This brown butter gingerbread bundt cake is moist, delicious, and easy to make! Topped with a spiced rum glaze and mini gingerbread men, it's the perfect Christmas cake!
You might also like this pumpkin bundt cake or these gingerbread cupcakes!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few ingredients to make this brown butter gingerbread bundt cake!
Cake flour - I always use cake flour in my cakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
Molasses - This is one of the key ingredients for classic gingerbread! Molasses adds a distinct, rich flavor and color, and helps keep the cake soft. Just be sure to use unsulphered molasses (do NOT use blackstrap molasses). The brand you're most likely to see at the grocery store is Grandma's Molasses, you can usually find it with the honey!
Spiced Rum - This is optional, but adding a little spiced rum adds some delicious extra flavor to the glaze! You could also use your favorite bourbon!
Gingerbread Spice - Gingerbread contains a delicious spice blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. I use my homemade gingerbread spice mix in this cake but you can use whatever blend of spices you prefer! Pumpkin pie spice plus a little extra ginger is a great alternative.
Gingerbread Cookies - I like to top this bundt cake with mini gingerbread cookies!!
How to Make Bundt Cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, gingerbread spice, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown butter and brown sugar until smooth. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until fully combined.
Then mix in the molasses until fully incorporated and smooth.
Stir in about half of the flour mixture. Then stir in the milk, spiced rum, and the rest of the flour mixture and mix until fully combined. The batter will be thick.
Prepare your bundt pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray.
Pour the gingerbread cake batter into your prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean. Note: Pans with a darker interior will cook faster, as will a smaller 5-6 cup bundt pan. Start checking at 30-35 minutes in those cases.
Remove from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
Use a butter knife and gently slide it between the cake and pan around the edges and the center hole. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and turn over. It should fall right out but if it doesn’t let it sit for a couple minutes and then tap the top of the pan to gently coax it out of the pan.
Allow the cake to cool completely to room temperature before glazing.
Drizzle the spiced rum glaze over the top of the gingerbread cake.
This gingerbread bundt is delicious on its own, but you can top it with homemade gingerbread cookies if desired!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Bundt Cake Tips
Using a high quality non-stick bundt pan will increase your odds of the cake sliding cleanly out of the pan! I only use Nordic Ware bundt pans because they’re extremely well made and won’t break the bank. You can also find them on sale all the time! For this gingerbread bundt cake I used my classic bundt pan.
You also want to use a good pan spray! I love Everbake Pan Spray or Baker's Joy, but any vegetable oil spray will work. You do not want to use butter though as the milk solids can solidify during baking and cause your cake to stick in some of the smaller crevices.
This gingerbread bundt cake recipe is designed for a 10-12 cup bundt pan. Simply halve the recipe to use a 5-6 cup bundt!
Recipe FAQ's
This gingerbread bundt cake will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. I recommend getting an airtight bundt cake keeper for best results.
This can happen for a few reasons. The pan you're using and the nonstick spray are usually the biggest culprits! See the above notes on what I recommend to help prevent sticking!
Gingerbread is made with molasses, brown sugar, and warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. It has a slightly spicy flavor that make this bundt cake perfect for the winter holidays!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Gingerbread Bundt Cake
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Bundt Cake
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, melted
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup molasses
- 3 cups cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons gingerbread spice
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons spiced rum, optional
Glaze
- 2 tablespoons unsalted brown butter, melted
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons spiced rum
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream, if needed
Instructions
Bundt Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, gingerbread spice, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown butter and brown sugar until smooth. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Then mix in the molasses until fully incorporated and smooth.
- Stir in about half of the flour mixture.
- Then stir in the milk, spiced rum, and the rest of the flour mixture and mix until fully combined. The batter will be thick.
- Prepare your bundt pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray.
- Pour the gingerbread cake batter into your prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
- Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean. Note: Pans with a darker interior will cook faster, as will a smaller 5-6 cup bundt pan. Start checking at 30-35 minutes in those cases.
- Remove from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
- Use a butter knife and gently slide it between the cake and pan around the edges and the center hole. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and turn over. It should fall right out but if it doesn’t let it sit for a couple minutes and then tap the top of the pan to gently coax it out of the pan.
- Allow the cake to cool completely to room temperature before glazing.
Glaze
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, brown butter, and spiced rum until smooth. Add in heavy cream 1 tablespoon at a time until the glaze is a thick, but pourable consistency.
- Drizzle the spiced rum glaze over the top of the gingerbread cake.
- This gingerbread bundt is delicious on its own, but you can top it with homemade gingerbread cookies if desired!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Robin says
I am very much a novice baker and was able to follow this recipe easily with great success! I made a practice cake for Christmas dinner and it turned out well except I wanted it a little spicier. So the next cake I added 3 tbs gingerbread spice instead of 2. Tasted great imo except next time I will leave out the cardamom due to personal preference. This is an easy-to-follow, delicious recipe and is not too sweet. Will definitely make again, my tasters loved it!