Gingerbread Loaf Cake with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting is a holiday treat you and yours will absolutely LOVE this season! It makes a beautiful holiday food gift, and tasty morning, noon, and night snack.
Winter calls for bundling up and cozying up to yummy desserts. I love baking this time of year because all of those lovely holiday spices – gingerbread, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice – make your house smell amazing while the holiday cakes, cookies, and pies bake in the oven!
Gingerbread is a classic winter holiday and Christmas flavor that we love to bake with in my house. From our annual cookie exchanges with Soft Gingerbread Cutout Cookies and Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies, to gingerbread cakes like Gingerbread Swiss Roll and Mini Gingerbread Bundt Cakes.
This Gingerbread Loaf Cake recipe is one of my favorites, and we make it a LOT. I hope you love it as much as we do!
Table of Contents
❤️ Why you’ll love this family favorite recipe!
This holiday bread has all of the amazing seasonal spices rolled into one tasty treat that you could enjoy morning, noon, and night (and definitely late night too!).
- There’s only about 15 minutes of hands-on prep time. The rest of the time it’s baking in the oven!
- It’s a rich, decadent gingerbread loaf with molasses and holiday spices.
- You can bake mini loaves and give them as holiday gifts.
- This gingerbread loaf cake is delicious on its own, but is even more festive with the peppermint cream cheese frosting!
🍫 Ingredient notes
In addition to classic loaf cake ingredients, you’ll also need:
- Holiday spices – Ginger, cinnamon, all spice, and cloves.
- Peppermint – A little bit of peppermint extract goes a long way!
- Candy cane – Then I crushed a couple of candy canes and sprinkled the crushed canes over the top for added flavor and crunch.
✅ Step-by-step baking instructions
To make the Gingerbread Loaf
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
- Prep loaf pan by greasing it lightly with butter and then lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, spices, salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together melted butter and molasses until well blended. Beat in the eggs and then add the buttermilk and vanilla. Then slowly add the butter and egg mixture (the wet ingredients) to the dry ingredients, mixing until well-combined.
- Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake for about 50-55 minutes. Do the toothpick test and if the toothpick comes out clean after sticking it gently through the middle of the loaf, then it’s done.
- Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Gently lift out of the pan and place on a cooling rack until it has cooled to room temperature.
- Once the loaf is completely cool, spread Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting evenly over the top of the entire loaf, and then sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.
To make the Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a stand mixer, cream together the butter cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, peppermint extract and milk until smooth.
🍽 Serving ideas
When you make this gingerbread loaf cake with peppermint cream cheese frosting, your house will smell AMAZING!
This is a great baked treat to give as holiday gifts to teachers, neighbors, and friends. It’s also a delicious dish to bring to holiday parties.
If serving this on a Christmas dessert table, serve it along with gingerbread truffles and almond Christmas sprinkle cookies.
Or simply enjoy a slice or two of this gingerbread loaf with a warm cup of coffee, peppermint hot chocolate, or tea by the fireplace. It makes for a hearty afternoon snack on a cold winter day.
👩🏻🍳 Baking FAQs
You can make this a day or two ahead of the time you intend to serve it. Just keep it unfrosted until you are ready to serve.
Store the unfrosted loaf in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two or three days, or in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Yes! Wrap unfrosted gingerbread loaf cake with plastic wrap, then store in a freezer safe resealable plastic bag or in a freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to one month. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
⏲ Kitchen tools and equipment
Ready to make this Christmas dessert? Here’s what you’ll need:
More holiday dessert recipes
Christmas
Gingerbread Bundt Cakes
Holiday Recipes
Gingerbread Cake Roll
Dessert Recipes
Gingerbread Truffles
Holiday Recipes
The Best Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Thank you!
Gingerbread Loaf with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 1 Loaf Pan
Ingredients
Gingerbread Loaf
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup molasses
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk*, see notes for dairy-free option
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ¼ cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 4 tablespoons almond milk
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- 2 small candy canes, crushed
Instructions
To make the Gingerbread Loaf
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
- Prep loaf pan by greasing it lightly with butter and then lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, spices, salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together melted butter and molasses until well blended. Beat in the eggs and then add the buttermilk and vanilla. Then slowly add the butter and egg mixture (the wet ingredients) to the dry ingredients, mixing until well-combined.
- Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake for about 50-55 minutes. Do the toothpick test and if the toothpick comes out clean after sticking it gently through the middle of the loaf, then it’s done.
- Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Gently lift out of the pan and place on a cooling rack until it has cooled to room temperature.
- Once the loaf is completely cool, spread Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting evenly over the top of the entire loaf, and then sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.
To make the Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, peppermint extract and milk until smooth.
Notes
- I make dairy-free buttermilk by pouring a cup of almond milk into a glass measuring cup, then adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then mix and use as buttermilk in the directions.
- To make this dairy-free, use the buttermilk substitution above, then substitute vegan butter for regular butter and vegan cream cheese for regular cream cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Never had that but it sounds delicious! I love gingerbread flavor!
Me too! Thanks!
This sounds so good! And my boyfriend loves gingerbread so I’ll have to give this a try! Thanks for the tips on the dairy-free buttermilk – he’s dairy-free/very minimal dairy, so this is a great option! Even for buttermilk pancakes too :)
Sounds perfect for him! Thanks, Danielle! :)
HOLY BUSINESS this sounds goooooooooood! So many flavors I love. I am going to have to make this. Thank you for the recipe!
Let me know how you like it! Thanks, Meg!
Holy cow this looks amazing! I am always looking for new quick bread recipes and the flavor combination looks divine. I love anything within peppermint so I may be putting this frosting on everything…
Thanks, Eva! The frosting is pretty versatile!
This gingerbread loaf screams Christmas so loud! The perfect epitome for the holiday season to bring cheers!
Thank you so much for sharing!
I love making holiday desserts! Thank you, Ushmana! :)
How pretty! Sounds like it was as delicious as it looks. Maybe I need this craving now!
Thanks, Catherine! :)
I cannot agree with you more, this is pure craving! It looks so soft and moist, I bet it was even better as the days gone by. I love the smell of ginger and cinnamon. Nothing better when served with coffee! :)
I agree! It’s great with coffee! :)
This looks so moist and delicious, and I can imagine it was torture smelling that but having to wait to enjoy it
It was! LOL Thanks, Pech!
This looks moist and delicious and perfect for the holidays. I think the peppermint sprinkle is my favorite part. YUM!
Thank you, Ali! I love the peppermint, too!
I think I could devour the whole loaf. It’s so good!
Thanks, Sandi!
This looks like the perfect thing to leave for Santa!
That would be a fun way to mix up the traditional cookie routine! :)
Wow, gingerbread loaf is something I’ve never tried, it looks delish in the pictures with that frosting!
Thank you, Melissa!