Enjoy the warm, deep spices of gingerbread in a gluten-free, whole grain cake that’s low in sugar AND comes with high altitude adjustments! Complete with a light cream cheese frosting on top, that’s tangy and sweet, this cake will quickly become an easy holiday favorite among family members and guests alike.
It can be hard to find a moist, gluten-free cake recipe that isn’t insanely unhealthy.
This Gingerbread Cake changes all of that. Using oat flour creates an insanely moist cake, that’s also easy to whip up since it’s made with only ONE gluten-free flour! This Gingerbread Cake recipe will be the best Holiday dessert you’ll make this year, that is, without chocolate involved at least 😉
Usually I’m not the biggest fan of desserts without chocolate.
However, I’m always trying to make fun and new desserts with different flavors, in an effort to not just eat chocolate for dessert 24/7. (That wouldn’t be a bad thing necessarily though…)
Christmas and Thanksgiving scream to have some sort of spiced recipe involved.
I LOVE spices. So, why not a spiced cake? Not surprisingly, growing up my family didn’t really make cake for the Holidays. You see, my Mom has her own side hustle making cakes for birthdays, weddings, etc. so she makes cakes pretty often, which means when it comes to Holiday desserts she wants to make something different.
I’m not the worlds biggest cake fan either.. I’d rather have a cookie or brownie. If you throw the word “cream cheese frosting” around though, then you can count me in!
Enter in, this beautifully spiced Gingerbread Cake with a light cream cheese frosting.
Divine. Like taking the classic, old-fashioned flavors of gingerbread cookies and putting them into a moist, gluten-free cake, complete with a tangy, sweet cream cheese frosting on top. This reached “you’ve got to be kidding me” status.. it was so good.
The cake itself is made healthier with:
- Oat flour, certified gluten-free (whole grain, high fiber)
- Less sugar (only 1/4 cup) with the addition of applesauce
- Only 1/4 cup coconut oil
The light cream cheese frosting is simply made with less powdered sugar. Turns out, you don’t really need 4 cups of powdered sugar to make cream cheese frosting taste delicious. Sure, it’s good that way, I won’t argue with you there, but it’s good like this too and much better for you 🙂
This Gingerbread Cake is easy to make ahead as well.
Reaching the status of “you’ve got to be kidding me this is the perfect Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert!” It’s as simple as mixing together your dry ingredients, wet ingredients separately, then combining the two. After about 30 minutes in the oven you have a beautifully spiced, Gingerbread Cake.
The light cream cheese frosting is as simple as beating all your ingredients together too. Ta-da!
After your Gingerbread Cake has cooled, spread your cream cheese frosting on thick.
Cut into 16 pieces. Feeling a little.. hungry? You could cut these into 12 really big pieces instead. I won’t tell 😉
Sprinkle a few chopped pecans on top and your cake is done. Such a classic, simple, beautiful and healthier Holiday dessert. Don’t forget to say “with cream cheese frosting!” too when you tell your friends what type of cake it is, because if they are anything like me then you’ll be mopping drool off your floor after you tell them that 😉
Looking for more easy, healthier, gluten-free Holiday desserts? Check out my Skinny Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes or Apple Cider Cupcakes.
- 1 1/2 cup oat flour (certified gluten-free)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (or butter)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 2/3 cup molasses
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 1 egg
- 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
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Preheat your oven to 350 and line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper.
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In a small mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients (oat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves and salt) and stir together.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine your coconut oil, brown sugar, and applesauce and blend together well. Add in your molasses and water, and whisk together. Lastly, whisk your egg in.
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Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir together till all is well incorporated. Let your cake batter rest for a few minutes for the oat flour to soak up some of the wet ingredients, and your batter will thicken a bit.
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Pour your batter into your lined 9x9 pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or till the top is set and springy, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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In a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, beat your cream cheese for a minute, or till it's creamy. Add in your vanilla and beat together again.
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Add your powdered sugar and beat for a couple minutes, till the frosting is smooth and creamy.
This recipe was inspired by this Gingerbread Cake and this Low Fat Cream Cheese Frosting.
I’ve used a lot of your recipes. This one didn’t’t turn out as expected. It took 10 minutes longer to bake and it didn’t rise that much. I haven’t tried a piece yet but I have a feeling it will be a bit overly soft.
Since it didn’t turn out as well as I hoped I’m going to make traditional gingerbread for my friends who are coming for dinner. I will eat this version since I have a strong gluten intolerance. Thanks for posting. I do really love the majority of your recipes.
Do you think using milk instead of water would make it even better?
Hi Alexa. To my knowledge, traditional Gingerbread Cake is made with water. I’m sure using milk instead would make it even more tender, since you’d be adding extra fat into the mix.
amazing recipe we all loved it
Love this and didn’t think I would! I have a friend who is gluten intolerant (I’m not) and I wanted to make her gingerbread for Christmas. I had a hard time finding oat flour but had Kamut flour on hand and it worked beautifully! The spices were wonderful, it cut perfectly and it was moist. Topped it with cream cheese frosting that had orange zest in it and it really set it off. I had planned on making a gingerbread loaf for my friends with regular flour but now I think I will do this one instead. Question though, how do you think this would bake up in a loaf pan? And should I tell them to refrigerate it because of the frosting?
Hi Holly. Sounds delicious with the orange zest! I’m not sure how it would bake in a loaf pan. I do have a gingerbread loaf on my site, if you are interested in checking that out instead. And yes, with the frosting on top I would recommend refrigerating it.
Wow this did not work out well for me it was a little gummy. I let it rest a bit b4 baking but it seemed quite runny. Not sure what happened.
I have made this twice and it’s wonderful
I just served with whipped cream/topping
Did add 1/2 teas cardamom but is great without it too
Thanks so much!!
Great to hear, thanks Jeanie!
Great recipe. Turned out wonderful! Used truvia brown sugar in place of regular and ground my own oat flour out of oatmeal. Delicious
So great to hear that! Thanks for leaving the comment, Cindy!
This looks absolutely delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Suzanne!
Could I use regular white flour instead?
Hi Christina. Regular white flour would not work instead, because this recipe is based off of oat flour, which takes up more liquid than white flour would, so I wouldn’t recommend it, sorry!
You can grind oats in a coffee grinder to get the flour needed …I do it for rice flour also
Really delicious cake! Made it for the extended family at Thanksgiving and they all loved it! Almost didn’t have any leftovers. Would make this again and again 🙂
Great to hear, thank you Ariana!! 🙂
Would it be possible to do a keto version? Almond flour, monk fruit sweetener, etc? I suppose the applesauce would have to be left out…..
Hi Cindy – I haven’t ever tried to do a keto version, of any of my recipes actually, so I wouldn’t know if that would work or not, I’m sorry! If you do give it a shot and try and make it keto I’d love to know if it works, or not 🙂