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Moist Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting

This Moist Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting loads all your favorite holiday flavors into one delicious bread. The festive flavors of ginger, molasses, and spices give this moist loaf an irresistible aroma. Plus a couple of surprise ingredients take this bread over the top!

gingerbread loaf with cream cheese frosting

Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting

We’re not only elbow deep in Chewy Snickerdoodles  and Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, but we’re baking up plenty of this Moist Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting.

This gingerbread is ultra comforting, tender, and generously loaded with all your favorite holiday tastes. It’s not shy on the ginger, molasses, and delicious spices. We’ve even added a couple of surprise ingredients to maximize the season’s flavors.

Not to mention the 200% irresistible four-ingredient cream cheese frosting that takes this gingerbread loaf over the top in yumminess…

Gingerbread Key Ingredients

The dry ingredients for this gingerbread are simple but aplenty. We’ve doubled up on the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves for the ultimate aromatic experience. It’ll smell like you live in The Gingerbread House.

Combine that with beautiful molasses, brown sugar, and maple syrup. We swapped out half the typical amount of molasses and replaced it with secret ingredient maple syrup so the molasses doesn’t overwhelm. You get the best of both worlds: maple and molasses combined. We also opted for coconut oil for tender moistness and added another secret ingredient – warm apple cider.

With all that goodness melding together, you know this gingerbread loaf’s gonna sparkle like she deserves to.

gingerbread loaf with cream cheese frosting

Incredible Cream Cheese Frosting Makes Gingerbread Even Better

But we don’t stop there. We take it a bit further because this lovely gingerbread loaf is getting dressed up.

Make it a gazillion times more irresistible by glazing on this totally easy four-ingredient cream cheese frosting.  We’re so into this luscious frosting, we lather it on pretty much everything we can find for it.

This cream cheese frosting is the bee’s knees and important to this gingerbread situation. You’ll get extra big smiles from your peeps when you provide extra cream cheese frosting on the side to spread onto slices as they eat. I know this from experience

Here’s to all the kitchens buzzing with warm gingerbread loaves and homemade gingerbread biscotti this season.

Enjoy.

gingerbread loaf with cream cheese frosting

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Gingerbread Loaf

Moist Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting

5 from 12 ratings
This Moist Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting loads all your favorite holiday flavors into one delicious bread. The festive flavors of ginger, molasses, and spices give this moist loaf an irresistible aroma.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Author: Amy Dong

Ingredients  

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F with rack on lower middle position. Generously grease a deep, nonstick 9" loaf pan. Flour bottom/sides of pan and tap out excess. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, coconut oil, beaten egg, cider, maple syrup, and molasses. Use a hand whisk to combine until fully incorporated.
  • In a separate bowl, use hand whisk to gently stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Use rubber spatula to gently fold dry ingredients in small increments at a time, into wet ingredients just until combined and most lumps are gone; do not over stir it (some tiny lumps remaining are fine.)
  • Evenly distribute batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake about 60 minutes or just until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean, with a few crumbs attached. Take care not to overbake. The center may be slightly indented, which is normal. Allow loaf to cool completely before removing and frosting.
  • Meanwhile, make the Cream Cheese Frosting: In a bowl with hand whisk, whisk together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar a little at a time, beating until mixture is smooth. Cover and set aside at moderate room temp (or chill) until ready to use. If you chill it, be sure to let it soften enough before using it.

Notes

To measure flour, be sure to gently scoop and scrape; this helps to avoid over measuring. I sometimes like to sub with "white whole wheat" flour, as it's milder than whole wheat but still utilizes whole grains.
Warm apple cider helps prevent the melted coconut oil from solidifying while stirring.
No matter how many variations I've baked, gingerbread is notorious for coming out slightly depressed in the center; just use frosting to cover up the imperfections 🙂

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 593kcal | Carbohydrates: 95g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 25g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 73mg | Sodium: 772mg | Potassium: 194mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 548IU | Vitamin C: 0.4mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 2mg
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Method: Bake, Mixing

It’s the most Ginger time of year

  1. Gingerbread Biscotti

A Stack of Gingerbread Biscotti with Icing

2. Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes (+Giveaway)

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes with Frosting

3. Chewy, Soft Ginger Cookies

Line up of Soft Ginger Cookies

4. Easy Ginger Pear Sangria Recipe

ginger pear sangria cocktail in glasses with mint sprigs

Add a comment

Recipe Rating




36 comments

    • Nicoletta De Angelis Nardelli
    • 5 stars

    The crumb of your gingerbread loaf is outstanding! And that color, and the cream cheese frosting, wonderful! It takes you in the holiday spirit right away!

    • Heidy M
    • 5 stars

    This Moist Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting was super fantastic! I loved the flavor, and the cake was so moist and delicious that it was gone in the blink of an eye. My coworkers devoured it and demanded the recipe! I shared your link for the recipe.

    Happy Holidays to you and yours
    The McCallums

    • Leslie
    • 5 stars

    I haven’t had anything gingerbread flavored yet this Holiday season, so I’m definitely going to have to make this! I especially love the cream cheese frosting with this instead of a plain loaf! YUM!

    • Tammy

    Ooh I can’t wait to make a gingerbread loaf now! This sounds so warm and comforting to have in the mornings with coffee. I love gingerbread ^_^ saving for later!

    • Veronika
    • 5 stars

    Wow! This gingerbread loaf looks absolutely delicious! I already can smell the beautiful aroma when baking it! Definitely on my to-do list!

    • Ben M
    • 5 stars

    Fargo here, so I totally understand the fast temperature change. It is amazing how quick Fall can turn into Winter, isn’t it? It is ok though… it is December, so I am ready for some nice Winter weather and the flavors that go along with it. This loaf totally fit the bill! An easy recipe, it tastes great, and it is some great holiday flavors.

      • chewoutloud

      Super happy to hear you guys liked this bread! 🙂

    • Amy

    We have been baking a bit of bread lately but never thought to do a gingerbread loaf though! What a great idea and recipe is very doable. Love the cream cheese frosting. No doubt that just makes it even more moist.

    • FOODHEAL
    • 5 stars

    Oh my, this gingerbread is THE BREAD I need to make for Xmas. It looks so delicious and I bet how sweet it is… thank you for the recipe

    • Sharon
    • 5 stars

    This is a great alternative to making individual gingerbread cookies. I love the cream cheese frosting on it.

    • Elizabeth O

    This gingerbread loaf with cream cheese looks so tasty and really tempting.I really love to bake this Christmas season and I would love to try this recipe. I am looking forward to trying this weekend.

    • TheGracefulMist

    As always, your recipes seem delicious. This Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting will be a great treat this holiday season.

    ❀ Grace ❀

    • Vasundhra
    • 5 stars

    This is a great recipe for the festive season. The gingerbread loaf looks so delicious and the pumpkin ginger cupcakes are cute!

    • Ut Minh

    This dish is very attractive too. I like the taste of ginger and it is very suitable for winter. I will check out the recipe and do it for Christmas!

    • netaliv

    This looks wonderful!

    • Ana Vukosavljevic

    This looks sooo delicious! And I love the first recipe, Gingerbread Biscotti! I need to try making it 🙂

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