Tender cake laced with warming spices of cinnamon, clove, and ginger, coated in fluffy eggnog buttercream and white chocolate ganache drip. Christmas Spice Cake with Eggnog Buttercream is a delicious and beautiful cake to serve this holiday!
Well, it's here. Ready or not. The big guy in the red suit is checking his list, loading up his sleigh and getting ready for a busy ride around the world. Meanwhile, we're over here in Boston checking our shopping lists, twice, because facing that crowd twice is not on anyone's nice list.
What's on my shopping list? Ingredients for christmas spice cake and creamy eggnog frosting. The happy to my holidays.
I've made this spice cake, hmmm, roughly 5 times this month. Trust me, my pants aren't happy about it, but my mouth is doing just spectacularly. Luckily my coworkers are very willing to test the samples. Aren't they just the best?
Let's talk about the Christmas Spice Cake
There are a few cake that my hands always just seem to make. My very favorite chocolate cake in salted caramel pretzel cake or pumpkin buttercream cake. And then this summer these red velvet cupcakes got added to the list. But now, you guys, we have a third cake that's a must make for the holidays. Christmas Spice Cake.
We're calling it christmas spice cake because it's got all those warming spices that make us think of cozy slippers and falling snow, but really it can be whenever-you-want spice cake. Let's be honest, whenever cakes are always the best cakes.
The tricky awesome part about spice cake is the wonderful combination of spices that perk up your tongue. When you read the ingredients, your eyebrows will raise at the black pepper.
But trust me. It provides just the subtlest kick of warm heat without even giving off that there is black pepper in the cake. All you're tasting is sweet cinnamon, spicy ginger, roasty clove and fluffy, moist cake. All the wins.
But just waaaait....a present's not a present until it's wrapped right? Well, here's the most festive wrapping evah.
Fluffy Eggnog Buttercream
If you've been tuning in on the Instastories, you'll know the first attempt at this did not go so well. Second attempt, we did things much different. Results? Creamy, dreamy eggnog buttercream.
TIPS FOR MAKING EGGNOG BUTTERCREAM
- whip the buttercream until pale and fluffy
- incorporate the confectioners sugar
- add the eggnog one tablespoon at a time
- adjust the texture with heavy cream
Be sure to refrigerate this cake if you're not serving it right away. You can take it out of the fridge - or if you're in cold climates and you store holiday food in the garage. It's a thing we do, it's odd but useful when the fridge is full.
After refrigeration, the cake will need about 45 minutes to an hour at room temp before serving.
And then if you're extra, like me (I'm totally aware and unafraid) you add a white chocolate ganache drip to the top. Hey, it's Christmas. Calories don't count on Christmas. Or Christmas Spice Cake for that matter.
From Henry, Shea, Charley Brown and myself we wish you the happiest of holidays. Whether you celebrate Christmas or another holiday, embrace religion or just for the love of it. We hope your holidays are magical.
Christmas Spice Cake with Eggnog Buttercream
Ingredients
Christmas Spice Cake
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground clove
- ¼ teaspoon pure ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon unsulphered molasses
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 ½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla
Eggnog Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups 3 sticks unsalted butter
- 4 ½ cups confectioner's sugar
- 7 tablespoons eggnog
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup heavy cream
White Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Christmas Spice Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 3 8-inch cake pans, set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices (cinnamon through black pepper). Whisk together and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, or using a large bowl with a hand held mixer, add light brown sugar, vegetable oil, molasses and apple sauce. Cream together on medium speed, making sure there are no lumps left from the brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mix on low speed 1 to 2 minutes until incorporated.
- Working in three batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients on low speed. Mix to combine ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the three pans. Bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cake cool and prepare the frosting. Once cake is completely cool, frost each layer and top and sides of the cake. Once frosted, lightly drip the cooled ganache over the sides of the cake. Pour ganache over the top and lightly smooth. Optional: Once ganache has set, lightly sprinkle top with spices.
Eggnog Buttercream
- Cream the butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, slowly adding confectioners sugar one cup at a time.
- Add eggnog one tablespoon at a time, raising speed to medium. Add ground nutmeg and beat for 2 minutes to incorporate. Reduce speed to add heavy cream without splashing, slowly increase speed medium-high to whip the cream into the frosting. Beat for 1 to 2 minutes until frosting is light and fluffy.
White Chocolate Ganache
- In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer. Pour hot cream over white chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl. Stir with a spatula until smooth. Let sit for 10-20 minutes until cool but still liquid. The warmer the chocolate ganache is, the longer your drips will be. How long you cool it is a matter of preference and patience.
D says
Would this work for a Bundt cake pan?
Lauren says
Yes!
Marta says
Hi, this cake sounds sooo yummy I really want to try and make it this year but I’m allergic to apples, what can I use instead?
Lauren says
This may sound odd, but you could try using baby food purees, just get one that's all fruit (but no apple). Or I would try using greek yogurt!
Megan says
I’m not a fan of white chocolate. Would a topping of salted caramel sauce overpower the eggnog buttercream?
Lauren says
I think that sounds delicious!
Meeshy says
This cake came out amazing. The flavors were absolutely wonderful. Mine was no where near as pretty as I am new to baking but everyone loved the taste. Can’t wait to try again!
Lauren says
This makes my heart so happy! Thanks for using this recipe!
Meesh says
This cake came out amazing. The flavors were absolutely wonderful. Mine was no where near as pretty as I am new to baking but everyone loved the taste. Can’t wait to try again!
Carol says
I am having a hard time finding eggnog but I think I will go shopping again to get some. This cake will be a showstopper for sure.
HEY storing those extra goodies in the garage at Christmas is definitely a thing. Especially when you have large gathering like I remember we used to have. Not so much now.But anyway it absolutely happened. I love those memories.
Lauren says
I LOVE that you can relate! Happy holidays!!
Andrea says
Made this today for a holiday party. The spice blend is perfect, warming and delicious. Cake was soft and fluffy. My buttercream came out very buttery tasting but my friends loved it. I altered the decorations a bit (didn’t do the white chocolate topping) and also used only 2 8” round pans and the size was perfect! I’ll definitely be using this recipe for my go to spice cake!
Lauren says
Thank you so much Andrea!
Holly says
Can I use sweet applesauce?
Lauren says
sure!
Angela says
Are the nutritional statistics for a single slice of cake?
Lauren says
Yes, it's for 1 slice of cake if the cake were cut into 10 slices, but the nutritional information is just an estimate.
L Robertson says
This cake was AMAZING! Amazing. I made it for a Christmas gathering and it was a huge hit. I followed the recipes exactly and the cake, icing and Gnache were absolutely to die for! These recipes (and the combination of flavors) are pure gold.
The cake was moist, flavorful, and bursting with the perfect combination of holiday spices. The light and fluffy buttercream was incredible- with strong, but not overpowering, eggnog flavor that paired perfectly with the spice cake. The gnache took this recipe up a notch and left me with a sophisticated cake that I was proud to both display and serve.
This is a recipe for the books that I will make over and over in years to come! Thank you!
Lauren says
Lisa!!!! Thank you so much for making my day with this comment. You rock! So happy you and your guests loved this cake (I made it for my family as well this year!).
Lu says
What does, cinnamon through black pepper, mean? I’m new to the baking world.
Lauren says
It just means all the spices in the ingredient list (cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmet, black pepper)
Emily Shaffer says
Just wondering how you could convert this to a 9x13 pan instead on the layer cake??
Thanks so much!
Emily says
How long would you cook a 9x13?? Trying to make it a little easier 🙂
Thanks so much! Can’t wait to try it
Lauren says
Hi Emily! I sent you an email too, but just in case others are looking for that answer....a 9x13 sheet cake is equivalent to 2 9-inch round cakes. This batter is enough for 3 8-inch round cakes so if you make it as is, you will have some left over batter that you could make into muffins or bake-off for cake pops. Alternatively, you could reduce the recipe by 1/4 or 1/2 but will need to adjust the bake time to roughly 15 minutes.
Hope that helps!
Sabina Rodriguez says
How long to cook this recipe in a Bundt cake pan? And would I need to adjust the recipe as well?
Lauren says
Hi Sabrina - I haven't tried this recipe as a bundt cake. Typically the conversion for layer cake to bundt pan is 2 layer 9 inch cake for a 15 cup bundt pan so my recommendation would be to try reducing the recipe by 1/4 or just baking off any extra batter as muffins!
Madeline says
This cake was great! Tasted like a gingerbread cake. I left out the pepper because I didn't have any, but It still had lots of flavor. I had to put way more powdered sugar than the recipe called for because the icing looked a bit like it was curdled or something. I added some rum flavoring, vanilla and salt to the icing as well!