Gingerbread Spice Cake with Mascarpone Frosting
Gingerbread Spice Cake is frosted with a thin layer of mascarpone cream cheese frosting and decorated with sugared cranberries and rosemary trees. The cake is made entirely with whole wheat flour and sweetened with pure maple syrup and a hint of molasses. I hope you enjoy this festive Christmas treat!
Ingredients for Gingerbread Spice Cake
Here is everything you’ll need to make this delicious winter cake. (The list does not include frosting ingredients–those can be found here.)
- Whole wheat pastry flour
- Baking powder
- Celtic sea salt
- The Spice House Cinnamon
- The Spice House Ginger
- The Spice House Cloves
- The Spice House Nutmeg
- The Spice House Cardamom
- Irish butter
- Pure maple syrup
- Ground flax seed
- Water
- Chai tea extract (or vanilla)
- Unsulfured molasses
- Organic Valley buttermilk
Recipe Substitutions
This recipe was originally adapted from Blue Bowl. I replaced the eggs with flax seeds and used all whole wheat flour instead of white. It gives the cake a more hearty texture and provides extra fiber. I also substituted regular sugar with pure maple syrup. It is a 1:1 conversion, but I reduced the molasses by a quarter cup to account for the extra liquid. I also added a touch of cardamom to the spice blend just for fun. I’ll go through the cake recipe step by step. For the frosting and decorating, check out the original post here.
How to Make Gingerbread Spice Cake
Start by preheating the oven to 350°F and line two eight-inch cakes pans with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter. Then, use a medium bowl to whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom. Set aside.
Whisk the flax seed and boiling water in a small bowl and set aside for ten minutes. It will become thick and gelatinous to substitute the eggs.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the softened butter for 30 seconds. Then add the maple syrup and beat until the butter is well mixed into the syrup. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the butter is getting mixed in.
With the mixer on low, add half of the flax mixture. When it is incorporated, add the remaining flax along with the chai tea extract and molasses. If you can’t find chai tea extract (I make my own), use cinnamon or vanilla extract instead.
Remove bowl from the mixer and gently whisk in ⅓ of the dry ingredients, followed by ⅓ of the buttermilk. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the milk until it has all been added. It’s important not to overmix. If you don’t have buttermilk, mix regular milk with a splash of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Let it rest for about five to ten minutes to thicken.
When the batter is ready, evenly distribute it between the pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean when it is ready.
Place the pans on cooling racks and let cool for about ten minutes before removing the cakes from the pans. Wait until the cakes are completely cool before decorating
Gingerbread Spice Cupcakes
This Gingerbread Spice Cake also makes great cupcakes! Line a muffin tin with parchment wrappers and fill each well no more than 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before decorating with mascarpone cream cheese frosting.
I hope you enjoy this Gingerbread Spice Cake! Be sure to leave a rating and review below. Also, share any photos on Instagram and tag @roots_and_rosemary. Happy baking!
This sounds absolutely scrumptious! The presentation is so beautiful too — a lovely winterscape. I love the idea of the sugared cranberries and rosemary sprigs.
Thank you so much! 😀