Classic Gingerbread Loaf

This super easy gingerbread loaf cake is heavily spiced, with a perfect moist texture. It comes together in only a saucepan and a bowl. Gingerbread loaf makes the perfect gift, or is great to have on hand if you need a homemade loaf cake filled with holiday flavours.

Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for this homemade gingerbread loaf! This easy loaf recipe is great to have on hand or as a quick back pocket recipe if you need something easy to take somewhere or to serve.

This gingerbread loaf is heavily spiced, and has an amazing moist texture. It comes together in just a saucepan and a bowl, and while it does have a low, slow bake time, I promise you that it is so, so worth it.

I love making loaf cakes and other quick bread recipes like my banana bread recipe and my lemon poppy seed loaf cake, but there is just something about a super spicy, perfectly moist gingerbread loaf cake. I made this about eight times while I was testing and truly never got sick of it - I know you will love it just as much as I do, and it stores super well both at room temperature or in the freezer.

If you are after more recipes with this classic gingerbread flavour, check out my easy gingerbread cookies, or my homemade gingersnap cookie recipe.

Ingredients in Gingerbread Loaf Cake

This gingerbread loaf cake is super easy to make - it does have a few different spices in the mix, but you can mix and match depending on what you have!

• Treacle. I did a bunch of tests using molasses, golden syrup, and treacle, using different sugars and experimenting, and found treacle gave me the best flavour and texture in the gingerbread cake.
• Butter. I use unsalted butter here - you can use salted if that's what you have, just leave out the salt in the recipe.
• Milk. Whole milk goes straight into the warmed up butter and treacle mix to help chill it out a little bit.
• Eggs. Just two large eggs, which help hold the loaf cake together!
• All-purpose flour. The batter will seem super wet - don't worry, this is a very moist cake, super wet is what we are after here.
• Granulated sugar. I tested this with both brown sugar and granulated sugar (and a mix of both), and found that granulated sugar and treacle was the best combination.
• Spices. I use a mixture here - mainly ginger, but then also some mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
• Baking powder and baking soda. Please make sure that both are up to date and not expired - I got caught out by this recently and it took me forever to work out why things were baking up flatter than they usually do!

Molasses vs Treacle vs Golden Syrup

Every now and then a super simple recipe will catch me out and send me down a recipe testing rabbit hole - this gingerbread loaf cake was one of them.

Because I have an international audience, I like to cross test recipes with different ingredients that I know are easier to get in different places - for example, I make this cake with treacle, but wanted to test if it worked well with molasses too.

This was a particularly interesting test, and I found out a few things. First - the difference between molasses, treacle, and golden syrup. All three are sugar syrups, the difference between them is how much they are cooked down, which then changes both the viscosity and taste of them, along with the acidity (with golden syrup being the least acidic and molasses being the most).

This changed how they interacted with the baking soda in the recipe which is alkaline. Acid plus base = carbon dioxide = gives rise to the loaf cake. Because there is a large quantity of treacle in the recipe, substituting for golden syrup or molasses isn't just a direct switch.

White sugar and brown sugar also interact differently with baking soda. Brown sugar is made with molasses, which is acidic, so too much brown sugar in the recipe = baking soda is overpowered = loaf cake does not rise.

Here are a few of my tests in the image below:

• Golden Syrup plus brown sugar. Golden syrup is the least acidic of the three syrups, so worked fine with brown sugar, however I much preferred the taste and texture of the treacle recipe.
• Treacle plus brown sugar plus white sugar. The combination of treacle and brown sugar was too much for the baking soda and overwhelmed it, giving a cake that was a bit flatter and not as nice of a texture.
• Treacle plus white sugar. This was my favourite of these three tests - the treacle and the baking soda interact to give the loaf cake rise, while also providing a nice texture and a nice rich finish.
• Not pictured - Molasses. I tested the original recipe with molasses too, but it was far too rich for the recipe and resulted in a super sunken, super sticky cake.

So - can I use golden syrup instead of treacle?

If you want to make substitutions, unfortunately, this isn't a recipe that you can use molasses in in the place of the treacle as a straight sub. You are welcome to try but you will need to change the leavening agent, and it may not turn out.

If you only have golden syrup and would like to use that instead of treacle, that will work fine - substitute the granulated sugar for brown sugar. It will come out a little lighter in flavour, but it will still be delicious!

How to get the perfect crack on a loaf cake

This is a sneaky trick that I use for my lemon poppyseed cake to control where the crack happens - I pipe a thin line of softened butter down the middle of the cake. I just place some into a piping bag or a ziplock and snip the end off, then pipe a thin line.

What this does is creates a place of least resistance when the butter melts, so the loaf cracks directly down the middle. This is a totally optional step, but I like sharing my little tips and tricks in case you want to try them at home too.

I know that dipping a knife in oil or melted butter and running it down the centre will also work too!

Can Gingerbread Loaf be made ahead?

The great thing about this gingerbread loaf cake is that it is amazing to make ahead. It is super moist, and I actually find that the flavours develop over time, and it is better the day or two after you make it. Make it a day or two ahead and store at room temperature wrapped in plastic or in an airtight container.

How to freeze Gingerbread Loaf

This gingerbread loaf cake also freezes amazingly. You can either store the whole thing wrapped up, or I like to wrap the slices up individually tightly in plastic wrap and freeze them, so that I don't have to defrost the whole loaf. Defrost at room temperature then lightly toast before eating.

How do you store gingerbread loaf?

Store your gingerbread loaf cake either wrapped in plastic or in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tools and equipment do you use?
You can find a full list of the tools and equipment I use on my products page

Which pan did you use?

I made my gingerbread loaf cake in a pullman pan, which is 9"x4"x4", but a large loaf pan will work well too! You can also split it into two smaller loaves - just be aware that you will need to reduce the bake time for a smaller loaf.

What is the best way to serve gingerbread loaf?

I love to eat my gingerbread loaf cake sliced thick with butter. You can also butter it and fry in a pan, or toast lightly in the oven or toaster oven before adding the butter.

Where can I get treacle?

I just get mine at the supermarket as it is super easy to find in NZ, but if it's not easy to find locally to you, I would suggest looking online!

For more loaf cake recipes, check out:

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