Easy spiced gingerbread Bundt cake! The perfect Bundt for the holiday season, full of warming spices, this orange gingerbread Bundt is topped off with a quick and zesty fresh orange glaze.

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Why you'll love this Bundt
- Full of warming spices - all the flavors of classic gingerbread with brown sugar, molasses and cozy spices.
- Easy recipe - you won't need tons of bowls or specialist equipment for this bake. The cake batter is fundamentally a one bowl recipe!
- Tips for using a Bundt cake pan - Bundts are beautiful cakes, straight from the pan! And with my top tips for getting your cake out of the pan in one piece, you'll have a gorgeous centerpiece for your dessert table.
Equipment Notes
For this recipe, you'll need:
- Bundt cake pan - you'll need a standard sized Bundt pan, about 9.5" or 10". You can make this recipe using different size Bundt pans, such as making multiple mini Bundts. If doing this, the baking times will vary.
- Mixing bowl - a large mixing bowl is all you need for the batter. For the glaze, you should ideally have a second bowl, but this can be smaller, like a cereal bowl.
- Hand held electric beaters or a whisk - for creaming the butter and sugar, I prefer to use hand held electric beaters as a whisk is often not strong enough to do the job.
- Sieve - for sifting together your dry ingredients
- Spatula - a basic rubber spatula is perfect here.
- Skewer or toothpick - ideally a long toothpick or skewer to check the cake for doneness during the baking process.
- Wire rack to cool
Ingredients Notes
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened at room temperature. You can substitute with salted butter, but if doing so, reduce the salt called for in the recipe by half.
- Sugar - either superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar will work in this recipe.
- Brown sugar - I like to use light brown sugar (sometimes called muscovado), firmly packed. You can also use dark brown sugar for a deeper molasses flavor. If using dark brown sugar, this may result in a darker batter and darker overall bake.
- Molasses - use either molasses or dark treacle in this recipe.
- Eggs - these are best used at room temperature.
- Sour cream - sour cream is key to making a moist Bundt cake. You can substitute with yoghurt or buttermilk in this recipe, but this may impact the batter's consistency and baking times.
- Flour - all purpose flour or plain flour will work in this recipe.
- Ground ginger - key to making any gingerbread!
- Ground cinnamon - for a good deep spice cake, you'll want a healthy dose of cinnamon.
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
How to Make Gingerbread Bundt Cake
This is a super easy gingerbread Bundt recipe - you'll really only need one mixing bowl! It follows the same basic processes as many of my other cakes, such as my Old Fashioned Pound Cake, Pumpkin Pound Cake or my Cinnamon Bundt Cake.
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Begin by preheating the oven to 350°F/175C (155C Fan) and prepare your Bundt pan by greasing and flouring thoroughly. It is very important to grease and flour the pan well - ensuring you get in the crevices to prevent sticking. You can use non stick cooking sprays for an easier coverage, but I like using butter and flour. Once the pan is prepared, set this aside
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamed and light. This takes about 2 minutes for the optimal creaming.
Step 3: Add the molasses and beat to incorporate. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Step 4: Next add the sour cream and beat again to combine into a smooth batter.
Step 5: Now, sift the dry ingredients - the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt - directly into the mixing bowl and stir together with a spatula until just combined. Tip: at the stage of adding the dry ingredients, I like to use a spatula to avoid over beating. You want to ensure all the dry ingredients are well mixed in, and there are no pockets of flour, but you don't want to overbeat.
Step 6: Spoon the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and spread evenly.
Step 7: Place into the center of the preheated oven and bake for about an hour. Check regularly after about 55 minutes and remove once a toothpick inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.
Step 8: Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to continue cooling. This allows the pan to become easier to handle and a baked cake will shrink ever so slightly, beginning to pull away and release itself a bit from the sides.
Tips and Tricks for Getting Bundt Cake Out of the Pan
- So the first trick to getting a Bundt cake out of the pan is to ensure, before you begin to bake, that you've greased and floured the pan well. The crevices in a Bundt cake pan are notorious for sticking! As long as these are well coated in your non-stick spray, or greased and floured thoroughly, you've done all you can!
- Allow the cake to cool after baking for 10-15 minutes in the pan. The cooling process will allow the baked cake to pull itself away from the sides of the baking pan slightly. This is why it is important to test cakes with a toothpick - underbaked cakes are prone to sticking to the sides!
- Place your cooling rack over the top of your Bundt cake pan. If the pan is still too hot to touch, use a kitchen towel to hold this tightly onto the rack. Invert so that the pan is now upside down over the wire rack. The cake should release as you carefully remove the pan.
Easy Orange Bundt Cake Glaze
To make my easy orange glaze for this gingerbread Bundt, all you'll need is:
- Powdered sugar - or icing sugar. If this is lumpy, you may want to sift first to break up any clumps.
- Orange juice - fresh squeezed orange juice is best in this recipe. The amount needed is roughly half of a large orange. You can use store bought orange juice too, but this should be fresh orange and not from concentrate.
- Orange zest - the amount in this recipe is essentially the zest of one large orange. If your orange is smaller, you may not have quite as much. Similarly, if you use store bought orange juice, you won't have the zest at your disposal. Don't worry - you can make this glaze without the zest. It won't be quite as full flavored with orange, but will still give a citrus-y edge to your Bundt cake.
Simply stir or lightly whisk together the powdered sugar and orange juice until you have a runny frosting consistency. If you feel this looks too thick, add a bit more orange juice. Similarly, if too thin, you can add more powdered sugar to thicken.
Once you have a consistency that you are happy with, add the orange zest and stir through.
Then pour over your Bundt cake, allowing the glaze to run down the sides and middle to give a nice light coating.
FAQs
My easy spice gingerbread Bundt keeps well at room temperature for about 3 days if in an airtight container.
Otherwise, you can freeze this cake if making in advance. Allow to cool completely first before placing in a freezer safe bag or wrapping well in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Freeze for up to three months.
Allow to defrost at room temperature before serving.
Well, you really have many options here! This recipe calls for an orange glaze with my easy gingerbread spice Bundt cake. But, you could also use a cream cheese glaze or a maple glaze with this recipe.
Yes! This recipe is for a gingerbread cake made in a Bundt pan! My sour cream gingerbread cake is a moist spiced Bundt cake recipe. The Bundt pan helps keep it moist and light - the center hole helps the cake cook more evenly without drying out.
Looking for more gingerbread bakes? Try:
- Old Fashioned Gingerbread Muffins
- Gingerbread Cupcakes
- Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies
- Easy Gingerbread House
- Edible Gingerbread Cookie Dough
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Equipment
- standard sized Bundt pan either an 9.5" or 10" Bundt. You can make this recipe using different size Bundt pans, but baking times will vary.
- large mixing bowl you may also want a second smaller mixing bowl for the glaze.
- Handheld electric beaters
- Sieve
- spatula
- long skewer or toothpick, to test the doneness of the cake
- wire cooling rack
Ingredients
Ingredients for Gingerbread Bundt Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 cup superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar (muscovado) firmly packed
- ½ cup molasses or dark treacle
- 4 eggs
- 1¼ cup sour cream or yogurt, you can also use buttermilk here
- 3 cups all purpose flour or plain flour
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Ingredients for Orange Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar or icing sugar, this doesn't normally need sifted for the glaze
- 3 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice juice or half an orange, or substitute with store bought orange juice
- 1 tablespoon orange zest zest of a large orange
Instructions
Instructions for Bundt Cake
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350°F/175C (155C Fan) and prepare your Bundt pan by greasing and flouring thoroughly.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamed and light.1 cup unsalted butter, 1 cup superfine granulated sugar, ½ cup light brown sugar
- Add the molasses and beat to incorporate. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.½ cup molasses, 4 eggs
- Add the sour cream and beat to combine.1¼ cup sour cream
- Sift the dry ingredients - the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt - into the mixing bowl and stir together with a spatula until just combined.3 cups all purpose flour, 3 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- Spoon the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and spread evenly.
- Place into the center of the preheated oven and bake for about an hour. Check regularly after about 55 minutes and remove once a toothpick inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to continue cooling.
Instructions for Glazing
- To make the glaze, simply whisk together powdered sugar, orange juice and orange zest (see note).1 cup powdered sugar, 3 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice, 1 tablespoon orange zest
- Pour the glaze over the top of the Bundt, allowing this to drip down the sides and central hole.
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