Gingerbread Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

All the flavors of the holidays in a super moist cake. This gingerbread cake with white chocolate frosting is perfectly spiced, treacly, and delicious!

Gingerbread Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Christmas needs more cake. I said it. And this gingerbread cake is the quintessential cake for the holidays. The spiced gingerbread cake is super moist thanks to a combination of oil and butter and packed full of gingerbread flavor with molasses and a cozy blend of spices. Finish it off with a perfectly sweet white chocolate frosting and you have yourself a holiday showstopper.

Ingredients for this gingerbread cake

You’ll need pantry staples along with a few extra seasonal ingredients like molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and of course white chocolate to make that dreamy white chocolate buttercream. Here’s your shopping list:

• Butter
• Oil
• Dark brown sugar
• Molasses
• Eggs
• Vanilla Extract
• All Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder
• Ground Cinnamon
• Ground Ginger
• Ground Cloves
• Ground Nutmeg
• Buttermilk
• White Chocolate
• Powdered Sugar

Tips for making the most perfect white chocolate frosting

Homemade buttercream is pretty straightforward to make but adding white chocolate into the mix does add a little complexity to the process. Don’t worry – it’s not difficult, but white chocolate can be a bit finicky, so we rounded up all our tips to ensure a silky-smooth buttercream frosting.

• Use high quality white chocolate: Just like regular chocolate, white chocolate comes in varying qualities and unfortunately low-quality white chocolate can really make or break your buttercream.
• Melt the white chocolate over super low heat and stir frequently: It’s important to melt white chocolate on very low heat because it can seize up very easily if it gets too hot. You’ll be left with a chalky paste which is such a waste of ingredients and so sad! If your microwave is high powered, I’d recommend stopping it frequently to stir and make sure your white chocolate isn’t getting too hot!
• Make sure ALL ingredients are at true room temperature: I cannot stress how important this is in this frosting recipe. If your butter and milk aren’t at room temperature, the warm white chocolate will harden into little white chocolate pieces in your frosting which is not what you want!

Our favorite tips for assembling the perfect holiday cake

If you’re new to layer cakes, they can seem a little intimidating–I get it! Making a homemade cake can seem daunting enough, let alone also making homemade frosting and then putting the two together in a cute way?! Luckily, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve to make homemade layer cakes a whole lot easier!

• Make sure your cake layers are fully cooled before frosting: If there’s one rule you follow, let it be this. I get it–I’m impatient too, but if you try to frost a warm cake it will simply slip and slide apart and leave you with a mess. Wait until your cakes are COMPLETELY cool (I’m talking cold, no questionable spots, no good enoughs) to frost.
• Even off the tops of your cakes if they domed: This recipes has a pretty even rise, but sometimes it will get a slight dome at the top if your pan is darker or if your oven is running hot. If you do have a domed cake I recommend leveling off the top of your cake to make it flat. This will make it easier and neater to stack.

Happy baking my friends!

XXX

• Author: Sofi | Broma Bakery
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 16 servings
• Category: dessert
• Method: oven
• Cuisine: american

Gingerbread Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

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All the flavors of the holidays in a super moist cake. This gingerbread cake with white chocolate frosting is perfectly spiced, treacly and delicious!

• Author: Sofi | Broma Bakery
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 16 servings
• Category: dessert
• Method: oven
• Cuisine: american

Units: USM

Equipment

8-in cake pan

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rubber spatula

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stand mixer

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar*
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup buttermilk

for the white chocolate buttercream

• 12 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F and grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a standmixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the softened butter and oil together until they become homogenous, about 3 minutes. This will not work if your butter is not completely room temperature!
3. Slowly add the dark brown sugar sugar to the oil and butter, beating on high until the mixture is light and fluffy and lightens in color, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the molasses and mix until combined. Add the eggs in one at time, scraping down the bowl in between each addition. Add the vanilla extract. Beat the mixture on high for 3 minutes more to incorporate as much air as possible.
5. In separate bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and spices. Alternate adding in the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the butter mixture in 4 batches, starting with the buttermilk and ending with the dry ingredients. It’s okay if the batter still has a few lumps in it–you don’t want to over mix it.
6. Split the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes or until the cake is a lightly springs back when pressed and a knife inserted into the middle comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Take out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Let the cakes cool completely.
7. Once the cakes have cooled completely, make the frosting. Place the white chocolate into a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 15 second increments, using a silicone spatula to stir between each, until the white chocolate is fully melted. Set aside to cool slightly–you still want it to warm and fully melted, but not so hot that it will melt the butter.
8. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt on low speed until combined. With the mixer still running, slowly stream in the melted white chocolate. Once incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
9. Place the first layer of cake right side up onto a cake stand or plate. Spread about 1/3 of the frosting on top, using an offset spatula to spread a thick layer evenly to the edges of the cake. Top with the second layer and use the remaining frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake. If desired, top with gingerbread cookies or rosemary trees! Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Notes

1. I prefer to use dark brown sugar because it gives the cake a deeper flavor, but light brown sugar works just as well!