If there’s one cake I could never say no to, it’s this Gingerbread Latte Cake. Thick, moist layers of spiced gingerbread cake piled with pillowy coffee-vanilla bean whipped cream – ooh, that’s heaven.
This gingerbread layer cake has the comforting aroma of pumpkin spice, dark molasses, fresh coffee, and sweet vanilla beans all at once. Inspired by the brilliant combination of soft chewy molasses crinkles and a piping hot vanilla latte, this cake is perfect for a holiday celebration.
If you love molasses cookies, gingerbread cake, and indulgent coffee shop lattes, this cake is definitely for you.
Recipe highlights
- All the soft textures. Soft, tender cake is layered with ultra-light and fluffy whipped cream.
- Perfect flavor contrast. Dark molasses, bitter coffee, and winter spices contrast beautifully with vanilla and cream.
- Celebration-worthy. Between the festive flavors, stylish look, and shareable size, it’s perfect for bringing to holiday parties.
- And yet so cozy. With such a comforting flavor profile, this cake is also just as good for a cozy moment on the couch.
Recipe overview
⏱️ Prep: ~15 min • Bake: ~40 min • Total: ~2 hr (including cooling/frosting)
🍴 Yield: 2-layer 8-inch cake, serves 12
💪 Skill level: Beginner
😋 Flavor profile: Warm spiced gingerbread, fresh vanilla, coffee. Pairs well with: Vanilla latte, espresso, chai tea, vanilla ice cream, salted caramel.
How to make this gingerbread latte cake
Find the full ingredients list and detailed recipe instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview of how to make this recipe:
- Prep: Pheat the oven and prepare your cake pans with butter and parchment paper. Make 2 cups of coffee and keep it hot.
- Combine dry ingredients: Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves.
- Make cake batter: Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and molasses. Gently fold in flour mixture until just combined. Slowly mix in hot coffee.
- Bake: Pour batter into prepared pans and bake until set. Let them cool completely.
- Prepare vanilla coffee whip: Whisk cream to soft peaks; beat in sugar, vanilla bean seeds, and instant coffee.
- Layer & frost: Stack cake layers with a thick layer of whipped cream in the middle, then top with remaining frosting. Decorate as desired.
Pro baking tips for success
Use a fresh vanilla bean, vanilla bean paste, or high-quality extract. It’s an important flavor component in this recipe, and this ensures real depth rather than just sweetness.
Brew your coffee strong. The subtle coffee note helps highlight the “latte” part without overpowering the gingerbread.
Use room temperature eggs. This prevents the butter from separating and helps build more volume. If you forgot to pull your eggs out early, place them in a bowl of warm water while you prep everything else to warm them slightly.
Fully cool the cake layers before frosting. A warm cake will melt your whipped cream frosting, and nobody wants that.
Level the gingerbread cake layers if they domed during baking.
Apply a “crumb coat”. Once your gingerbread latte cake is all layered up, frost the entire thing with a very thin layer of coffee whipped cream. Then chill it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before giving it the final frosting. This traps in all the cake crumbs and gives you a more polished, professional looking cake.
Gingerbread latte cake variations & substitutions
Feel free to make this recipe your own! Here are a few ways to customize your gingerbread latte cake:
Make it a sheet cake. Yes, this can be made into a single-layer cake if you prefer something simpler. Pour the batter into a 13×9-inch pan and bake for about 25-35 minutes. Top with the coffee whipped cream once completely cool.
Sweeten the deal. For a salted caramel finish, drizzle my candy cap caramel sauce on top. Regular caramel sauce works, too.
Mix up the spices. Spice it any way you see fit! Add or remove any spices based on your preferences. You could even add chopped crystallized ginger for some texture.
Coffee substitution: If you don’t want to use coffee in this cake, replace it with 2 cups of hot water. You could also use brewed black tea or even chai tea (not sweetened).
Vanilla substitution: No vanilla bean? Use vanilla paste or the highest quality vanilla extract you can find.
If you love spiced cakes, check out my Pumpkin Chai Spice Cakes, Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Spiced Quince Cake, or Butternut Squash Cake with Toffee Sauce for more inspiration.
Storage
Store the finished, frosted gingerbread latte cake in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days. I recommend pulling it out and letting it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving, for best flavor and texture.
Make ahead option: You can store the cake tightly wrapped at room temperature for a day or two before frosting it. Once frosted, you should refrigerate it because of the whipped cream.
If you make this Gingerbread Latte Cake, please let me know what you think! Leave a star rating and comment below the recipe card. Thank you!
Gingerbread Latte Cake
Equipment
- 2 8-inch round cake pans
Ingredients
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups molasses
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups freshly brewed coffee, piping hot
Vanilla Coffee Whipped Cream
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar or vanilla sugar
- Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee, crushed slightly
Instructions
For the gingerbread cake:
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter 2 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
- Prepare your coffee and keep it hot.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and spices and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until soft and fluffy. Add sugar; beat one minute.
- Add your eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Add molasses and blend until thoroughly mixed.
- Add dry ingredients; mix just until combined.
- With mixer on low, slowly add hot coffee. Stop and scrape sides of bowl as needed. When all your coffee is mixed in, you should have a smooth, pourable batter.
- Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Sides of cake should start to pull away from pan and a toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.
- Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before inverting and removing cakes from pans. Allow to cool completely.
For the vanilla coffee whipped cream:
- Beat cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
- Add sugar, vanilla bean seeds, and instant coffee powder. Whisk ingredients together gently. I like to frost my cakes with whipped cream somewhere between soft and medium peaks, so try not to over-whip your cream here.
To assemble the cake:
- Remove parchment from bottoms of cakes. Trim tops of cakes to make cake layers even and flat, if necessary. (You could also slice each cake in half horizontally to make a 4-layer cake, if you wish.)
- Spread a thick layer of whipped cream on bottom cake. Place top cake on top of cream and press gently to adhere.
- Frost entire cake with a very thin layer of whipped cream to crumb coat it. Chill in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
- Finishing frosting the cake with the remaining whipped cream, swirling or piping it as desired.
- Sprinkle cake with a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and decorate as you see fit!
Did you try this recipe?
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