This moist and spicy high altitude gingerbread sheet cake is simply wonderful on its own, or served with lemon curd or fresh whipped cream. For a lovely but easy decoration, dust powdered sugar over each square of cake with snowflake, pumpkin or leaf stencils. This is a wonderful recipe for Christmas, or any time during the holiday season.
Looking for more high altitude holiday recipes? You might also like these orange ginger shortbread cookies, baked gingerbread doughnuts, and soft ginger molasses cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick and Easy. The cake batter is easy to make with just a bowl and whisk, no mixer needed. And since this is a sheet cake, you won’t need to fuss with assembling and frosting cake layers.
Simple but Stunning. When a cake is really flavorful and moist, it doesn’t even need frosting. And that’s what I love about this gingerbread cake. The powdered sugar snowflake stencils are eye catching and so pretty for the holidays, and the lightly sweetened whipped cream is just the right touch. My personal favorite way to eat gingerbread cake, though, is with warm lemon curd drizzled on top.
Perfect for Christmas. With the warm cozy spices, dark brown sugar and snowflakes, this is a perfect holiday recipe.
So Good Leftover. This cake stays soft and moist for days, and is delicious warmed up for breakfast.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. All-purpose flour gives the cake strength and structure.
- Baking Powder. Leavening agent to make the cake rise.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavors.
- Spices. A blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cardamom adds warm and a subtle spiciness.
- Buttermilk. The fat and acidity makes the cake soft, tender and moist.
- Dark Brown Sugar. The molasses in the dark brown sugar gives the cake a classic gingerbread flavor, as well as keeps the cake moist and sweet.
- Eggs. Strengthens the cake batter and adds richness.
- Butter + Oil. A combination of melted butter and vegetable oil adds flavor and moisture.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Molasses. For a darker color and richer flavor, use a dark molasses, such as blackstrap. Light or “original” molasses also works just fine.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with non-stick baking spray, or line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
- Separately, whisk together the buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, melted butter, oil, vanilla and molasses.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, whisk just until combined and mostly smooth, and pour the batter into the pan.
- Bake the cake on the center oven rack for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Cool the cake for at least 1-2 hours and serve warm, or cool completely to serve at room temperature.
TIP: Stenciling the pieces of cake individually will result in a prettier presentation, so each piece of cake gets a snowflake centered right on top.
Snowflake Stencils
- Cut the cake into 12-16 squares.
- Take your snowflake stencils, position a stencil over a piece of cake, and dust with powdered sugar. Carefully lift the stencil off, and shake the excess sugar off the stencil. Repeat with the remaining pieces of cake.
- Serve the cake with whipped cream and lemon curd.
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!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, for a layer cake, you can make this recipe in three 8-inch pans or two 9-inch pans.
For a smaller cake, cut the recipe in half and bake it in a 9-inch pan.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own sour milk. For every cup of whole milk, stir in 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar (or apple cider vinegar), and set aside for a few minutes to curdle before adding to the cake batter.
I have several sets of snowflake stencils that I used, including these snowflake stencils and these snowflake stencils. You could also use leaf stencils or pumpkin stencils for a fall cake that doesn’t look too wintery.
You can use non-melting powdered sugar (also called donut sugar), which stays in place without melting into the moist cake. Otherwise, just wait to add the powdered sugar stencil until right before you serve the cake.
Store the leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
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High Altitude Gingerbread Sheet 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.
Equipment
- 9×13 baking pan
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 ¾ cups whole or lowfat buttermilk, room temperature (see notes)
- 1 ¾ cups dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp light or dark molasses
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with non-stick baking spray, or line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
- Separately, whisk together the buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, melted butter, oil, vanilla and molasses.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, and whisk just until combined and mostly smooth, and pour the batter into the pan.
- Bake the cake on the center oven rack for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Cool the cake for at least 1-2 hours and serve warm, or cool completely to serve at room temperature.
Snowflake Stencils
- Cut the cake into 12-16 squares.
- Take your snowflake stencils, position a stencil over a piece of cake, and dust with powdered sugar. Carefully lift the stencil off, and shake the excess sugar off the stencil. Repeat with the remaining pieces of cake.Stenciling the pieces of cake individually will result in a prettier presentation, so each piece of cake gets a snowflake centered right on top.
- Serve the cake with whipped cream or lemon curd.
Notes
- The cake will stay moist and fresh for 4-5 days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Reheat leftover slices of cake in the microwave for 20-30 seconds at 50% power.
- The moisture of the cake will cause the powdered sugar to melt as it’s stored, which is totally normal. To avoid this, just add the powdered sugar right before serving, or use “non-melting” powdered sugar.
- If you don’t have buttermilk, pour 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar into a liquid measuring cup. Then add whole milk up to the 1 3/4 cup line.
Hi Heather!
A crazy question….I would like to make this wonderful cake of yours but…I live in Florida! I’m about 6 inches above sea level. (sometimes LESS if it has recently rained!) Is there a tweak I need to know about to make it correctly? Low altitude version? Please let me know. Thank you for any assistance you can provide….
Elizabeth, please see my FAQs for some helpful info: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
This tastes more like gingerbread is supposed to IMO than any other recipe I’ve tried. The blend of spices is amazing! You’d never guess it only has 2 Tablespoons of molasses. Very moist and rich. Thank you Heather for all your incredible recipes. Can’t wait for your book 🤞
So good to hear! I find that the brand of dark brown sugar I use makes a big difference – some are much darker than others, and makes the flavor so much richer. For gingerbread cakes, I like the dark brown sugar from my local Target better than what I can get at King Soopers.
Thanks for the tip. I wanted to post a picture but don’t know how to attach.
Photo finish!