This high altitude gingerbread coffee cake is like a warm, sweet hug on Christmas morning. The cake is so soft and moist, with hints of molasses and vanilla, and just the right balance of cozy spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and, of course, ginger. A brown sugar crumble topping adds a buttery crunch, drizzled with maple icing for the perfect sweet finish. This is a high altitude recipe that you have to make this holiday season!
Looking for more recipes like this? You’ll love this gingerbread sheet cake with powdered sugar snowflakes, baked gingerbread doughnuts, gingerbread village cake with iced chocolate shortbread.
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Instructions
There are a few components to this gingerbread coffee cake, between the cake, crumb topping and icing, but they all come together quickly. To save time in the morning, though, I will often bake coffee cakes at night, and just re-warm individual pieces for breakfast the next morning. It’s just as soft and moist as when it’s freshly baked!
Make the Coffee Cake Batter.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and spray a 9-inch baking pan with non-stick spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda and spices. To flavor this coffee cake, I used a combination of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You can definitely taste the spices, but I kept them fairly subtle, so the cake isn’t as spicy as something like gingersnap cookies.
- Separately, whisk together the liquid ingredients: dark brown sugar, eggs, milk, sour cream, melted butter, molasses, and vanilla extract. The molasses add a deep, rich flavor that perfectly complements the spices and the brown sugar.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix just until combined. Spread the batter into the greased pan.
Sprinkle with Crumb Topping.
- For the crumb topping, combine all-purpose flour, dark brown sugar, salt and ground ginger in a bowl. The salt adds a lovely salty-sweet finish to the cake, and a bit more ginger in the topping enhances all the flavors.
- Drizzle the mixture with melted butter, and mix until crumbly.
Bake.
- Bake the gingerbread coffee cake for about 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester or sharp knife comes out clean.
- Set the cake aside to cool slightly while you make the icing.
Drizzle with Icing.
- Stir together powdered sugar, vanilla extract, maple extract and heavy whipping cream until it’s smooth, with a thick drizzling consistency. You could use milk instead of cream, but I like the richness that heavy whipping cream adds to the icing.
- Immediately drizzle the icing over the cake; it will set in a few minutes.
Icing Recipe Variations
There are so many different flavors of icing you could drizzle on top of gingerbread coffee cake. Here are just a few variations that I would suggest. For each of these, you can use more or less liquid, for desired drizzling consistency.
- Maple Icing: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1/2 tsp maple extract + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract + 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- Coffee Icing: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp vanilla extract + 3 tbsp brewed coffee
- Eggnog Bourbon Icing: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp vanilla + 1 tbsp bourbon + 2-3 tbsp eggnog
- Vanilla Bean Icing: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp vanilla bean paste + 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
Make in Advance
One of the great things about this coffee cake recipe is how fantastic it is for days after baking. Kept in an airtight container, it stays soft and moist, so you can enjoy the leftover cake for breakfast all week. Re-warm individual pieces in the microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power for that just-baked texture.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
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High Altitude Gingerbread Maple Coffee Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 cup full-fat sour cream
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup molasses (NOT Blackstrap)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Streusel
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
Maple Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp maple extract
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and spray a 9-inch baking pan with non-stick spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and spices.Separately, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, milk, sour cream, melted butter, molasses, and vanilla.Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix just until combined. Spread the batter into the greased pan.
Streusel
- In a bowl, combine all the topping ingredients until moistened and crumbly.
- Sprinkle evenly over the batter.
- Bake the cake on the center oven rack for about 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester or sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack and cool for 30 minutes before serving.
Icing
- While the cake is cooling, whisk together all icing ingredients until smooth.
- Drizzle the icing over the warm cake. The icing will set in a few minutes.
Notes
- Maple: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1/2 tsp maple extract + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract + 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- Coffee: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp vanilla extract + 3 tbsp brewed coffee
- Eggnog Bourbon: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp vanilla + 1 tbsp bourbon + 2-3 tbsp eggnog
- Vanilla Bean: 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp vanilla bean paste + 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- This cake is fantastic for days, staying soft and moist in an airtight container.
- To save time in the morning, I will usually bake it at night, then re-warm pieces in the microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power.
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