Vegan Ginger Loaf Cake (2024)

Vegan ginger loaf cake - this easy loaf cake is moist, sticky, spicy and utterly delicious.

It is great all year round and is perfect for snacking on, or serve it warm with ice cream or custard for dessert.

I adore ginger cake; my easy ginger sheet cake is one of my all-time favourite cakes. But I realised that I hadn't posted a ginger loaf cake recipe, and everyone needs one of those!

This cake is a bit darker than the ginger sheet cake, and I went a bit heavier on the spices. It is rich, sticky, spicy and very, very more-ish!

I love it just as it is, with a cup of tea as a snack. But it is also amazing served warm for pudding with lashings of vegan custard or ice cream.

What Ingredients Do I Need To Bake This Cake?:

Plain flour: Just regular plain (all-purpose) flour. I don't recommend swapping it for wholemeal, it will make the cake too dense.

I haven't tried making this cake gluten-free, but I suspect that it would work ok with a gluten-free flour blend plus ¼ tsp xanthan gum if the flour doesn’t already contain it.

Milk: You can use any kind you like but it should ideally be unsweetened and soy milk is best as it has the highest protein content.

Brown sugar: Dark brown soft or muscovado sugar adds a lovely treacle flavour. You can use light brown instead, but do go for dark if you have it.

Treacle: I use black treacle but molasses will also work.

Golden Syrup: See below for details.

Vegan butter: A block type of butter is best but spreadable will work if that's all you have.

Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda): This reacts with the acidity of the treacle to make the cake rise. Do not use baking powder instead.

Spices: I go quite heavy with the spices, using ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg and a little star anise. You can change them to suit you. If you are unable to get hold of mixed spice then you can use pumpkin spice instead.

What Is A Substitute For Golden Syrup?:

Golden syrup is a very common baking ingredient in the UK; it has a buttery caramel flavour and the texture of honey (Lyle's Golden Syrup is vegan friendly). It can be tricky to get hold of elsewhere, though apparently lots of stores in the US have it in the foreign foods section or you can get in online. You can also trymaking your own!

There isn't really a good substitute for it as it is very unique, but if you aren't able to get hold of any and don't want to make your own then you can swap it for light molasses or corn syrup instead.

How To Make Vegan Ginger Loaf Cake:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Start by sifting together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg, star anise and salt in a large bowl.

If you are adding crystallised (candied) ginger, stir two-thirds of it into the dry ingredients, saving the rest to scatter over the top of the cake.

Place the butter, golden syrup, treacle and brown sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stir until melted then whisk in the milk.

Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir with a balloon whisk until no dry lumps remain. The batter will be very liquid.

Pour the batter into a greased and lined loaf tin and scatter over the reserved ginger.

Bake for about 50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Top Tips:

All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup coversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!

Make sure that you don't over-beat the batter as that can make the cake tough. Just mix it until no dry lumps remain. I recommend stirring it by hand with a balloon whisk.

I like to add some chopped crystallised (candied) ginger to the batter. As it is a very liquid batter most of it sinks to the bottom but it is still very tasty!

I add a teeny bit of ground star anise; the taste isn't very strong but if you don't like aniseed flavours then feel free to omit it or swap it for ground cloves instead.

How To Store It:

The cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for around five days. It also freezes well.

More Vegan Loaf Cake Recipes:

• Vegan malt loaf
• Vegan orange loaf cake
• Vegan Earl Grey tea loaf
• Easy vegan banana bread
• Vegan pumpkin bread
• Vegan lemon drizzle cake
• Vegan marble cake
• Vegan carrot cake loaf
• Vegan Biscoff banana bread

If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess

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