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Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake with complementary flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, topped with cream cheese frosting.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 28 minutes
Total Time 48 minutes
Servings: 12 slices
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
Frosting
  • 1 package cream cheese room temperature
  • 1 stick butter room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Decorations
  • candy melts sprinkles and skewers

Method
 

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 8-inch cake pans.
  2. Beat the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.
  4. In yet another bowl, combine the milk, vanilla and ginger.
  5. Beat in the flour mixture and milk mixture, alternating, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
  6. Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and evenly spread it out.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks to cool completely.
Frosting
  1. Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Beat in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Lastly, beat in the vanilla.
  2. Frost the cake, putting a thin layer of frosting between the layers and cover the outside.
Decorations
  1. Meanwhile, make your decorations by melting the candy melts and putting in a piping bag with a small round tip. Lay skewers on parchment paper and squeeze the candy melts over the skewers. Decorate with sprinkles. Allow to harden before placing on the cake.

Notes

If you like heavier frosting, or crumb coating, make a double batch of frosting. I didn't have green candy melts, so I used India Tree food dyes to color my white candy melts. It hardened up a bit, so I continued to stir in small slices of butter into the colored candy melts until it was a melted chocolate consistency. Size: three layer 8" cake. You could get away with making this into 12-16 slices.