One Bowl MOIST Vegan Gingerbread Loaf Recipe
This soft and moist vegan gingerbread loaf cake is full of sweet holiday flavor and tastes just like the Starbucks version but with 1/3 of the sugar and entirely dairy free! Made in just one bowl and topped with an irresistible cashew maple frosting!
Why you’ll love this gingerbread loaf cake recipe
I mean, it helps loving everything gingerbread (including this gingerbread house!), but truly, this is my favorite ginger loaf cake recipe. It’s entirely vegan (so egg free and dairy free), can be made gluten free, and tastes identical to the Starbucks version.
Like my vegan pumpkin bread and vegan banana bread, I had a few people who love the Starbucks version test this vegan gingerbread loaf and tell me the honest truth: they actually love this recipe more (and my copycat vegan cranberry bliss bars too!).
I kid you not, this gingerbread loaf is so moist, so fluffy, and full of holiday spice, sugar, and cheer! Yet, somehow, this recipe has less than a third of the sugar in the Starbucks gingerbread loaf.
This is quite literally my favorite holiday quick bread recipe that’s sure to please all eaters (although I have tons more of amazing quick bread recipes in my cookbook that you should definitely check out!). It’s such a fun and simple vegan Christmas recipe, and truly one of my favorites, along with my vegan shortbread cookies (or really all of my Christmas cookies!).
And if you love all things gingerbread, be sure to check out my vegan gingerbread cake, gingerbread cupcakes, gingerbread cinnamon rolls, and of course, classic vegan gingerbread cookies!
Better than Starbucks vegan Gingerbread Loaf Ingredients
I’m serious, forget Starbucks gingerbread loaf and just make this copycat vegan version!
As I mentioned above, the ingredients to this vegan ginger loaf cake are so incredibly simple. You’ll need:
- Flour: you can use all purpose or gluten free 1:1 baking flour if gluten free is needed. I recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free baking flour.
- Light brown sugar: only a little- quite literally 1/3 of the sugar found in a slice of Starbucks gingerbread loaf! You can also use coconut sugar if you’d like!
- Spices: I like to use a little bit more than just ground ginger. You’ll also need cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg
- Leavening agents
- Neutral oil: I like to use avocado oil.
- Molasses: I use unsulphured organic molasses by Wholesome Sweets.
- Dairy free milk: to keep this ginger loaf cake entirely nut free as well, use either coconut milk or oat milk.
- Dairy free yogurt: this is my trick for replacing the eggs in this vegan gingerbread loaf. You won’t believe how moist this vegan gingerbread loaf gets!
Overview: How to make a vegan gingerbread loaf
The full instructions for how to make this vegan ginger loaf cake are found down below in the recipe card. However, let’s go over the basics here:
- Use room temperature wet ingredients: this helps ensure that the ginger loaf cake doesn’t bake with a gummy texture.
- Gently fold in the flour into the wet ingredients: just make sure there are no more streaks of dry ingredients!
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake! Use a metal baking tin here rather than a glass- glass bakeware doesn’t heat evenly, but then stays very very hot, sometimes causing an uneven bake. A metal tin loaf pin is the best bet!
- Make the vegan maple cashew cream frosting for a fun topping!
Vegan maple cashew cream frosting
The vegan maple cream frosting frosting on top of this vegan gingerbread loaf is completely optional. However, I highly recommend it! It’s so fluffy and delicious!
To make a vegan cream cheese frosting, you’ll need:
- Vegan cream cheese
- Cashew butter
- Powdered sugar
- Maple syrup, for flavor
It’s that simple! Then just simply cream together all ingredients until smooth and smear on top of the gingerbread loaf cake, once it’s entirely cool.
If it’s not fully cool, the frosting will melt right off- so definitely wait!
I hope you love this vegan gingerbread loaf cake as much as I do! If you make it, let me know down below in the comments section, and be sure to give it a rating so that others may see it!
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!
Happy ginger loaf cake baking!
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🌟MADE THIS RECIPE & LOVED IT?🌟I’d love it if you’d like a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below! This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
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One Bowl MOIST Vegan Gingerbread Loaf Recipe
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This soft and moist vegan gingerbread loaf cake is full of sweet holiday flavor and tastes just like the Starbucks version but with 1/3 of the sugar and entirely dairy free! Made in just one bowl and topped with an irresistible cashew maple frosting!
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour, sifted (swap in gluten-free 1:1 baking flour for GF)
- 1/2 cup (100 g) light brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup (240 mL) dairy-free milk like oat milk, soy milk or almond milk, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120 mL) molasses
- 1/2 cup (120 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) neutral oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Maple Cashew Cream Frosting:
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 tbsp cashew butter
- 2 cup (240 g) powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9″ loaf tin with olive or coconut oil.
- Make the batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, molasses, dairy free yogurt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Add in the flour, then pour in the dairy free milk as you whisk in the flour, being careful not to over mix the batter.
- Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin, and place into the oven. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the loaf to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then transfer the bread to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.
- Serve: Serve as is or prepare the cashew cream frosting and frost when fully cool!
- Vegan cream cheese frosting: use a hand mixer to cream together the vegan cream cheese, cashew butter, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. Smear onto the loaf before slicing.
Notes
Gluten free: I recommend using King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free flour.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 147
- Sugar: 16.8 g
- Sodium: 131.8 mg
- Fat: 0.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.9 g
- Fiber: 0.7 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Hello. I’m very confused by the mention of applesauce throughout the comments. I don’t see this in the recipe as stated. Does this recipe call for applesauce? I saw one comment mention using this instead of yogurt but there are subsequent comments as if it applesauce were an original listed ingredient. Please advise. I would like to try this recipe. Thank you.
Oh I’m so sorry for the confusion! Yes so applesauce can be interchangeable with yogurt- I noticed more height on the loaf when using yogurt, but some prefer to still use applesauce!
Not bad but I think it’s pretty bland/weak flavor and needs way more spices. I would double them next time around. 50 mins bake time was also a bit too long for my oven so ya’ll be careful and maybe check at 45 mins. I would try making this again I think. Thank you.
Hiya! I loved this recipe but see it’s recently been updated to no longer be oil free. Is there any chance I can get a hold of the original recipe??
OH absolutely, I’m so sorry for the confusion! Here you go:
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour, sifted (swap in gluten-free 1:1 baking flour for GF)
1/2 cup (100 g) coconut sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup (240 mL) dairy-free milk like oat milk, soy milk or almond milk, room temperature
1/2 cup (120 mL) molasses
1/2 cup (120 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
Enjoy!
Can I use just regular granulated sugar in place of the coconut sugar?
Hi Nicole! Yes you can!
This recipe is definitely a keeper. It was so nice to find a recipe that is vegan and oil-free and tastes good. I would like to try it with gluten-free flour but am not sure which one would work best. Thanks for the recipe!
It was nice and fluffy. The perfect loaf! Thanks for this simple but delicious recipe!
Baked this today and was stunned by how great it turned out. Totally delicious. Great recipe even for a not-very-experienced baker like myself.
I had doubts about the quantity of molasses (I’m not a huge fan of the taste and half a cup seemed a lot), but the end result proved me wrong. Baking time in the recipe corresponded perfectly (I baked it for 50 minutes). The only adjustment I made was the quantity of powdered sugar in the icing — I put in around 1/3 cup, and it seemed sweet enough for my taste.
This is one of the best gingerbreads I’ve ever tasted (and for sure the best I’ve baked), including non-vegan ones. It made a great gift. Thank you so much for the recipe.
My sister-in-law brought a loaf for our New Year’s Eve family dinner last week. Long ago, I was turned off by dry, crumbly, overly-spiced gingerbread and I thought I didn’t like gingerbread. This one looked tasty and I was happy to give gingerbread another try. It was delicious – so moist with a well-balanced flavor profile! It only took one bite for me to ask for the recipe! I can’t wait to bake my own loaf.
I also appreciate the comments about others using whole wheat options, etc.
Oh I’m so happy to hear this!! Thank you so much for coming back to review it- and so glad we were able to change your mind on gingerbread 🙂 It’s a lovely loaf!! Enjoy, and happy New Year!!
Love the flavor! I didn’t have cardamom, so skipped that and it was still great. I added a splash of vanilla to the frosting! For some reason, the texture was more chewy than I expected, but not in a bad way. Just not what I’d expect for a bread. I did not wait for my oat milk to reach room temp, so maybe that had something to do with it. I will definitely be making this again!
Hi Lacey!! So happy to hear it, that’s wonderful!!! Yes, the chewiness definitely sounds like it was a temperature issue! But so glad you still enjoyed it 🙂 Happy holidays!
The best gingerbread and I can’t believe how well it turned out being GF and vegan!
Thank you for always putting amazing content and recipes out in the world!
Oh I’m so beyond happy to hear it!! Thank you so much for coming back to review the recipe 🙂 Enjoy!! And happy holidays!!
Absolutely the PERFECT gingerbread loaf recipe. I absolutely loved it!!! I’ve not had a lot of success with vegan baking but this was AMAZING. Thank-you for sharing your recipe.
So so happy 🙂 Enjoy my love!! Thanks so much for the review!!
This is an AMAZING recipe, along with all then others iv tried! My non vegan family members could not believe it was vegan!
Thank you so much ❤️
So happy to hear this 🙂 Enjoy, and thank you so much for the review!!
Can’t wait to make this!!
Can I ask what vegan cream cheese you prefer? I haven’t found one I completely love yet so if you have any good suggestions I’d LOVE and appreciate hearing them 🙂
Thank you!
Absolutely!! So I used Tofutti cream cheese for the loaf in the photos, but I have tested this with Miyoko’s, Violife, and Kite Hill. My preference for taste is Violife, but occasionally I notice their cream cheese can split sometimes in frostings (same with Miyoko’s! I love everything by Miyoko’s, but the cream cheese splits pretty bad in frostings and at times cheesecakes, so it’s not so guaranteed to work, which can be frustrating when you’re spending a lot of money on ingredients!). Tofutti is next best because I overall like the flavor when combined with the remaining ingredients (I just notice a bit of a soy flavor), and it definitely works amazingly in frostings!
I just finished making this loaf after reading all of the comments on how great it is. I made it in 4 mini loaves, unfortunately they sunk, not sure why??? My milk and applesauce was not exactly room temp, does the temp affect the rise? I baked them for 45 minutes, should it have been longer?? I am having a lot of problems with this happening when I am baking without eggs, feeling defeated this morning, any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!! The loaf does still taste AMAZING!! Thank you!
Hi Christy! I’m so sorry to hear this! It sounds like an issue with your baking powder/soda- we actually need to change them out more often than we think! A good way to test right now if you can is adding a tsp of vinegar to a tsp of the baking soda and powder. If it bubbles, it’s still good, but if it barely reacts or not at all, that was definitely the cause!
Thank you! I will try it out. I just finished reading your “vegan baking 101” post, thank you for this!!!! You have no idea and thank you for getting back to me so quickly! I am excited to try this recipe again.
Aw I’m so glad to hear it!! Please let me know how it goes next time!! Curious to see if that was the issue (it’s happened to me before!! And I know how disappointing it is when something doesn’t work so I completely understand!). Enjoy! 🙂
OMG Britt, this gingerbread loaf was AMAZING. So full of flavor and the texture was perfect. I did use very finely ground, then sifted oat flour, plus 2 TBSP. arrowroot powder. I will be making this again and again!!!