A gingerbread twist on a bundt cake, perfect for the festive season! This lightly spiced bundt cake is made with all the delicious spices of gingerbread cookies with a light moist crumb. It’s decorated with a rich cream cheese frosting and an edible wreath made of fresh strawberries, gingerbread cookies and rosemary sprigs for some Christmas magic. A wonderful dessert to share with friends and family.
This post was inspired by ingredients I was kindly gifted by Countdown NZ as part of their Christmas campaign to spread Christmas joy with Christmas-inspired recipes.
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Ingredients You’ll Need to Make this Gingerbread Bundt Cake
It’s super easy to make one of these beautiful bundt cakes all for yourself with the following ingredients…
For the Bundt Cake
- Eggs: I used medium-sized eggs, size 6 or 7 to make this recipe.
- Brown Sugar: Gives this cake sweetness with a hint of molasses, a classic gingerbread baking addition.
- Treacle: A thick, rich and dark-coloured syrup with a touch of sweetness. It’s relatively similar to molasses, the most common ingredient in gingerbread baking. Treacle provides a touch of bitterness and flavour that I enjoy, but you are more than welcome to use black molasses or even golden syrup for a lighter version.
- Vegetable Oil: Alight neutral flavoured oil, that won’t impart too strong a flavour to the cake. You may also use canola oil.
- Plain Flour: For the ultimate cake texture and the light airy crumb desired. This recipe uses 2 1/2 cups.
- Baking powder: a leaving agent that provides some lift to the cake to give it a light texture.
- Baking Soda: Works similarly to baking powder and gives it a fluffy texture. If your baking soda is lumpy, give it a quick sieve before adding it to your mixture.
- Ground ginger: Delivers a lovely festive flavour to this gingerbread cake and combines nicely with the other warming spices.
- Ground cinnamon: Another classic gingerbread addition. Ground cinnamon blends with the other ingredients for flavour and also colour.
- Ground nutmeg: A touch of nutmeg completes the gingerbread spice mix for this bundt cake.
- Salt: Helps to bring out the other flavours in the cake to help them shine through.
- Greek Yoghurt: Adds a textural element to this cake. I used my favourite thick and creamy quality Greek yoghurt for the best possible outcome.
- Buttermilk: Maintains a moist cake. It’s one of my favourite ingredients to use in cakes for this particular reason.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream Cheese: Make sure that your cream cheese is at regular room temperature to ensure it is softened and easier to mix with the other ingredients. On a warm day, you could leave it out of the fridge for a few hours or gently heat it in the microwave in short bursts until nicely softened.
- Icing Sugar: To provide sweetness to this frosting. It gets mixed with the cream cheese for a sweetly moreish topping to the bundt cake, drizzled around the top.
- Milk: Helps to thin down the mixture into a wonderfully drizzle-able frosting that ever so gently trickles down the side of the bundt for the most desirable effect. For a thinner frosting, you can add a touch more milk and for a thicker frosting, less milk can be added.
- Vanilla Extract: For a touch of flavour. Vanilla extract is preferred over essence.
Decoration, optional
- Strawberries: There is nothing better than fresh berries in summer and to complete the wreath upon the top of this delectable treat! I like to cut the berries in halves and quarters and then place them around the top for visual appeal and colour. Strawberries also add freshness to the cake and pair magnificently with the gingerbread flavours.
- Gingerbread Cookies: These are one of my favourite ways to decorate gingerbread-themed items. I whipped up a batch of my favourite gingerbread cookies from one of my very own recipes. Scroll for the details further down for the recipe! (they’re delicious!)
- Fresh Rosemary: Adds a pop of green to the decoration of this bundt. No wreath can be without it! I like to pick off a few small sprigs and have them tucked between the strawberries and gingerbread cookies.
Learn more about rosemary and other essential culinary herbs here!
Equipment You’ll Need:
You’ll need one specific pan to create this masterpiece and that is…
- A Bundt Cake Pan: this recipe was made in an 8-inch pan that is equivalent to 21cm, with a capacity of 2.2L. While it doesn’t completely reach the top of the pan, it does sit comfortably with room to rise. I have however also tested this recipe in a smaller individual-sized mini bundt pan and it works perfectly that way too, with a cooking time of around 20-25 minutes.
How to Make this Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Here’s my step-by-step guide on how to whip up one of these festive bundt cakes…
- Preheat your oven to 180°C bake and brush an 8-inch/ 21-cm/ 2.2L bundt cake pan with oil or melted butter.
- In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, treacle and oil until smooth.
- Stir in the dry ingredients until well combined and no pockets of flour remain.
- Fold in the yoghurt and buttermilk until well combined.
- Pour into the prepared cake tin and smooth over with a spatula or spoon.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If you find the cake is getting a little dark on the top, you may cover it with some foil.
- Set aside to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to let it cool completely.
- To make the icing: Mix all of the ingredients until smooth, then drizzle over the bundt cake and allow it to slowly drip down the sides.
How to Decorate Your Bundt Cake
Follow these steps to embellish your tasty festive cake…
- Start by placing the bigger items first, in this case, it’ll be the strawberries. I like to cut mine into halves and quarters and make little groups of them around the top of the cake. This distributes the colour and leaves some space for the other ingredients.
- Second, place your gingerbread cookies amongst the strawberries, standing in between wherever possible. For this cake, I cut out small stars to sit between the gaps and they worked wonderfully.
- Third, use small sprigs of rosemary to place between the strawberries and gingerbread cookies. This adds colour and visual interest, making it the perfect wreath topping.
Storing Your Bundt Cake
- If you find yourself with leftovers, place the cake in an airtight container in the fridge. It’ll last for around 4-7 days. I highly recommend giving it a quick pop in the microwave before eating for the best experience.
MORE Christmas Recipes…
- Gingerbread cookies – Where you can sign up to get the freebie below!
Festive Gingerbread Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
A gingerbread twist on a bundt cake, perfect for the festive season! This lightly spiced bundt cake is made with all the delicious spices of gingerbread cookies with a light moist crumb. It's decorated with a rich cream cheese frosting and an edible wreath made of fresh strawberries, gingerbread cookies and rosemary sprigs for some Christmas magic.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (165g) brown sugar
- ¼ cup (84g) treacle
- 1 ¼ cups (121ml) vegetable oil
- 2 ½ cups (400g) plain flour
- 1 tsp (3g) baking powder
- ½ tsp (2g) baking soda
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup (56g) Greek yoghurt
- ½ cup (110g) buttermilk
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 100 g cream cheese
- ¼ cup (31g) icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp milk
Decoration, optional
- Fresh strawberries
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Fresh Rosemary
Instructions
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
- Preheat your oven to bake at 180°C. Grease an 8-inch/ 21-cm/ 2.2L bundt pan.
- Whisk together eggs, brown sugar, treacle and oil until smooth in a large bowl.
- Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well combined.
- Fold in the yoghurt and buttermilk until well combined.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
- Set aside for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Mix together cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and milk until smooth.
- Drizzle the cream cheese frosting over the bundt cake.
Decoration, optional
- Decorate with strawberries. gingerbread cookies and rosemary sprigs. Serve and enjoy!
If you give this festive gingerbread bundt cake recipe a go, don’t forget to tag @theculinaryletter and #theculinaryletter, so I can see all your wonderful creations!
Hope this inspires you to create some fun things this festive season and have a happy holiday.
Until next time, stay curious!
Stay connected!
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