Name: Frosted Gingerbread Pound Cake Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 110 min
Ingredients: ½ cup butter (room temperature); 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 egg (room temperature); 1 cup applesauce; 1½ cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons ground ginger; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; zest from ½ orange (optional); 4 ounces cream cheese; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1½-2 cups powdered sugar; Chopped peppermint pieces or chopped nuts (optional topping)

Get all of the delicious flavors of gingerbread in our fantastic frosted gingerbread pound cake! This frosted gingerbread recipe tastes like a classic gingerbread cookie but so soft and moist, the perfect holiday dessert recipe.

Frosted Gingerbread Pound Cake sliced on a cooling rack

This frosted gingerbread pound cake recipe is the perfect loaf cake to serve this holiday season. It is so good and you can make it your own.

You don’t have to top it with frosting (but why wouldn’t you?) because it is so a nicely moist and flavorful loaf cake that can stand on it’s own, but the frosting is a great topping. In fact, you might even want double the recipe so you’re willing to share it.

I have doubled it before and either shared it with a neighbor or freeze it for later. However if you want to freeze it I would suggest topping it with the frosting after you dethaw the gingerbread cake.

Since loafs like this are quick to make up, hence why they were named quick breads, you can make up a few and use them and serve them at your next get togethers or store them for later. A few I love to have and share with others are our Lemon Blueberry Quick Bread Recipe, Cinnamon and Sugar Quick Bread Recipe, and our Cranberry Pumpkin Bread Recipe is great for the holidays too!

Gingerbread Pound Cake with a bowl of frosting and peppermints crushed

Ingredients You Need to Make This Tasty Frosted Gingerbread Pound Cake Recipe:

Butter
Sugar
Vanilla extract
Egg
Applesauce
All-purpose flour
Baking soda
Salt
Ground ginger
Ground cinnamon
Ground cloves
Nutmeg
Orange zest (optional)
Cream cheese
Powdered sugar
Chopped peppermint pieces or nuts (optional toppings)

How To Make Our Frosted Gingerbread Pound Cake Recipe:

Begin by preheating the oven to 350F and get your loaf pan out and grease it with non-stick cooking spay and then set it aside of later.

Then in a medium-sized mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg and set it off to the side.

Now in another bowl mix together the butter and sugar until it is nice and fluffy, you can use a stand or hand mixer for this or even by hand if your butter is soft enough.

Next add in the vanilla extract, egg, applesauce, and orange zest if plan to use it but it is optional.

Mix everything together until it is well combined and then slowly begin adding in the wet ingredients.

Be sure to only mix the ingredients until they are just combined to keep the bread nice and soft. Overmixing the dough will make the gluten develop and create a tough bread loaf.

When you are done mixing the dough pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and then spread it out evenly with your spatula.

Then, place the loaf pan in the oven and let it bake for 50-55 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick into the center and have it come out clean.

Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 20 minutes on a cooling rack. After 20 minutes flip the loaf out of the pan and let it continue to cool on the rack out of the pan.

While the gingerbread loaf is cooling, begin making the frosting.

Use a medium-sized mixing bowl and combine the cream cheese and vanilla extract with a hand or stand mixture.

Then slowly add the powdered sugar into the mixing bowl and mix it together. Continue adding in the powdered sugar until you reach your desired frosting consistency and is nice and smooth.

If the frosting becomes too thick add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a nice consistency.

Frosted Gingerbread Pound Cake on a cooling rack

Now, spread the frosting over top of the cooled bread evenly.

Sprinkling peppermint topping on top of frosted cake.

Once the frosting is spread out, sprinkle on either the chopped peppermint pieces or chopped nuts and then slice, serve, and enjoy!

Frosted Gingerbread Pound Cake topped with crushed peppermint topping

To Make this Holiday Gingerbread Dessert You Will Need:

Loaf pan
Zester (one like THIS will work great!)
Medium mixing bowl (3)
Hand or stand mixer
Spatula

Using Applesauce in Baking

One of the things I love about this recipe is that it uses applesauce instead of an oil. Not only does it make this recipe on the healthier side, but it also has some great added flavor.

If you want to know more way to use applesauce in recipes, Insanely Good has a great list of easy recipes that uses applesauce.

Toppings for Gingerbread Pound Cake

We love topping this delicious gingerbread pound cake with some chopped peppermint candy pieces but that is not the only option. Give one of these a try:

Chopped almonds
Chopped peanuts
Chopped pecans
Chopped hazelnuts
Brown sugar cinnamon drizzle
Sprinkle cinnamon

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