help!
This was a hit with my family. Everyone loved it!!!!!!
Can this cake be baked in a 9×13? If so, should I alter anything in the recipe or in the bake time? Thank you and Happy Holidays!
If I was making this as a layer cake, would I need more than one recipe of it to make two 8 or 9-inch cake layers? Maybe 1.5 x the recipe? Any advice?
Hi Kerrie, since this recipe was designed for a 12 cup bundt pan, it should be plenty of batter to make two layers using either 8 or 9-inch round pans. No need to increase the batter. They will bake faster so keep an eye on how they’re doing in the oven so they don’t overbake. We hope you enjoy the recipe!
Fabulous and reasonably easy to make! A big hit.
(Instead of the glaze I did a cream cheese frosting: brick of cream cheese softened, beaten with a pint of heavy cream until it looks like whipped cream/frosting; dash of vanilla extract & ground cinnamon, powdered sugar to taste!)
I made the gingerbread cake with the cream cheese glaze for our Christmas brunch. The cake was fantastic! So moist, perfectly flavored and beautiful to present. 5 stars from everyone. We all agreed that this cake will be made every year! Thank you for the wonderful recipes!
Hands down THE BEST gf gingerbread cake – E. V. E. R. At first it was odd with the addition of the hot water but it thickened up nicely. Delicious.
Soooo delicious!! Thank you for helping me enjoy baking again!!Merry Christmas!!
I seldom leave comments but I just had to tell how fabulous this cake is. I made it for a group with several people who are gf. Everyone loved it! One person said it was the best gingerbread she ever had. Another, who is a baker, asked for the recipe. It was also requested for our condo Christmas party!
Thank you for a recipe everyone can enjoy whether they are gluten-free or not.
I wanted to make something for Christmas morning that was GF, this was a huge hit for everyone! I followed the recipe and used 1:1 Bob’s Red Mill, it was perfection! Slightly moist, my daughter couldn’t get enough of it! I will be making it again this year for Christmas 2023, and is now part of our holiday tradition. Thank you Erin!