This soft and fluffy, high altitude vanilla ginger cake is spiced with plenty of ground ginger, frosted with vanilla buttercream, and covered in sparkling ginger sugar. If you love your desserts to have a little spicy kick, you’ll love today’s sweet and spicy ginger cake.
You might also love these stamped gingerbread cookies with vanilla icing, gingerbread cake with mascarpone buttercream, and soft and chewy ginger molasses cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Spicy Heat of Ginger. Ginger is an ingredient that’s fantastic for baking, and not just for gingerbread baked goods. With no molasses and no other spices in today’s cake, the flavor of the ginger and vanilla really shines.
Soft, Moist and Fluffy. Today’s ginger cake is based on my popular vanilla cake, which is always perfectly fluffy, with a beautiful cake crumb that stays soft and moist for days.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
Cake
- Cake Flour. Cake flour makes a very soft, light and fluffy vanilla cake, as it contains a lower percentage of protein than all-purpose flour.
- Granulated Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture to cakes. I also added a little light brown sugar to complement the flavor of the ginger.
- Baking Powder. Leavens the cake, making it rise.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Ginger. Use ground ginger to add spice and a little heat to the cake.
- Eggs + Egg Whites. I use 2 eggs, plus 2 egg whites, in my vanilla cake, which adds structure and richness, while the extra whites make it nice and fluffy. Save the leftover 2 egg yolks for another use.
- Whole Milk + Apple Cider Vinegar. I usually use buttermilk for this recipe, so the combination of whole milk and apple cider vinegar replicates the acidity of buttermilk.
- Melted Butter + Vegetable Oil. A combination of both butter and oil gives this vanilla cake the best flavor as well as a soft, moist texture.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
Buttercream
- Unsalted Butter. If you use salted butter, just omit the extra salt in the buttercream.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
- Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Vanilla. Use vanilla or vanilla bean paste for flavor.
Ginger Sugar
- For a finishing touch, I sprinkled the buttercream with a combination of granulated sugar, coarse sparkling sugar, ground ginger and ground cinnamon.
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F, position a rack in the center of the oven, and spray the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray. If making half the recipe, prep three 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and ground ginger. Use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients well.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, milk, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, melted butter, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk until combined, about 10-15 seconds. A few lumps in the batter are okay; take care not to over mix. Divide the batter between the cake pans. Tap a few times against the counter to pop any large air bubbles.
- Bake 8-inch cakes for about 21-25 minutes (bake 6-inch cakes for about 18-20 minutes), or until a cake tester or a toothpick comes out clean, and the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Set the pans on a wire rack, cover them loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting. When ready to frost and assemble the cake, remove the cakes from the pans.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer running on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and the salt, mixing until thick and combined.
- Add the vanilla; increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy. Add the milk only if needed for desired consistency. Note that in warmer weather, when the butter is softer, you’ll rarely need to add the milk.
- Fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream. If you like, use any leftover buttercream to pipe the swirls on top of the cake with tip 1M.
Ginger Sugar
- In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, sparkling sugar, ginger and cinnamon.
- Before the buttercream crusts over, scatter the sugar all over the top and sides of the cake.
Recipe Variations
- 6-inch Cake. For a smaller cake, cut the cake recipe in half, and bake in three 6-inch cake pans.
- Sheet Cake. For a sheet cake, bake the cake in a 9×13 inch pan, or cut the cake recipe in half, and bake it in a 9-inch square pan.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use fresh ginger instead of ground ginger?
No, you need to use ground ginger to spice the cake batter.
How long will this cake stay fresh?
You should store leftover ginger cake in an airtight container or cake carrier at room temperature for up to 3 days to keep it soft and moist.
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Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Ginger 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
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 ¼ cups cake flour, spooned and leveled, then sifted
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups whole milk, room temperature
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted, and then cooled for 10 minutes
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 2 tbsp milk or cream, only if needed for consistency
Ginger Sugar
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp coarse sparkling sugar (decorator's sugar)
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F, position a rack in the center of the oven, and spray the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray. If making half the recipe, prep three 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and ground ginger. Use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients well.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, milk, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, melted butter, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk until combined, about 10-15 seconds. A few lumps in the batter are okay; take care not to over mix. Divide the batter between the cake pans. Tap a few times against the counter to pop any large air bubbles.
- Bake 8-inch cakes for about 21-25 minutes (bake 6-inch cakes for about 18-20 minutes), or until a cake tester or a toothpick comes out clean, and the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Set the pans on a wire rack, cover them loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting. When ready to frost and assemble the cake, remove the cakes from the pans.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer running on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and the salt, mixing until thick and combined.
- Add the vanilla; increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy. Add the milk only if needed for desired consistency. Note that in warmer weather, when the butter is softer, you'll rarely need to add the milk.
- Fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream. If you like, use any leftover buttercream to pipe the swirls on top of the cake with tip 1M.
Ginger Sugar
- In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, sparkling sugar, ginger and cinnamon.
- Before the buttercream crusts over, scatter the sugar all over the top and sides of the cake.
I made the cake portion of this recipe in a 10 cup bundt pan. I did not make the buttercream or the ginger-sugar sprinkle. The only changes I made to the cake ingredients was to use all granulated sugar (left out the 1/4 cup of brown sugar), used 3 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 full tablespoon of vanilla extract. I baked the cake at 350 degrees F for about 60 minutes. It came out beautifully!! The texture is just so amazing and the flavor is incredible. It’s buttery and has a really wonderful florally ginger note to it. I am so impressed and happy with how it came out. Thank you so much for this recipe! I will be making it again! (Oh and P.S. I do not live at high altitude and the cake still came out perfect!)
What a great idea to make it into a bundt cake. 🙂
Thank you so much for developing and sharing your recipes here Heather! This Ginger Vanilla cake turned out beautifully down here in the Springs at 6,700ish feet. I do not have three 8 inch pans so I made this into a 2 layer 9 inch cake, and I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil since I can’t stand the taste of other oils. My kids asked me to use half the amount of frosting and appreciated your less-sweet buttercream (we can’t stand frostings that are so sweet it makes your teeth hurt!). I used the extra egg yolks from this recipe to make your Brown Sugar Bourbon Ice Cream, which was also fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed! I read somewhere on here you were considering a cookbook at some point but put the idea on hold … I’m just saying, if you did publish a cookbook, I’d buy it for your gorgeous photography alone (but I also would bake basically everything inside it too!). Thank you again for sharing your passion with us high-altituders!
This is the nicest comment, thank you! 🙂