Spice Cake With Eggnog Frosting
This Spice Cake with Eggnog Frosting is the perfect dessert for the holiday season. The warm flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are combined to create a rich and moist cake that will have your guests coming back for seconds.
And, when you top this cake with an eggnog frosting and sugared cranberries you get a festive dessert that is perfect for any holiday gathering. You will want to make this cake asap.
Table of contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- While the ingredient list for this cake may seem long, it’s mostly pantry staples that you already have on hand so you don’t have to worry about spending a lot of money at the grocery store.
- This cake is elegant, festive, and full of flavor.
- And, it’s easy enough for beginner bakers to make.
Do you love spice cake? If so, next time give this Spice Cake with Cranberry Filling a try!
🛒Ingredients
We’ve made this shopping list to make your grocery store trip easier. You can find the amounts needed for this recipe in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- flour
- baking powder
- baking soda
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- allspice
- cardamon
- ground ginger
- ground cloves
- salt
- butter
- sugar
- brown sugar
- eggs
- molasses
- vanilla
- buttermilk
- powdered sugar
- eggnog
- cranberries
- water
🔪 How to Make Spice Cake With Eggnog
This is a quick overview of the steps needed to make this recipe. You can find the full steps in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamon, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time and beat. Add in the molasses and vanilla and beat.
Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour until everything is well incorporated.
Divide the cake batter equally between the pans. Place the pans in the 350 degrees preheated oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly. Allow the cake to cool.
Meanwhile, boil the sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves. Then remove from heat and cool slightly before adding the cranberries.
Soak the cranberries for 10 minutes, by drying them. Then roll them in sugar until coated.
In a separate bowl make the eggnog frosting.
Build and decorate the cake according to the instructions.
🥄 Equipment
This is a list of the equipment that you will need to make this recipe:
- 9 inch round cake pans
- small bowl
- large mixing bowl
- Electric mixer
- Saucepan
- cake stand or cake plate
- piping bag with tip – We used #336 and 1M
🥫 Storage
Storage – Due to the eggnog in the frosting, we recommend that you store this cake in the fridge in an airtight container or glass cake plate for up to 3 days.
Freezing – You can freeze slices of this cake for up to 3 months. To defrost, leave in the fridge overnight.
Serve With
This delicious cake goes well with just about any of your favorite holiday meals. We like to serve it with this Christmas Lasagna and a side of these Homemade Garlic Breadsticks.
💭 Tips
Here are a few tips that you can use to ensure that this recipe turns out perfectly for you:
- Once you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients be careful to not overmix the batter. Overmixing will give you a dry cake.
- Don’t forget to spray your baking pans with nonstick baking spray to prevent the cake layers from sticking.
- For smooth frosting, make sure that you use room temperature ingredients.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this spice cake with eggnog frosting recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
The main difference is that custard nog has a vanilla flavor, and eggnog has a spicy flavor.
Spice cake is made with a blend of warm spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
🍽 More Eggnog Recipes
Do you enjoy eggnog? If so, try these delicious recipes:
🧾Recipe Card
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe, so you can find it later.
Spice Cake With Eggnog Frosting
Equipment
- 9 inch round cake pans
- small bowl
- large mixing bowl
- Electric mixer
- Saucepan
- cake stand or cake plate
- piping bag with tip – We used #336 and 1M
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon cardamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup buttermilk
Frosting:
- 1 cup butter softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup eggnog
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Sugared cranberries:
- ½ cup cranberries
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup sugar – plus more for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep 3 – 9” cake pans by spraying them with cooking spray containing flour. Set them aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamon, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time and beat.
- Add in the molasses and vanilla and beat.
- Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour until everything is well incorporated.
- Divide the cake batter equally between the pans.
- Place the pans in the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.
- Let the cake rest in the pans for 10 minutes before turning them out onto cooling racks to come to room temperature.
- To make the frosting, place the butter in a large bowl and beat for 1-2 minutes. Butter should lighten in color.
- Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
- Add in the eggnog, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon and beat until smooth and creamy.
- To make the sugared cranberries, boil the water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves.
- Remove the pan from heat and let the simple syrup cool for about 5 minutes before adding the cranberries.
- Stir the berries around, thoroughly coating them with the syrup and leave them to soak in the syrup for 5-10 minutes. Remove the berries and lay them on a paper towel or flat surface spread out to dry for 2 hours.
- After the 2 hours are up, roll the berries in sugar until coated.
- To assemble the cake, start by placing the bottom layer on a cake stand with the bottom side up.
- Scoop about ½ c – ¾ c of frosting and spread in an even layer over the cake.
- Repeat the same thing with the second layer.
- For the last layer, place it with the top side facing up.
- Coat the top with frosting and using a spatula spread a very thin layer over the edges of the cake.
- Scrape the majority of the frosting off to create a barely frosted cake. Smooth the top layer.
- Frosting tips used #336 and 1M to create swirls and stars.
- Decorate top as desired with sugared cranberries, rosemary, anise and cinnamon sticks.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Remove cake about 30 minutes before serving.
