Gingerbread Loaf Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

This Gingerbread Loaf is a moist, sticky cake full of festive spices and topped with cream cheese and cinnamon frosting. Scroll down for the recipe.

Alternative Christmas Cakes

Is there anything more festive than gingerbread?! OK, cinnamon and cranberries also come to mind but you can't celebrate Christmas without a little ginger. You'll find ginger in a traditional Christmas cake but for this recipe I wanted to make ginger the star of the show.

Although this gingerbread loaf looks pretty simple from the outside, there are actually a lot of ingredients that go into it. Beyond the usual butter, flour and eggs there's golden syrup, treacle, brown sugar, dried spices such as ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg not to mention candied stem ginger and fresh root ginger too! They all come together in a sticky, moist sponge cake that is perfect with a hot chocolate or Christmas coffee.

Despite the long list of ingredients it's very simple to make. You'll only need a mixing bowl, saucepan and a spatula (minimal washing up is very important at this time of year). You can even keep your loaf tin clean like I did by using loaf tin liners.

What I love most about this cake is that it is the perfect alternative to a slice of Christmas cake. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't rich, but it is still much lighter than your usual slice of fruit cake. The cream cheese icing is sweet, but not as sickly as marzipan and royal icing that usually adorns a Christmas cake. This makes it ideal for a treat while you're snuggled up on your sofa watching a film or two over the holiday season.

The Recipe

Gingerbread Loaf Cake with Cinnamon and Cream Cheese Frosting

This Gingerbread Loaf Cake with Cinnamon and Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect festive treat to enjoy with a hot drink on a cold day.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Dinner

Cuisine British

Servings 12 slices

Calories 475.18 kcal

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

For the cake

• 175 g self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 0.25 nutmeg grated
• 1 inch root ginger peeled and grated
• 5 tablespoon water roughly 75ml
• 2 tablespoon treacle
• 2 tablespoon golden syrup
• 75 g light brown sugar
• 75 g butter
• 1 large egg beaten
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 2 pieces stem ginger in syrup, diced

For the decoration

• 225 g unsalted butter
• 225 g cream cheese
• 1 vanilla pod seeds only
• 500 g icing sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
• stem ginger to decorate

Instructions

 

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C and line a 2lb loaf tin.
• Weigh out your dry ingredients and spices into a large mixing bowl.
• Place the water, treacle, golden syrup, sugar and butter into a saucepan and place on a low-medium heat. Warm the mixture gently until the sugar and butter have dissolved and formed a sticky syrup.
• Stir the syrup into the dry ingredients and beat well until smooth.
• Allow the mix to cool slightly if it hasn't already done so and begin to beat in the egg and milk.
• Finally stir in the stem ginger before pouring the cake mix into the lined loaf tin.
• Place low in your oven (so that the top of the loaf tin is in the centre of the oven) and bake for 1hr 15mins - 1hr 30mins or until the cake is risen and springy to the touch.
• Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing.
• Store the cake in its liner until you are ready to decorate (best done on the day of serving).
• To make the icing, beat the butter with an electric mixer until light, smooth and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and vanilla and beat until well incorporated.
• Still beating, add the icing sugar a little at a time along with the cinnamon.
• Beat well until the icing is smooth and light.
• Spread the icing over the top of the cake and decorate with diced or thinly sliced pieces of stem ginger (optional).

Nutrition

Calories: 475.18kcalCarbohydrates: 66.19gProtein: 3.92gFat: 22.67gSaturated Fat: 13.61gTrans Fat: 0.62gCholesterol: 77.37mgSodium: 80.5mgPotassium: 132.5mgFiber: 0.93gSugar: 53.37gVitamin A: 760.44IUVitamin C: 0.07mgCalcium: 60.15mgIron: 0.68mg

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More alternative Christmas cakes

Is there a festive cake recipe you prefer to traditional Christmas Cake? Over the last few years I've had great fun coming up with alternatives. Check them out:

Vegan White Chocolate and Cranberry Cake

Chocolate Orange Fruitcake Squares

Cinnamon Loaf Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Cranberry Compote

Fig and Walnut Cake

More Christmas recipes

For the full range of Christmas recipes check out the Christmas recipe archive.