Gingerbread Speculaas Loaf

A buttery, soft and super moist gingerbread loaf cake topped with a drizzle of luscious cream cheese glaze. This is the ultimate bake of the holiday season!

Perfectly spiced, tender and moist, this Gingerbread loaf is officially the bake of 2021! Hello everyone, it’s been a good while since I’ve been able to share a new recipe. I’m sure I’m not the only one trying to figure out the past couple of years but oh it’s good to be back doing what I love the most.

I’ve been thinking about so many different bakes I want to make and have a ton of recipes to create, perfect and share starting with this beautifully flavoured and textured cake loaf.

Gingerbread is one of my favourite flavours, not only during the Autumn and Winter months, I can truly eat it any time of the year. I wanted to have that staple recipe that I’d be able to make easily whenever the urge arises.

I do have a very popular and personal favourite classic style Gingerbread Cake recipe shared on the blog but this time I wanted something a little different. This recipe is a simple creamed butter and sugar cake loaf but with a twist. Speculaas! For those who are unfamiliar with this, it’s a spice blend that can be found in most stores in Europe. It is commonly made up of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg. There are several brands, each with their own spice mix, but whichever one you’re able to find will work wonders in this recipe.

Tips for Success

• Cream butter and sugars properly until you can see that it has lightened in colour and is not so gritty.
• Molasses: I used an unsulfured molasses but you can use whatever you like. Keep in mind the flavour intensity will vary depending on what you use.
• Spices: Use your favourite spices to boost the flavour of the cake, cinnamon and ginger are required so you can use just these two if preferred. The amounts I recommend below can be increased or decreased according to how you like it.
• Make sure to store cake in an airtight container while it is still warm. I do this with all my bakes. As soon as they’ve had a chance to cool on a wire rack for about 10 – 15 minutes I place into an airtight container to continue cooling completely.

I drizzled a simple 3 ingredient cream cheese glaze but honestly this loaf cake is absolutely perfect without any topping. Just a mug of freshly brewed coffee on the side.

Alternatively, you can do a simple dusting of powdered sugar or maybe some sugared cranberries. For a more festive vibe, add some orange or lemon zest into the glaze.

Either way I hope you enjoy this recipe and please do tag me if you try it! Happy holidays!

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Gingerbread Speculaas Loaf

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Recipe by Linda @thedutchbaker

Servings

8 x 4

loaf

Recipe can make 1 loaf cake or 9 to 12 muffins.

Cook Mode

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (190gms) all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon Speculaas*

• 1/2 cup (100gms) butter

• 1/4 cup (50gms) white sugar

• 1/4 cup (50gms) soft brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup (50mls) molasses

• 2 tablespoons oil

• 1/3 cup (80gms) sour cream

• 1/4 cup (60mls) milk

• For the cream cheese glaze

• 2 Oz (55 gms) cream cheese

• 1 – 2 tablespoons cream

• 1/2 cup (62 gms) icing sugar

• Pinch of salt

Directions

• Preheat oven to 170C. Grease and flour a cake 8×4 tin and set aside.
  In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
• In a separate bowl, cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar until paled, creamy and fluffy. Click here for references. Add in the egg, oil and vanilla and whisk until combined. Pour in the molasses.
• Add in the dry mix in two batches alternating with the sour cream and milk whisking until batter is *just* combined in between each addition. Start and end with the flour mix. Make sure not to overmix. Batter will be thick and smooth.
• Spoon batter into prepared cake tray and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until cooked through and a toothpick or knife comes out with a few moist crumbs or clean. Allow cake to cool for about 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.
• Place loaf in an airtight container while in it still warm to continue to cool completely.
• For the glaze
• Whisk together the cream cheese, icing sugar and salt adding more or less cream until desired consistency is reached. Add vanilla extract, orange or lemon zest or even more spices if required.

Notes

• *If you can’t find Speculaas, replace with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp each cloves and nutmeg into the flour mix.
• Recipe by the dutch baker.

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