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This vegan gingerbread cake is soft, spiced, and perfect for festive occasions. Bake it in a gingerbread kids pan and decorate them with friends or family. If you’ve been looking for an easy recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to put together (not counting bake time or decorating), you’ve found it! You can even make these on a school night. And it’s plant based!

This recipe makes 8 gingerbread cake people (or 1 loaf).

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Vegan Gingerbread Cake
• FAQ
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Nutritional Information
• Comments or Questions
• Similar Recipes

I just learned from a friend that the Sacramento library loans out cake pans! I’m extremely excited about this piece of information. You see, the drawer in my house that stores cake pans is at capacity. I’m pretty sure if I buy another one, the other dishes in that cupboard might call the fire department and report my violation. If you have a similar predicament at your house, check your library, nextdoor, and local buy nothing group for this gingerbread people pan. If you can’t track one down, I have instructions under the FAQ section for how to bake this recipe in a loaf pan.

If you hate doing dishes as much as I do, I recommend using a kitchen scale instead of measuring cups and spoons. It’s faster, it dirties fewer dishes, and it’s more precise. I provide all of my measurements in grams for this reason.

Ingredients for Vegan Gingerbread Cake

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 1 ½ cups (195g) unbleached white flour
• ¾ cup (163g) organic or vegan sugar
• ½ teaspoon (3-4g) baking soda
• ½ teaspoon (3g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (3g) ground ginger
• 3 tablespoons (45g) molasses
• ¾ cup (180mL/175g) nondairy milk
• 3 tablespoons (38g) sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
• 1 ½ teaspoons (8g) lemon juice

How to make Vegan Gingerbread Cake in One Bowl

prep time: 13 min | bake time: 17 min

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175º C).

Oil the cubbies of a gingerbread people pan (or oil a loaf pan if you don’t have a gingerbread kids pan). I use a combination of an oil sprayer and a silicone brush. You know how those spray sunscreens inevitably miss a spot, so you have to rub it in after? This is like that.

Dust the oiled pan lightly with flour. This will help the cakes come out of the pan when they’re cooled. My method is to sift flour over the entire pan and then dump the excess into the trash. But be prepared that anyone you live with might come by and say, “you know the flour goes in the cake, not in the trash right?” (I speak from experience in living with someone who thinks they’re hilarious.)

Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. They are 1 ½ cups (195g) unbleached white flour, ¾ cup (163g) organic or vegan sugar, ½ teaspoon (3-4g) baking soda, ½ teaspoon (3g) baking powder, 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon (3g) ground ginger.

Whisk the dry ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. They include 3 tablespoons (45g) molasses, ¾ cup (180mL/175g) nondairy milk, 3 tablespoons (38g) sunflower oil, 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract, and 1 ½ teaspoons (8g) lemon juice.

Mix with a silicone spatula until there are no visible dry spots. Scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing to make sure no sneaky flour is playing hide and seek. You want this to be a thick cake batter. Stop mixing as soon as you no longer see flour.

Transfer the cake batter into the oiled pan, using the spatula to make sure you get it all out of the bowl. You don’t want to fill the cubbies all the way or they might spill over. Start by filling them halfway and then add more to each one, getting them as even as possible. Watch my video to see the fill line.

Bake for 17-21 minutes, until when you insert a toothpick into the center, it comes out clean. Bake times depend on how hot your oven runs and how long the oven was preheating before you put your cake in. I recommend setting the timer for 17 minutes. If they’re not ready, check them every couple of minutes with the toothpick.

Remove from the oven and leave the mini gingerbread cakes on a cooling rack for an hour to cool completely.

Remove the cakes from the pan. I jimmy them out with a mini silicone spatula. I go around all the edges to loosen them from the pan, and then I use a scooping motion down the side and under the bottom of each cake to lift it out.

Decorate them using vegan icing or vegan buttercream or serve them as is.

I recommend dipping them in hot chocolate or hot coffee.

Questions and Answers

Can I bake this gingerbread cake in a loaf pan?

This recipe also makes a simple vegan gingerbread loaf cake. All the instructions are the same, except that you will bake it between 45 minutes and an hour, depending on your oven and pan. Just repeat the toothpick test every 5 minutes until it comes out clean.

How do I store gingerbread cake?

You can keep most vegan cake in airtight containers for a couple of days on the counter, for a week in the fridge, or for 3 months in the freezer. If you’re making these ahead of time, wait until they cool completely. Then wrap each one in cling wrap before transferring to a freezer ziplock bag.

Can I make this gingerbread cake less sweet?

I’ve made this cake before with ½ cup (108g) vegan sugar, and it was still super good.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Flour: I used unbleached, all-purpose flour for this cake recipe. If you have other kinds of flours, you can substitute them using a 1:1 ratio (except for coconut flour). If you want this recipe to be gluten free, replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend.
• Sugar: I use organic sugar to be certain that it’s vegan. You can use organic sugar, vegan sugar, raw sugar, sucanat, or coconut sugar. Just beware of conventional granulated sugar. It’s sometimes processed using animal bones, and therefore, not considered vegan by some.
• Baking Soda: If you are out of baking soda, replace the ½ teaspoon (3-4g) baking soda in this recipe with an additional 1 ½ teaspoons (8g) baking powder.
• Baking Powder: If you’re out of baking powder, you can replace the ½ teaspoon (3g) baking powder with an additional ⅛ teaspoon (1g) of baking soda.
• Spices: You can omit the 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon in this recipe or replace it with nutmeg or cardamom or ginger. Feel free to get creative! If you prefer fresh ginger over powdered, replace the 1 teaspoon (3g) ground ginger in this recipe with 1 tablespoon of fresh minced ginger.
• Molasses: I use blackstrap molasses because it’s better for you. However, you can use any kind you have or you can even omit it altogether.
• Nondairy Milk: You can use any kind of plant milk in this cake recipe. I used almond milk because that’s what I had in my fridge. If you don’t already have nondairy milk at home, just buy the cheapest vegan milk you can find. If you use soy milk, I recommend buying organic or non-GMO.
• Sunflower Oil: I recommend safflower, sunflower, avocado, or coconut oil for baking cakes. These oils are good for high heat, which helps you avoid transfats. However, you can use any other oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc. People even make cakes with olive oil, but I don’t recommend it.
• Vanilla Extract: If you don’t have vanilla extract, you can omit it, but the cake will taste much better if you include it.
• Lemon Juice: If needed, replace the 1 ½ teaspoons (8g) lemon juice in this recipe with the same amount of apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lime juice. You just need some sort of acid to interact with the alkalinity of the baking soda to make the cakes rise.

Nutrition Facts

This nutritional information assumes that one gingerbread person is a serving. This info is just for the gingerbread cake without any decorations.

• Servings: 6
• Calories: 299
• Fiber: <1g
• Saturated fat: <1g
• Total fat: 7g
• Cholesterol: 0mg
• Sodium: 153mg
• Sugars: 31g
• Total Carbohydrates: 56g
• Protein: 5g
• Calcium: 114mg
• Potassium: 171mg
• Iron: 2mg

Comments or Questions?

If you make this recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like baking for the holiday season, you might also like my biscoff cake and my mini wreath cakes.

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