Vegan Ginger Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
Deliciously moist vegan ginger cake topped with a secretly vegan white chocolate buttercream frosting! Turn this tender and moist gingerbread cake into a Christmas snow globe cake for a fun holiday showstopper!
Deliciously Vegan Ginger Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
With the holidays right around the corner, I wanted to go all out.
After all, we deserve it after this year! So I wanted to create a vegan cake recipe that you can enjoy and have so much fun decorating at home with your loved ones…or even on your own, as I did!
This super moist vegan ginger cake is just what we need. It’s a sweet and flavorfully spicy ginger cake that’s tender to the bite, and frosted with a secretly vegan white chocolate buttercream frosting.
You’d never know it’s vegan and dairy free, and you can even make it gluten free if you’d like!
Of course, I had to go an extra step and decorate this gingerbread cake as a snow globe cake because we’re here to create magic.
You’ll absolutely love how much fun this vegan Christmas cake is to make and eat!
Ingredients & Equipment
Because I loved my vegan gingerbread loaf cake so much, I wanted to create a very similar flavor and texture for this tender and delicious ginger cake.
For this vegan ginger cake, you’ll need:
- Flour: I use all purpose flour or cake flour. If you want to achieve a cake flour texture but don’t have any, you can add a tbsp of arrowroot powder or cornstarch to the all purpose flour (or even gluten free 1:1 baking flour!).
- Coconut sugar: you can also use a vegan granulated sugar.
- Spices: a mix of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and allspice!
- Molasses: but of course we cannot have a gingerbread cake without the classic molasses!
- Applesauce: this is my favorite egg replacement for my cake recipes. It yields the most tender and moist cake that no one suspects is vegan!
- Dairy free milk: unlike other cake recipes on my blog, you actually don’t need to make a vegan buttermilk here! Just any dairy free milk here: soy, oat, coconut or almond work well. Keep it nut-free if needed!
I like to keep my vegan cake recipes really simple in ingredients, so you’ll see that there’s nothing fancy here that’s hard to find. Plus, the holidays can be stressful enough, and you should have lots of fun while baking this vegan ginger cake!
In terms of equipment, you can use the following:
- Three 8″ cake pans: you can also make this a 6″ three layer cake, but please note that the cakes might need to bake longer!
- Hand mixer or stand mixer: either work here! You’ll just need this for making the vegan white chocolate frosting.
- Large bowl: we have a lot of batter here!
- Parchment paper: to line the cake pans and make them so much easier to remove!
- Cake stand: of course you’ll want to present your Christmas cake!
- Offset knife: this is a wonderful tool frosting, and really helps to get those swoops in the vegan buttercream!
How to make a ginger cake
Once you’ve gathered all of your ingredients, it’s time to make your vegan ginger cake!
Now, the full measurements and written instructions are found down below in the recipe card, but let’s go over the basics here.
- Make the batter: the gingerbread cake batter is a bit runnier than my other cake recipes, but not to worry. It just yields a really really tender and delicate ginger cake that tastes just out of this world! You’ll start by whisking together the dry ingredients, folding in the wet (make sure they’re room temperature!), and dividing the batter into the pans.
- Bake the cake: once the batter is in the cake pans, lightly tap the cake pans onto the countertop. This helps to release any air bubbles in the cake batter and will keep those from baking in the cake. Have you ever sliced into your cake and see little bubbles? Yeah, we don’t want that! Then place the cake pans into the oven (make sure you let it continue to heat for 5 minutes after it says it’s preheated). The cakes take longer to bake than normal cakes, as the batter is very moist.
- Cool the vegan ginger cakes: make sure that you FULLY COOL the ginger cakes before frosting!! I know, I know, you really want to frost your cake. I get it, I’ve been there! But make sure that the cakes feel cool to the touch before you begin to make the vegan white chocolate buttercream.
Once your vegan ginger cakes have cooled, let’s make the vegan white chocolate buttercream!
Vegan white chocolate buttercream
Now, you don’t have to make a white chocolate buttercream, but if you feel like going all out for your vegan Christmas cake, then I highly recommend it.
For a dairy free white chocolate buttercream, you’ll need:
- Vegan butter: you can use an oat or soy-based vegan butter here if nut free.
- Vegan white chocolate: I make my own, which I’ve listed in the recipe card, but if you want to save yourself an extra step, I personally recommend Pascha Organic’s vegan white chocolate. It’s the only one that I’ve found and really enjoy.
- Powdered sugar
Making vegan white chocolate buttercream is very similar to making vegan buttercream, and truthfully conventional white chocolate buttercream.
The most crucial step though is making sure that the white chocolate is not hot when it goes into the frosting. This ensures that the chocolate doesn’t melt the vegan butter, which would then just give you a sweet soup rather than a fluffy dairy free frosting.
How to make a snow globe Christmas cake
This is my all time favorite part of the whole cake process. Well, I actually really enjoy the frosting part too, but this is where the creativity really gets to shine.
Make this cake entirely your own. I loved the idea of making a little snow globe from my gingerbread cookie houses so I purchased a glass bowl from Michael’s (honestly, the least expensive option and so worth it!).
I also made the vegan gingerbread houses from a mini gingerbread house cookie cutter that I purchased a few years back. Everything is listed in my vegan gingerbread cookie recipe.
I recommend making the vegan gingerbread decorations the day before, which helps make the whole decorating process less stressful and more fun.
You can also add little toy Christmas trees, holly, sugared cranberries, or little ginger people for decoration. Make this snow globe cake your very own!
I hope that you love this vegan ginger cake as much as I do! And I highly recommend transforming it into a snow globe cake for fun- why not?!
If you make this recipe, let me know down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a rating so that others may find it.
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!
Happy Christmas cake decorating!
More vegan gingerbread recipes
The easiest vegan gingerbread cookies
Better than Starbucks gingerbread loaf cake
Copycat vegan Starbucks gingerbread latte
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
Vegan Ginger Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 35
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Deliciously moist and sweet vegan ginger cake topped with a secretly vegan white chocolate buttercream frosting! Turn this tender and moist gingerbread cake into a Christmas snow globe cake for a fun holiday showstopper!
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted (swap in gluten-free 1:1 baking flour for GF)
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar
- 2 2/3 tsp ground ginger
- 1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 3/4 cup dairy-free milk, room temperature
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
Vegan White Chocolate Frosting
- 2 cups vegan butter, softened
- 1/2 cup vegan white chocolate, melted and cooled for 15 minutes
- 3–4 cups powdered sugar
- 1–2 tbsp dairy free milk
- Vegan gingerbread cookies for decoration
- Glass bowl for snow globe
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare three 8″ cake pans with parchment paper and oil. Make sure that the oven is fully preheated before you place your cakes into the oven.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, coconut sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add in the dairy free milk, molasses, and unsweetened applesauce. Mix the batter until there are no dry streaks left. The batter will be slightly runny, but this is fine. This is a super moist ginger cake, and the cakes are slightly delicate.
- Divide the batter into the cake pans evenly and lightly tap the cake pans onto the counter top to release any air bubbles.
- Place the cake pans into the preheated oven, and bake the cakes for 35-37 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean. The cakes are soft to touch, so don’t worry!
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a cooling rack to fully cool before making the frosting.
Vegan White Chocolate Frosting:
- Once the cakes have fully cooled and there is no warmth to the touch, you can begin to make the frosting.
- Make sure that the vegan white chocolate is melted and not warm. Any warmth will melt the vegan butter. It should be melted but room temperature/slightly cooler.
- Add the vegan butter to a large bowl and use a hand mixer or stand mixer to cream the vegan butter until fluffy.
- Pour in the vegan white chocolate and continue beating. Then add in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until it’s fully incorporated. You can use a tbsp or two of dairy free milk to help achieve a creamy consistency.
- Once the vegan white chocolate frosting is ready, frost the cake on a cake stand. I personally place the cake back into the fridge after icing to fully set and cool before decorating. Chill the cake for 10 minutes.
- Then finish with the decorations and enjoy!
Keywords: vegan ginger cake, gingerbread cake, ginger cake, vegan gingerbread cake, white chocolate buttercream, vegan white chocolate buttercream
I made this cake and it came out delicious! The buttercream was great and had a good flavor. I did adjust the recipe a bit. I used about 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead of what was called for and added about 2-3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar so it would react with the baking soda. It came out moist and with a great ginger flavor:)
★★★★★
Aw this is so wonderful to hear!! Thank you so much for leaving this review! Enjoy and happy holidays/happy new year!!