This is the perfect holiday cake packed with the flavors of ginger, molasses, cinnamon, and maple syrup. A moist and tender gingerbread cake topped with a brown sugar pecan crumble and a sweet maple icing.
This “coffee cake” style cake can be enjoyed for breakfast, dessert, or snacking. It’s delicious any time of day!
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Why you’ll love this recipe
Flavor: This cake is packed with cozy wintery flavors like molasses, ginger, cinnamon, pecans, and maple.
Texture: Soft cake, crunchy crumble topping, and smooth icing.
Versatility: This cake can be served for breakfast alongside a cup of coffee, as a dessert, or even as a midday treat.
Recipe overview: 3 parts
*Full recipe below in recipe card*
Gingerbread cake: A buttermilk cake recipe flavored with molasses, maple syrup, and lots of warm spices.
Brown sugar pecan crumble: A buttery pecan crumble topping sweetened with brown sugar and spiced with cinnamon.
Icing: After the cake has cooled down, add a maple icing made from powdered sugar, milk, maple syrup, and maple extract.
Key ingredients
This recipe does have quite a long ingredient list. Fortunately most of the ingredients are pantry staples. Here are the key ingredients that help to make this cake extra delicious:
Molasses: This ingredient helps to give the cake a classic gingerbread flavor and imparts a deep sweetness and color.
Ground ginger: This also adds a classic gingerbread flavor. Two teaspoons are added to the cake batter.
Cinnamon: This warm spice pairs well with the other flavors and is used in both the cake and the topping.
Buttermilk: This ingredient helps to keep the cake moist for days! Don’t have buttermilk? Use a buttermilk substitute.
Maple syrup: Maple syrup is used in both the cake and the icing to add a sweet maple flavor.
Recipe tips
- All ingredients for the cake should be at room temperature.
- Make sure your spices are fresh for the best flavor.
- Use unsulphured molasses for the sweetest, purest flavor (avoid blackstrap molasses).
- Don’t have buttermilk? Try one of our buttermilk substitutes.
- Before adding the icing, poke the cake all over with a toothpick. Some of icing will settle into those small holes adding flavor and moisture into the cake.
- Feel free to swap the pecans in the topping for walnuts, if you’d prefer.
Serving and storage
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Store, tightly covered, at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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Recipe
Maple Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup unsulphured molasses, at room temperature
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon maple extract
- ½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature (see notes for substitutes)
Topping:
- ⅔ cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup finely chopped pecans
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted or very soft
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1½ tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon maple extract
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F Grease a 9×9 square baking pan.
- Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter and brown sugar until well combined, about one full minute. Add eggs, molasses, syrup, and maple extract, beat until combined (the mixture might look curdled, that’s OK). Scrap the sides/bottom of the bowl as needed
- Add half of the dry ingredients and beat until combined. Slowly beat in the buttermilk, then beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Topping:
- Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, pecans, and salt. Add butter and stir until well combined (I use a fork). Sprinkle over the top of the cake batter.
- Bake cake for 28-33 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean. The crumb topping in the very center of the cake will be the last thing to set; the topping will firm up as it cools.
- Place the pan on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool for 30 minutes, then proceed with the icing.
Icing:
- Whisk all ingredients until smooth. If necessary, add more milk to thin or more powdered sugar to thicken. Using a toothpick, poke holes all over the top of the cake (I poke about 20 holes). Drizzle the icing over the cake. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Katie H says
Made this today and it was really yummy without being too sweet–nice and moist too. Both my kids (6 and 2) asked for more 🙂
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Melisa says
This was delicious, and not too sweet, but I substituted oil for the butter to make it more moist.
claire says
this was so delicious on christmas morning the whole family loved it!! i used plain greek yogurt instead of butter for the cake (not the topping) and it worked great!
Carol says
Made this today & it was soooo good.
Allison says
That’s great to hear. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
Megan Langan says
Do you know what the baking time would change to if using a 9×13 pan?
Allison says
I’m assuming you’re doubling it? I’d start checking it at 30 minutes. If I had to guess it would probably be somewhere between 30-40 minutes. I’m thinking that double the topping is probably more than you’ll need. You can either do 1.5 times the topping recipe or double the topping but don’t use all of it.
Amber says
So delicious! This is now required in my family every Christmas!
Allison says
I’m so glad! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Barbara says
Thanks for sharing your recipe
Allison says
You’re welcome! Enjoy!