Caramel Gingerbread Layer Cake

This moist and flavorful gingerbread cake is made with lots of spices and is layered with cream cheese frosting and salted caramel sauce. It makes for a great holiday or wintertime cake.

Why You’ll Love This Gingerbread Cake

Since I’ve been obsessed with making homemade caramel lately, today I’m sharing a seasonal and
festive gingerbread cake recipe with caramel sauce. And friends, I’m obsessed.

• The cake itself is soo moist and flavorful that it practically melts in your mouth. It’s very similar to the recipe for these classic gingerbread cupcakes.
• It may be different from your standard gingerbread cake, but the rich caramel pairs nicely with all the wintery spices in the cake.
• The cream cheese frosting balances out the flavors by adding a nice tang to every bite.
• It’s a great cake to make for Christmas or the holidays.

Ingredients for Gingerbread Cake

• All-purpose flour: for the best results, I recommend measuring your flour with a digital food scale. This will help avoid over-measuring flour, which is a common mistake when baking.
• Dark Brown Sugar: since gingerbread is so-molasses forward, this recipe uses dark brown sugar which has higher molasses content.
• Unsulphured Molasses: There are many types of molasses, all of which are a little different. Make sure you are using unsulphured molasses and not blackstrap molasses or sulphured. 
• Eggs, at room temperature: to quickly warm up the eggs soak them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes
• Melted butter and oil: pick a neutral flavored oil such as vegetable, canola, grapeseed, etc.
• Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt: either will work, just make sure if using yogurt it is plain and unsweetened
• Wintery spices: ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and a little bit of salt.
• Hot water: you’ll want very hot, almost boiling water. This will bloom all the spices and open them up for an extra flavorful cake.
• Baking soda and baking powder: as leavening agents
• Vanilla extract

How to Make Gingerbread Cake

This gingerbread cake batter is very forgiving and easy to make. This recipe uses the reverse creaming method, which builds up a tight crumb and soft texture. Reverse creaming is essentially making a cake in reverse, where you beat all the dry ingredients with fats, and then add the liquids at the end. It’s easy to do and prevents you from having to worry about accidentally overmixing the batter.

Start by beating all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, etc.) with butter and oil. Then, beat in the molasses, eggs, and vanilla. Make sure to scape down the sides of your bowl frequently to ensure you get an even batter. Lastly, add the wet ingredients and mix it all up until you have a smooth batter.

Bake the cake in 6″ round cake pans until a toothpick comes out clean.

Tips for Making Homemade Caramel Sauce

Just a heads up — if you don’t want to make caramel at home, store bought works just as well. Just try to use caramel sauce that is sold in a jar instead of the squirt-bottle style since it tends to be a little thicker and more spreadable. 

However, if you’re up for it, homemade caramel is one of those things that is so much easier than you would expect! It takes less than 15 minutes and is also so versatile. Use it in this cake, but also any leftovers you can use to make other tasty desserts like a caramel spice cake or caramel buttermilk bundt cake. 

There’s a full list of ingredients and steps in the recipe card, but just a couple quick tips if you do want to make your own caramel.

While the full instructions for how to make caramel are in the recipe card, I wanted to share a few tips here to help you out along the way:

• Use room temperature ingredients: to ensure a silky and smooth caramel sauce, make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature, namely the butter and heavy cream. Adding cold ingredients to hot melted sugar will cause it to seize up.
• Use a larger pot than you think: don’t use the smallest pot that you have (a 2 quart pot usually works perfectly). When adding heavy cream to the recipe it will bubble up and steam furiously, so you want to allow for space there so you don’t burn yourself.
• Avoid stirring the sugar until it is almost melted: instead, lift up the pot and give it a few shakes. This will actually help it cook more evenly and prevent burning.

Assembling the Cake

Assembling the cake is super simple and goes a little like this:

1. Start by placing one round of cake on a cake board or stand. If the cake layer is domed on top make sure to trim it off with a serrated knife.
2. Spread an even layer of cream cheese frosting on top. I used a round piping tip to help get an even thickness all the way around.
3. Add a few tablespoons of fully cooled caramel sauce and spread it around. Note: fully cooled. If the caramel is at all warm then it will cause the frosting to melt.
4. Place a cake round on top and repeat.
5. Place the last cake round on top and spread a very thin layer of frosting around the entire cake. You can leave it like this, or let it rest for a few minutes and spread even more frosting around the outside. Drizzle more caramel sauce on top if your heart desires.

How to Store Leftover Gingerbread Cake

Tightly wrap leftover lake in foil, making sure to press it up against any exposed cake. You can also pre-slice the cake and individually wrap each slice to make it easier to store.

Keep the leftovers in the fridge, where they will still be good for up to 3 days, though they’re best enjoyed within the first day or two.

Pin and Save for Later

Not ready to bake yet but want to come back to this recipe? No problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (or tap on mobile) to save this recipe to your favorite baking Pinterest board.

While you’re at it, check out some other gingerbread fun too like these gingerbread cupcakes or gingerbread cinnamon rolls.