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Gingerbread loaf cake with eggnog icing dripping over the edge.

High Altitude Gingerbread Loaf Cake with Eggnog Icing

Heather Smoke
A high altitude recipe for moist, spiced gingerbread loaf cake, with sweet eggnog icing.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 2 votes
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings1 loaf

Equipment

  • Standard-Sized Loaf Pan

Ingredients
 

Cake

  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
  • 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp ground cloves
  • ¼ tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tbsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee
  • ¾ cup whole milk
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • ¾ cup + 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 2 tbsp dark molasses
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Icing

  • 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 4 ½ tbsp eggnog
  • coarse sparkling sugar, ground nutmeg, and mini gingerbread people sprinkles, for decorating

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 325 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a standard sized loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper, so that it hangs over two sides of the pan (this parchment paper "sling" makes it easy to lift the cake out of the pan after baking).
  • In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices, then whisk until evenly distributed.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, molasses, eggs, melted butter, oil and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and whisk just until combined.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester or sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Set the pan on a cooling rack, and let cool for 15 minutes. Lift the cake out of the pan by the parchment paper, and let cool until warm.

Icing

  • In a bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and eggnog until smooth.
  • Pour the icing over the top of the cake, letting it drip over the sides.
  • Before the icing sets and crusts over, sprinkle the top of the cake with coarse sparkling sugar, ground nutmeg and mini gingerbread people sprinkles.
  • Let the cake finish cooling until the icing sets before you slice the cake.

Notes

Store the leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Keyword Christmas, Eggnog, Gingerbread, High Altitude, Loaf Cake
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