Frosted Gingerbread loaf made with butter, molasses, applesauce & a blend of warm Fall spices! Delicious gingerbread quick bread with a smooth cream cheese frosting on top that everyone adores!
Made with your favorite gingerbread flavors and spices like cinnamon and cloves, and then topped with a cream cheese frosting, this bread is simply irresistible. You’re going to love this easy quick bread recipe because it’s so simple to make and that just adds to the charm.
An Autumn Dessert
We love this moist gingerbread loaf recipe. Every bite is soft and slightly dense so it’s filling and smooth on the tongue. Every bite is fabulous but when slathered in that thick cream cheese frosting, it’s absolutely swoon-worthy.
Serve up this fall baking recipe next time you have guests or keep a loaf for yourself, and watch it disappear either way because one slice is never enough and you won’t stop reaching back for another.
Gingerbread loaf Ingredients
For the loaf, you will need:
-Flour: To give us good gluten and base for this bread recipe you will need 1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour.
-Spices: You will need 2 ½ teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon each of allspice and ground cloves.
-Leavening agents: To help the bread rise into a great texture you will need ¾ teaspoons of baking soda and ¼ teaspoon of baking powder.
-Salt: This is a natural flavor enhancer and by adding 1 teaspoon of salt into the mix we can really make the other flavors shine through.
-Butter: To make our bread richer in taste, use ½ cup of room temperature butter. You could sub for shortening if butter isn’t on hand.
-Sugars: You will need ½ cup of brown sugar and ¼ cup of granulated white sugar but you can use all brown sugar if desired.
-Applesauce: To make our bread a little moister, add in ⅔ cups of applesauce. Plain and unsweetened is usually best, but use what you have on hand.
-Molasses: You will need ⅓ cup of molasses to add flavor to the bread. This is what usually gives gingerbread its strong flavor and brown color.
-Eggs: Adding in 2 eggs will help with the overall texture of the bread and help to bind it together so that the bread doesn’t end up dry and crumbly.
-Vanilla: Use 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to help give a great flavor base for everything to branch off of.
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
-Cream cheese: You will need 8 ounces of softened cream cheese for the frosting.
-Butter: Adding in 4 tablespoons of room temperature butter will help to make the frosting taste richer.
-Powdered sugar: Make the frosting sweet without changing the texture by adding 1 cup of powdered sugar.
-Vanilla: Add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to help flavor the frosting.
-Salt: You will only need a pinch of salt to help enhance the flavors.
How to make frosted gingerbread loaf
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray and then set aside.
Start making the loaf by whisking together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and all of the spices in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth.
Add in the eggs and then beat the mixture together.
Add in the applesauce, molasses, and whisk together until smooth.
Pour the flour mixture into the wet mixture and mix until the flour is just incorporated.
Then pour the batter into the loaf pan and place it in your preheated oven to bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean or with moist crumbs.
Once the loaf is baked, remove it from the oven and place it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
While the loaf is cooling, make the cream cheese frosting.
Combine all of the frosting ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high spread for 6-8 minutes or until a smooth and creamy frosting has formed.
Once the bread has cooled, remove it from the loaf pan and dollop and smooth the frosting over the top and sides of the entire loaf.
Slice and serve. Enjoy!
Copycat Starbucks Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Loaf:
- 1 ¾ cups flour
- 2 ½ tsp ginger
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup butter room temp
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup applesauce
- ⅓ cup molasses
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 Tbs butter room temp
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with baking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and all of the spices.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, brown sugar and sugar until smooth.
- Add in the eggs and beat together.
- Add in the applesauce, molasses and eggs and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture into the wet mixture and mix just until the flour is incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and place into the preheated oven to bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
- Once the loaf is baked, remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- While the loaf is cooling, make the cream cheese frosting.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine all of the ingredients and beat on medium-high speed for 6-8 minutes or until a smooth and creamy frosting has formed.
- Once the bread has cooled, remove from the loaf pan.
- Dollop and smooth the cream cheese frosting on top of the entire loaf. Slice and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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Can I make this recipe gluten free?
This recipe has only been tested with all-purpose flour, however, having much experience using gluten-free flour blends, I believe this recipe would still have great results using a good brand such as Bob’s Red Mill.If you do use a gluten-free flour blend, you may notice that your baking time may increase. This is normal, just be sure to check the doneness using a toothpick before removing it from the oven.
Why Is my gingerbread loaf rubbery?
This can easily be explained by an overmixed batter. Make sure not to over-stir the batter once the flour has been added as this will overwork the glutens and cause the bread to turn out pretty rubbery in texture.
More great gingerbread recipes you’re sure to love
- HONEY GINGERBREAD CAKE
- GINGERBREAD WHOOPIE PIES
- GINGERBREAD COOKIE BITES
- GINGERBREAD TRUFFLES
- GINGERBREAD COOKIES WITH SPICED MARSHMALLOW BUTTERCREAM
- WHITE CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD CHEX MIX
- PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE GINGERBREAD
- GINGERBREAD WAFFLES with BUTTER SYRUP
You’re going to love this Copycat Starbucks Gingerbread Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting because it’s so gosh darn tasty you won’t mind making it over and over through Fall and Winter.
Annette Downing says
I haven’t tried this recipe yet but I’m wondering if there is a typo for the quantity of molasses.
1/3 Tbsp maybe should be 1/3 cup?? 1/3 Tbsp is 1 tsp… Seems way too little for gingerbread.
Nellie says
Yep, it was a typo but it should be fixed now. Thank you!
Gina says
I can’t resist anything with a cream cheese frosting but I’m shocked at how much I loved it paired with gingerbread in this loaf! Wow, so delicious and will definitely be making a again for the holidays!
Diana says
This was a fantastic dessert! My family is begging for me to make it again.