This vegan gingerbread cake is perfect for the holidays! Flavored with molasses, ginger and spices, it's absolutely delicious and super easy to make. Best of all, it can be made in one bowl with no electric mixer!
Gingerbread wasn't my favorite flavor when I was growing up, but in recent years it's grown on me, big time! Maybe it's my vegan gingerbread cookies that have got me hooked on it, but lately I'm absolutely loving the sweet mixture of ginger and molasses that we all associate with the holidays.
This vegan gingerbread cake was especially delicious, and it makes the house smell magical while it's baking. I've already sent a batch to work with my husband and all his (non-vegan) coworkers (the best taste-testers) raved about it.
The recipe is adapted from my vegan spice cake, so if you loved that one, definitely give this a try. I know it will become a new holiday tradition in my house.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Flour. We're using all-purpose wheat flour. That's all I've tested the recipe with, so I can't say how the recipe will turn out with any other varieties.
- Sugar. Make sure to use organic sugar in order to keep the recipe vegan. Coconut sugar will also work just fine!
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Spices. We're using ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
- Salt.
- Hot water. It doesn't need to be boiling — just hot enough to fully dissolve the molasses.
- Molasses. Make sure to use unsulfured molasses, such as Grandma's brand or Brer Rabbit Mild Flavor Molasses. Other varieties like blackstrap have a difference chemical makeup, so they can't generally be substituted for regular old sulfured molasses in recipes for baked goods.
- Vegetable oil. Feel free to use your favorite oil for baking. Corn oil, canola oil and coconut oil will all work fine!
- Vanilla extract.
- Apple cider vinegar. See my guide to apple cider vinegar substitutes if you don't have this on hand.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Whisk your dry ingredients together in a large bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
- In a separate container, such as a large liquid measuring cup, combine the wet ingredients. First, stir the molasses and hot water together until the molasses completely dissolves, then stir in the oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and use a large spoon to stir everything up just until combined. Get most of the lumps out, but in order to give your cake the best texture you'll want to avoid overmixing the batter.
- Pour the batter into a lightly oiled 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
- Pop the pan into the oven and bake it until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let your vegan gingerbread cake cool on a cooling rack before slicing and serving it.
Serving Ideas
- I topped my cake with some vegan whipped cream (Reddi-Wip brand), powdered sugar, and sugared cranberries in the photos.
- Gingerbread cake is delicious with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream. So Delicious cashew-based ice cream is my favorite.
- If you'd like to frost your cake, my vegan vanilla buttercream frosting would be perfect. My vegan chocolate buttercream frosting is a bit of a less conventional choice, but I still think it would be delicious.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan gingerbread cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days or in the fridge for about 3 to 5 days. It'll keep a big longer frosted than unfrosted.
You can also store your cake in a sealed container in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Vegan Cakes for the Holidays
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Easy Vegan Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup organic granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup hot water
- 1 cup unsulfured molasses
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly oil the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch rectangular baking pan.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
- In a separate container such as a large liquid measuring cup, stir together the hot water and molasses until the molasses is fully dissolved. Stir in the oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar.
- Pour the molasses mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and stir just until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean of batter, about 30 minutes.
- Place the cake pan on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool before slicing and serving.
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Made this today it was delicious
Do you think I could use apple sauce instead of oil?
I haven't tried that in this particular recipe, but it usually works well in cakes. I'd love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
I omitted the oil by mistake and the cake turned just fine :)
First time trying gingerbread with molasses, and great success, thank you for the recipe!
This recipes is a holiday keeper! Perfect gingerbread flavor and easy to make. Mine was slightly over baked at 26 minutes. Will use a lighter pan next time and keep a closer eye..This is a wonderful and yummy recipe, very nostalgic
I used an icing with Miyoko's butter, powder sugar and vanilla. It was a hit at my gathering and kept well for leftovers.
can it be modified to a loaf pan?
I'm really not sure about that, but I'm thinking the batter might be too thin for a loaf pan. I'll keep a gingerbread loaf recipe for a future recipe idea.
I'd like to try making this into a layer cake with vegan cream cheese frosting. Do you think I should double it for 2 9" cake pans? Or 1 batch that would fit a 9 x 13" pan would suffice?
I'll let you know how it turns out.
The recipe should make plenty of batter for two 9-inch layers. Just make sure to keep an eye on them when they bake, as they'll probably need less time in the oven. I would start checking on them at around thirty minutes. Enjoy!
Hello!
Is there a way to make it with oat flour? And, dates for the sugar? Thank you and Please advise.
I'm afraid I can't say. I'd have to do some experimenting to figure out how to make it work.
Love this recipe! I used coconut oil vs. vegetable oil and topped with some store-bought vanilla icing (ice cream would be good too). Easy to make, moist and tastes wonderful! I have this bookmarked now, as I keep these ingredients on hand and see myself making this regularly.
Sooooo delicious !! And simple. Just wow !
I made this cake today and we in the Netherlands don't use molasses very often and I think the taste in the cake is very strong of the molasses.
So next time I will use less of this sweetener.
I hardly taste the cinnamon or the ginger.
But the cake is soft and I think with some frosting is will be a nice treat
You might like my spice cake recipe better: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/spice-cake/ It's similar to this one, but only has a tiny bit of molasses in the batter!