This Gingerbread Cake (doctored cake mix) recipe is moist, so flavorful, and so EASY to make!
We love this recipe year-round, but I especially crave gingerbread in fall and winter months! The taste is amazing, and when paired with our Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting! (You can find it at the end of our post!)
In the photo above, we added a few fun little gingerbread men toppers! They give our cake a little added height and cuteness.
I used a few Pepperidge Farm Ginger Men cookies to make them. Simply flip them over, pipe a little melted candy melts or chocolate on the back, place a lollipop stick into the chocolate, and pipe a bit more chocolate on top, and chill for 5-10 minutes in the freezer until firm.
I angled my gingerbread men at various angles when gluing on the anchors so that they almost look like they’re dancing! I just love simple decorations!
You can see below that white candy melts probably wasn’t the best choice for a subtle “glue” against the dark gingerbread…maybe I’ll use plain (brown) chocolate candy melts next time! Ha!
I outlined them in buttercream for added cuteness but you can see that I kept things very simple! Anyway, they make me smile. When you’re ready to place them into the cake, the lollipop sticks make great great anchors.
Ta da! Now this is a happy cake!
For our gingerbread layer cake pictured above, we made two thick 8 inch cake layers, which we torted into four layers. It would have worked great as a two layer cake also, but we wanted a bit more filling!
Our FAVORITE frosting for gingerbread cakes and all things spiced is our Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting! So simple to whip up in minutes and the flavor is fantastic!
Not only is this a delicious recipe, but it is sturdy enough for fondant as well as light carving. This was the recipe that we used for our Gingerbread House Cake Video Tutorial in our member cake video section.
Finally, if you are looking for a fabulous scratch Gingerbread Layer Cake Recipe, we have a great one!! You can find it here: Scratch Gingerbread Cake Recipe. We love them both!
Looking for even more Doctored Cake Mix recipes for the holidays? Don’t miss our Doctored Red Velvet Cake recipe or our Doctored Eggnog Cake Recipe! These easy and DELICIOUS recipes are sure to please any crowd!
For a full roundup of our FAVORITE Christmas and winter cakes, don’t miss our Roundup of Christmas Cake Recipes, Tutorials, and Ideas!
Thanks for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this delicious Gingerbread Doctored Cake Mix Recipe!
Gingerbread Cake {A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe}
Ingredients
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans (We torted our layers to make 4)
- Do not follow ingredients on the back of the cake mix box, use the ingredients listed below.
- 1 box Spice Cake Mix, sifted….. I used Duncan Hines
- 1 cup (121g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 (3 g) teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (242 g) sour cream
- 1/2 cup (118 g) water
- 1/2 cup (161g) Molasses,
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Directions
- In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients and whisk 30 seconds to throughly combine.
- To this add the remaining ingredients and mix on medium speed for 1 minute ( a bit longer if using a hand held mixer). Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix 1 minute more.
- Makes approximately 7 cups of batter.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325 degrees. Check at 35 minutes, the cake will be slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center should pull out clean or with only a few crumbs.
Notes:
- This gingerbread cake recipe is delicious, and works great with the carving necessary for our Gingerbread House Cake Video Tutorial in our member library. I hope that you enjoy it!
Hi Suzy, This recipe makes 7 cups of batter. We put 2 cups of batter in 6×2 inch round pans. So you will have enough batter for a 3 layer cake……and enough left over for a few cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
This cake was excellent! Great holiday cake! I frosted it was a brown sugar ermine frosting everyone loved it.
I am wondering if this can be made into a Bundt cake?
@Janice- Thanks for sharing, looks great!
@Laura, yes that should be fine! It will just take a little longer to bake.
Hi! What do you think about timing of using a 9×13 pan? I need a gingerbread cake to make a trifle, so I don’t care about presentation, just want it cooked. Thanks for any info or suggestions
Hi Mrs K, For a 9×13 pan, bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. At 30 minutes, take a look……when a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, it is done. If you are baking in a dark colored pan or a glass pan, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees and increase the baking time. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
Yes! It took a while longer, but ,it was easy to check. Absolutely delicious. I ate some plain and used the rest in a pumpkin trifle. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe
Hi Mrs, Kelly, Thank you so much for posting your nice review of the recipe!!
I’m happy all went well.
I am going to use this recipe to make cupcakes tomorrow. Is there anything I should do differently?
Hi Charles, Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy the cupcakes!
Hello,
I am excited to try your recipe for our Christmas party, but am wondering if it is totally necessary to add the extra cup of sugar. I don’t like things to sweet and am a little concerned about this. Thank you!
Hi Kylie, The extra cup of sugar is necessary for this recipe. It helps to make the cake tender and adds moisture, without it your cake will seem dry. I don’t think you will find the cake too sweet. Merry Christmas and I hope you love the cake.
Thank you for letting me know BeBe. I will try o remember to leave a review after we enjoy it this Saturday at our party. Merry Christmas!
Can you make a recommendation for a glaze for this cake? I am going to put it in a Bundt cake pan. Thanks!
Hi Lori, I haven’t made a spiced glaze before– Our basic vanilla glaze would be a pretty contrast against the dark gingerbread bundt cake though. You could experiment with adding spices if you’d like- Glad you’re making this cake! Here is a link to the simple vanilla glaze if you’d like to try it: https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/simple-vanilla-glaze/
I loved this recipe so much.
I baked it in a gingerbread man cake pan & decorated it like regular gingerbread man everyone loved it.
Hi Dawn, Thanks so much for posting your review! I happy that everyone loved it!