The 36-Year-Old Gingerbread Recipe That's the Easiest Holiday Cake Ever
'80s-Era Gingerbread Cake
There’s nothing better or more nostalgic for the holiday season than whipping up a vintage recipe in your kitchen. They’re all the rage right now and believe it or not, Reddit is the best place to turn when you have a cooking question or need to track down a recipe from your childhood.
One post in particular has garnered a lot of attention (and fans). It’s an '80s-era recipe for a gingerbread cake by famed writer Laurie Colwin that was originally published in the December 1987 issue of Gourmet (RIP).
Intrigued by all of the online hype and comments (I read through every single one for tips and tricks), I procured every ingredient right down to the cane syrup from Louisiana and got to work to see if this one was worth all of the extra effort.
Get the recipe: '80s-Era Gingerbread Cake
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Ingredients for the '80s-Era Gingerbread Cake
For this recipe, you’re going to need unsalted butter, light or dark brown sugar, large eggs, flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, lemon brandy or vanilla extract, buttermilk and Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup (see tips below).
Related: 200+ Christmas Cookie Ideas Your Family Will Love This Holiday
How to make the '80s-Era Gingerbread Cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan. (I used a round of parchment at the bottom too for extra insurance that would come out of the pan cleanly.) Cream softened butter with the brown sugar until it’s fluffy before adding the cane syrup and beating in your eggs.
Add flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Then, pour in the lemon brandy or vanilla extract and buttermilk and mix well. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. I checked mine after 20 minutes, but it was still jiggly in the middle, so mine ended up taking the full 30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Related: Martha Stewart's Chewy Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies Are the Perfect Holiday Cookie
What I Thought of the '80s-Era Gingerbread Cake
Sorry to be a total Grinch, but gingerbread just isn’t one of my top favorites for the holidays. I’ll reach for my aunt’s peppermint bark or my grandmother’s coconut macaroons with the little cherry on top before I let gingerbread even touch my plate.
However, I was intrigued by the article in Gourmet (Redditors have posted images of the full text from 1987) and the mention of this very traditional 113-year-old syrup from the south (I love not only a good deep dive, but also a specialty ingredient!). And I have to say…perhaps I was wrong about gingerbread all along and didn’t give it a fair chance.
This cake was tender and moist with the perfect crumb. It had the perfect level of holiday spice thanks to the combo of cloves, cinnamon allspice and ginger. It also had a very light molasses flavor that complemented the spices and wasn't so sticky that I couldn't eat it with my hands (because I did).
This cake is the perfect base for some freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and is really probably the easiest cake you can throw together for holiday guests in a pinch. It took me no time at all. I made it in one bowl and it came out of the greased pan like a dream. Better yet, it freezes well and would be an ideal cake for traveling.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Tips for Making the '80s-Era Gingerbread Cake
Find Steen’s Syrup. Commenters were all about this syrup, which they say in the article is “one of life’s greatest delights—a true luxury that is also inexpensive.” If that’s not a ringing endorsement, then I don’t know what is. I found it on Amazon for $14 and it got to my house practically the next day. If you don't want to deal with a specialty ingredient, you can sub in unsulfured molasses for the Steen's.
If you can't find the lemon brandy, don't worry. People online who made the recipe say that they had a hard time finding lemon brandy, and I agree with them. Doing a quick search online after my liquor store search, I saw that there were recipes for making lemon brandy, but that seemed a little much, so I stuck to the vanilla extract. Lemon and ginger are wonderful together and commenters said that they made a simple lemon icing to pour over the top and some even added some lemon zest to the cake batter.
Make your own buttermilk. If you don’t have a carton of buttermilk in your fridge from all of your holiday baking, you can easily make some. Add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the bottom of a measuring cup, and then fill with regular milk or nondairy milk to the line until you have as much as you need (in this case, half a cup). Let it sit for 10 minutes to curdle and you’re good to go.
