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4.45 from 20 votes

Gingerbread Pound Cake

This amazingly moist, flavorful Gingerbread Pound Cake has a velvety soft texture and amazing flavor! You will love this easy recipe- especially in the fall and winter months!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 15

Ingredients

  • 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups (400g) light brown sugar, packed into cup
  • 1 cup (200g) white/granulated sugar
  • 5 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
  • 3 cups (342g) cake flour *see notes
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 2 ½ teaspoons (5g) ground ginger
  • 3 teaspoons (6g) ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon (1g) nutmeg
  • ¾ cup (172g) heavy cream *see notes
  • ½ cup (160g) molasses
  • 2 teaspoon (8g) vanilla extract

For the Caramel Icing

  • ½ stick (57g) unsalted butter
  • ½ cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup + 1 T heavy cream
  • 1 cup (120g) confectioners sugar (measure, then sift)
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 tablespoon (18g) light or dark corn syrup. (We used light. Corn syrup prevents graininess.)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.   Grease and flour a bundt pan (ours was a 10 inch)
  • In a medium bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt to combine, set aside for later.
  • In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine ½ cup molasses with ¾ cup heavy cream. set aside.
  • Add the butter to the bowl of your mixer and mix on medium speed until smooth.  Gradually add the white and brown sugar and mix 3 to 5 minutes or until the mixture has lightened in color and is fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk is blended. Add the vanilla extract.
  • With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the heavy cream/molasses mixture to the mixture of butter, sugar and eggs.  Begin and end with the dry ingredients.  There will be three additions of dry and two additions of wet. After last addition, mix just until blended.
  • Pour cake batter into the prepared bundt pan.
  • Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes.  Bake times may vary and so it's best to check your cake at about 50 minutes. If the cake springs back when lightly touched, or an inserted toothpick is removed with just a few moist crumbs attached, it is done.  
  • Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.  
  • Allow the cake to cool before adding the caramel icing.

For the Caramel Icing

  • Combine butter, milk, salt, corn syrup, and brown sugar in small saucepan. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat and continue stirring until sugar dissolves.
  • Cool for 10-15 minutes. (We cooled ours in the refrigerator) Gradually whisk in the sifted confectioners sugar a little at a time-- we found it easier to do this with a wire whisk.
  • Allow the caramel icing to cool to desired consistency, it thickens as it cools. Spoon over the cooled cake. (If glaze is too thick, add a bit of milk. If it's too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.)

Glazing the Cake

  • Allow the cake to cool before glazing, as the heat will effect the consistency of the caramel icing.
  • I added the drips one by one with a spoon, but if you'd rather, you can scoop the icing into a disposable piping bag and snip the tip away (or do the same with a ziplock bag).
  • The icing should be soft enough that it drips down a bit. It thickens as it cools. If your icing is too thick, you can warm it very slightly in the microwave (a few seconds at a time). If your icing is too thin, you can allow it to cool longer, or stir in a bit more powdered sugar (sifted).

Notes

  • Substitution for Cake Flour: If you have no cake flour, here is a substitution: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.
  • Cream vs. Milk: We used heavy cream in this recipe-- whipping cream is fine too! You could also use milk instead, but the additional fat from the heavy cream or whipping cream makes the texture extra velvety ;0)
  • Bundt Pan: If you are using a smaller bundt cake or tube pan than our 10 inch one, keep in mind that you don't want to fill the pan more than ¾ full or you will run the risk of it overflowing.