Old Fashioned Southern Gingerbread

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This easy, old fashioned southern gingerbread recipe makes a dark, dense, soft gingerbread cake that is seasoned to perfection with molasses, brown sugar and warm holiday spices.  This is every bit as good as grandma’s old fashioned southern gingerbread and maybe even better!

You will love the rich, warm flavors of this old fashioned gingerbread cake.  Plus this southern gingerbread cake can be topped with a sweet, tangy lemon sauce (recipe below) that compliments the bold, warm flavors of the gingerbread.

Old Fashioned Homemade Gingerbread Ingredients

Old Fashioned Gingerbread Cake Ingredients

• 2 eggs beaten
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup dark molasses (you can also use light molasses)
• 3/4 cup melted shortening
• 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Gingerbread Lemon Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (real or bottled)
• 1 pinch salt

How To Make Old Fashioned Gingerbread

How To Make Old Fashioned Gingerbread Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
• Grease 9×13 baking pan or spray it with baking spray.
• Add beaten eggs to sugar, molasses and melted shortening and mix.
• Sift together and mix flour, ground nutmeg, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and baking powder.
• Add dry ingredients and boiling water to egg/sugar mixture and mix.
• Pour batter in prepared 9×13 baking pan.
• Bake at 350F for 30 to 40 minutes.
• Serve with lemon sauce.  You can pour lemon sauce over the individual pieces of gingerbread cake.

How To Make Gingerbread Lemon Sauce

• Combine sugar, cornstarch and water in a saucepan.
• Cook on high until thick.
• Remove from heat and add butter, lemon rind, lemon juice and salt.
• Return to high heat and cook until it’s thick (2 or 3 minutes).
• While hot pour over ginger bread cake.

Tools Used In Old Fashioned Southern Gingerbread

• Hand Held Mixer – optional
• 9×13 Baking Pan
• Mixing Bowl
• Spatula
• Dry Ingredient Measuring Cups
• Liquid Ingredient Measuring Cup
• Measuring Spoons
• Cooling Rack
• Kitchen Timer

Tips For The Best Gingerbread Recipe

• You can use a hand held mixer to mix this old fashioned southern gingerbread recipe, but it can easily be mixed by hand also.
• For a moist gingerbread recipe do not overmix or over bake the gingerbread cake.  
• Overmixing the batter can also cause a tough gingerbread cake.
• Not in the mood for gingerbread lemon sauce, you can also top old fashioned southern gingerbread with powdered sugar, bananas, caramel or vanilla sauce, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
• This old fashioned southern gingerbread would also be delicious frosted with a cream cheese or lemon cream cheese frosting.
• This old fashioned southern gingerbread is also lip-smacking good naked with nothing on top.

Gingerbread Lemon Sauce

This lemon sauce is just heavenly and it matches perfectly with toasty holiday spices in the old fashioned southern gingerbread.  It also makes the wonderfully textured gingerbread cake an even more perfect, moist gingerbread cake.

This gingerbread lemon sauce is a very easy recipe and comes together quickly. It’s simply thickening your ingredients over heat and takes about 5 minutes.

What Kind Of Molasses Is Best For Gingerbread

A traditional gingerbread recipe is usually made with molasses and this old fashioned southern gingerbread recipe with molasses in no exception.  But, what kind of molasses should you use for this old fashioned southern gingerbread recipe?  

According to this post by The Kitchn, for any gingerbread cake with molasses or gingerbread cookies with molasses it is best to use light unsulphured molasses or dark unsulphured molasses.  Both of these are good for baking.  Stay away from blackstrap molasses when baking it has a bitter flavor and is not good for gingerbread cake or gingerbread cookies.  

Can You Freeze Gingerbread Cake

This old fashioned southern gingerbread with molasses freezes so well.  In fact, I have some in the freezer right now.  

What a great gingerbread characteristic.  This allows you to freeze your gingerbread leftovers, so those leftovers want go in the trash or on your hips and waste.  It also allows you to plan ahead and bake some homemade old fashioned southern gingerbread ahead of time.  

So, here’s how we work our freezer magic with gingerbread:

• If you are freezing leftovers, wrap your leftover gingerbread cake in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and place in a Ziploc Bag or a sealed freezer container.  Then place in the freezer.
• If you have pre baked this easy gingerbread cake and want to freeze the whole cake in the pan, simply wrap the whole pan entirely in plastic wrap and then again in aluminum foil and place in the freezer.

This old fashioned southern gingerbread will keep in the freezer up to 3 months.

You can keep gingerbread cake at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Make sure it’s in a sealed container or wrapped tightly.

Gingerbread can also be kept in the fridge 5 to 7 days wrapped tightly or in a sealed container.

Why I Love This Old Fashioned Gingerbread Recipe

The rich warm flavors and perfectly seasoned holiday spices make this a holiday favorite, but I also love this old fashioned southern gingerbread in the dead of summer.  It’s simplicity in preparation makes it an excellent choice to bake during the busy holiday season or any busy season.  So, whether baking this gingerbread gem on a cozy winter night or a blazing hot summer night, it’s guaranteed to be love at first bite.

If you have any comments or questions about this old fashioned southern gingerbread recipe feel free to reach out via the comment section or the contact page. I would love to hear if you made it, or any of my other recipes, and what you think. 

I have linked to our related recipes below and I’m sure you will love them.

More Easy Spice Cake Recipes

• The Best Southern Spice Cake
• Old Fashioned Spice Cake Recipe (With Cream Cheese Frosting)
• Eggnog Pound Cake With Eggnog Glaze
• Gingerbread Pound Cake Recipe
• Old Fashioned German Gingerbread Recipe (From Our Gabled Home)