Gingerbread Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
‘Tis the season for all things gingerbread and this bundt cake recipe is no exception! Filled with gingery goodness, this moist gingerbread bundt cake is incredibly easy to make which is just the stress free kind of dessert everyone needs around the holidays.
About This Easy Gingerbread Bundt Cake Recipe
Get your gingerbread cookie fix in cake form! Much easier to make than rolling out, cutting, and decorating cookies, this easy gingerbread bundt cake recipe is soft and moist while the buttermilk glaze adds a nice tang as well as cuts the sweetness. Using molasses and plenty of ginger along with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, this holiday cake is perfect to serve for all of your Christmas and winter holiday parties.
The Origin Of Gingerbread
Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis brought gingerbread to Europe in 992. He had left Pompeii to live in France where he taught gingerbread baking for seven years before his death in 999. During the 13th German immigrants brought gingerbread to Sweden, and by the 15th century Swedish nuns used gingerbread to ease stomach ailments. By the 17th century, gingerbread was sold in English monasteries, pharmacies and town square farmers’ markets especially since they were thought to have medicinal properties. Much later in England, Queen Elizabeth I served hard gingerbread biscuits in the shape of men to foreign dignitaries. Read more about the many forms of gingerbread here!
Gingerbread Bundt Cake Ingredients
- Molasses: A key ingredient when making anything gingerbread related! Just make sure it’s not bootstrap molasses which has much too intense of a flavor for baking.
- Ginger: Powdered is always favored however, you can grate fresh ginger for a fresh ginger bundt cake recipe.
- Buttermilk: Used to make the tangy glaze and the flavorful and moist gingerbread bundt cake batter. If you do not have buttermilk on hand, you can add a couple drops of lemon juice to whole milk and let it sit for about 15-30 minutes.
Major Allergens Present: Dairy, gluten, eggs
Equipment Needed
- Bundt cake pan: Used to bake the cake in. If you don’t have a bundt cake pan, you can bake in a 9″x13″ cake pan.
How to Make Gingerbread Bundt Cake:
What is Gingerbread Bundt Cake Made Out Of?
This moist gingerbread bundt cake is made with your standard cake ingredients with a few, delicious additions. Instead of milk for this cake recipe, we use buttermilk to not only give a little tang to cut the sugar but it also helps activate the leaveners producing a lighter cake. Moreover, we have the necessary molasses, ginger, and other baking spices that gives anything gingerbread its signature cozy taste. Finally, we top off with a tangy buttermilk glaze.
Make the Cake Batter and Bake
First things first is to get that bundt pan ready! Grease it up with shortening and not butter, since butter has a tendency to cause more sticking, and coat in flour. And then the batter is incredibly quick and easy with just whisking the right ingredients in the right order. You don’t even need a mixer! Bake until a knife inserted comes out clean and after 10-ish minutes of cooling, carefully remove the bundt pan. Allow to fully cool before glazing.
Make the Buttermilk Glaze and Finish the Moist Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Keeping with the theme of easy baking, the glaze is just whisking together the powdered sugar and buttermilk until smooth. If you prefer a thinner or thicker glaze just add a little more buttermilk or powdered sugar. Glaze over a cooling rack then transfer to a plate. Serve at room temperature for your holiday dessert with a cup of coffee.
Getting hung up or lost on all the baking terminology? Study up here.
Help Making Moist Gingerbread Bundt Cake:
How to Prep a Bundt Pan and Remove:
- Take a paper towel and grease up that bundt pan with crisco. Pay extra attention to the inside ring. Do not use butter as it will actually stick more due to the lower melting temperature and different type of fats. Coat with flour by spooning flour in and moving the pan around (over a sink or trash!) until flour has fully coated the pan.
- When the cake comes out of the oven take a small offset spatula and gently attempt to release the sides from the pan including in the inside ring if you can. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so in the pan.
- While still warm, bang it gently on the table to release. Then, place a wire rack on top and invert. If it doesn’t slide right out, give it a slight bang on the table. If it still doesn’t come out let gravity get to work. Let it sit and allow the cake to cool and contract to fall right out.
- Last attempt is to freeze the cake overnight, release the edges from the pan, heat the pan with a flame like a blow torch, then aggressively bang on the table.
Enhancing This Gingerbread Bundt Cake Recipe:
- Add a couple teaspoons of instant espresso powder into the glaze and/or cake batter for a little coffee kick.
- Fold in some chocolate chips for an added chocolate component.
How to Store and Freeze Gingerbread Bundt Cake
- Store covered at room temperature for up to five days.
- Freeze, tightly wrapped, for up to two months.
Troubleshooting Gingerbread Bundt Cake:
- My cake stuck to the pan! It happens to the best of us and especially me, but you did not head my warnings about prepping the pan! See my tips for how to prevent this next time and how to remove a super stuck cake 🙂
Something else going wrong? Reach out and we will troubleshoot together!
Gingerbread Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
Equipment
- Bundt Cake Pan
Ingredients
- Shortening for pan coating
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
- 1 Stick Butter, unsalted Melted
- 200 g Light brown sugar
- 2 ea Whole eggs
- 375 g All-purpose flour plus extra for pan coating
- 1½ tsp Ginger, ground
- 1 tsp Cinnamon, ground
- ¼ tsp Cloves, ground
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg, ground
- 2 pinch Kosher salt
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ tsp Baking powder
- 232 g Molasses
- 232 g Buttermilk
Buttermilk Glaze
- 35 g Buttermilk
- 125 g Powdered sugar
Instructions
To prepare the gingerbread bundt cake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and prepare your bundt pan but schmearing with shortening and coating in flour.
- Whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar. Whisk in the eggs until smooth.
- Whisk in the dry ingredients followed by the wet ingredients.
- Pour into your prepared bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for ten minutes then bang on the table to loosen. Place a cooling rack or plate on top and invert. Bang on the top of the pan then very slowly remove the bundt. If it doesn't slip out right away place it back and bang along the whole pan then try again.
- Allow to fully cool before glazing.
To prepare the buttermilk glaze
- Whisk together the buttermilk and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Glaze on top of the bundt cake and serve at room temperature.
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What makes a bundt cake different from regular cake? Bundt cake refers more to the shape of the cake than the cake itself. It has a whole in the center to promote more even baking for heavier cake batters.
- Why are bundt cakes so moist? Depends on the cake batter! This moist gingerbread bundt cake gets its delicious texture from the molasses and buttermilk.
Have another question? Reach out and I’ll try to answer it for you!
