November 6, 2025
Chocolate Gingerbread Loaf Cake
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
A deliciously festive chocolate gingerbread loaf cake with a chocolate fudge ginger sponge and ginger cream cheese frosting
Festive baking
Festive baking season is one of my favourite times of year, filling my studio with the warm scents of spice, fruit, and chocolate. We all know how much I adore this type of baking and I have written over 100 festive recipes already so far.
A classic Christmas cake is often the showstopper… dense with dried fruits, nuts, and spices, and soaked in brandy or sherry to deepen the flavour. After weeks of “feeding,” it’s topped with marzipan and icing, then decorated or left plain like me. For a modern twist, my After Eight tart offers a rich chocolate biscuit base filled with peppermint icing, topped with chocolate ganache and a layer of After Eights
My christmas pudding cookies bring the look of a traditional pudding into bite-sized chocolate cookie form. A dunk of white chocolate and red and green decorations give them a festive finish. Meanwhile, no Christmas would be complete without mince pies — buttery pastry filled with sweet, spiced mincemeat and dusted with icing sugar, perfect with tea or mulled wine…. but this chocolate gingerbread loaf cake? Definitely one of my new favourites.
Chocolate cakes
A basic chocolate sponge is the foundation of countless recipes on this blog. They are light, airy, and easy to make, and typically baked with cocoa powder and can be filled or topped with buttercream, ganache, or fresh cream. Its simplicity makes it ideal for customisation and a stable bake. For something richer, a chocolate fudge cake delivers deep, gooey indulgence. Made with melted chocolate and sometimes a splash of coffee to enhance the flavour, it’s luxury in every bite.
I have endless amounts of chocolate base cakes on here. Layer cakes take chocolate indulgence to new heights. Alternating tiers of sponge and filling create a showstopping centrepiece, perfect for celebrations. Traybake cakes offer all the pleasure of chocolate cake in a more casual form. Baked flat and cut into squares, they’re perfect for sharing at parties or bake sales.
For something simpler but equally satisfying, a chocolate loaf cake is ideal — dense rich, and easy to slice, it pairs beautifully with a cup of tea and keeps well for days. I wanted to make this recipe based on my chocolate fudge loaf cake as it’s one of my favourite base recipes.
Gingerbread bakes
I have published a fair few gingerbread based bakes in my time, and it’s always a popular flavour for me to publish a recipe about. My gingerbread chocolate tart is an elegant no-bake dessert with a biscuit base and a silky chocolate filling. The warmth of ginger complements the richness of the chocolate beautifully, while a touch of caramel adds balance.
My gingerbread blondies combine the sweet fudginess of a blondie with the festive spice of gingerbread. Made with brown sugar, spices, and a tonne of white chocolate chips, they’re dense, sweet, and utterly moreish — especially when topped with a drizzle of white chocolate. My Gingerbread NYC cookies are a viral favourite, inspired by the oversized, gooey cookies of New York but infused with classic spice mix.
Most importantly though, my gingerbread loaf cake remains a comforting staple. I still adore this recipe, but I wanted to marry its ideas and flavours with chocolate and create wonderful combination of a recipe… and this recipe does exactly that.
Sponge cake
This recipe might look like it calls for a lot of ingredients, but trust me – it’s totally worth it. Start by melting the chocolate and butter, then simply mix everything together in one big bowl. No mixer needed.
- Chocolate – Use dark chocolate for the best flavour; I always go for at least 70% cocoa solids.
- Butter – Unsalted butter or a baking spread both work well for the sponge.
- Coffee – Trust the process, don’t skip it – it really enhances the chocolate flavour.
- Flour – Stick to plain flour; the raising agents come from elsewhere, and self-raising flour can make the sponge too soft.
- Cocoa powder – I love an extra-rich chocolate cake, so I add cocoa as well as melted chocolate.
- Raising agents – A mix of baking powder and bicarbonate of soda gives this cake its perfect rise.
- Spices – for the festive flavour, I add ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg
- Treacle – for an emphasis on the flavour, black treacle is the perfect addition
- Sugar – I use light brown sugar for a great depth of flavour, but you can use dark brown for a deeper flavour
- Eggs – I usually use two medium eggs, but two large ones will do the trick.
- Buttermilk – This is a key ingredient for a tender crumb. If you don’t have any, make your own by stirring 1 teaspoon of lemon juice into 75ml of milk and letting it sit for a few minutes.
Making the cake
Making a cake like this, is incredibly easy. It relies very little on heavy mixing as it’s quite a runny cake mix. You start by melting the chocolate and butter together until smooth, dissolving your coffee in the water and mixing this in, and then leaving to cool for 5 minutes so. Then, I add the dry ingredients into a large bowl, and mix together so that they are all combined and it prevents any problems later on. You mix the melted chocolate coffee mix into the bowl, and then add the treacle, buttermilk and eggs.
With a sponge like this, you want to mix it as little as possible, which is why I recommend just using a bowl and spatula as it really is so easy to mix. I use this 2lb loaf tin in this recipe, and with all of my loaf cakes, and whilst it is a longer bake time due to one tin, it’s worth it. Once baked, the sponge should create a clean skewer and not make a bubbling/crackling sound if you listen to it carefully when fresh out of the oven.
Frosting
I always make my cream cheese frosting in the same way, with a ratio of 1:1:2. This is equal parts butter, and sugar, and then double the amount of cream cheese. I find it creates the best frosting yet – and you can see my full blog post on cream cheese frosting here.
- Butter – it’s important to use block unsalted butter, and not a spread or margarine of any sort
- Sugar – icing sugar is a standard for frostings
- Flavours – I add in ground ginger, and some black treacle
- Cream Cheese – it’s important to use full-fat soft cheese
Decoration
The cream cheese frosting is very easy to make, and you don’t need to be scared of it. I start by beating together the room temperature unsalted butter together with the icing sugar until it’s smooth. Add in the ground ginger and black treacle, mix in well, and then add in the full-fat soft cream cheese. You want to make sure that you drain off any excess liquid from the cream cheese before adding into the bowl, to prevent a soft mixture.
I decided to just dollop the frosting on top, and add some gingerbread people biscuits and crumbs for decoration, but you can do what you want. I love the thick but light nature of a cream cheese frosting, and it works wonderfully with a dense but fudgy cake like this sponge.
Tips & Tricks
- This recipe is based on my chocolate fudge loaf cake and gingerbread loaf cake with a few changes
- I used this 2lb loaf tin as always
- Read my blog post about cream cheese frosting if you are worried
- PLEASE USE THE COFFEE – it just makes it taste more chocolatey, it doesn’t taste of coffee.
- You can make your own buttermilk with 75ml full-fat milk, and 1tbsp of lemon juice.
- This cake will last for 3-4 days, in the fridge, due to the cream cheese frosting
- This cake will freeze for 3+ months
Chocolate Gingerbread Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 150 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 2 tsp instant coffee
- 100 ml boiling water
- 115 g plain flour
- 250 g light brown sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 medium eggs
- 50 g treacle
- 75 ml buttermilk
Frosting
- 100 g unsalted butter (room temp - not stork/spread)
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp treacle
- 200 g full-fat soft cream cheese
Decoration
- gingerbread biscuits
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan, and line a 2lb loaf tin!
- In a microwave proof bowl, add the chocolate and butter and heat and mix until melted
- Add the coffee granules to a mug, and pour over the boiling water and mix until smooth
- Add the coffee mix into the chocolate/butter and mix until smooth. Leave to cool for five minutes.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices to a large bowl and whisk until distributed.
- Add the cooled chocolate mix to the dry mix and combine
- Add the treacle, buttermilk and eggs and mix again as little as possible until combined
- Pour the mixture into the lined 2lb loaf tin - only fill your tin 2/3 full. Tins can vary in size, so make cupcakes with spare mix if your tin is too small
- bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes, or until baked through. Leave to cool fully
Frosting
- Beat the butter on it's own for a few minutes to soften
- Add in the icing sugar, and beat until combined.
- Add the ginger and treacle and mix through.
- Add the cream cheese and mix again until thick and delicious
Decoration
- Slather the frosting onto the top of the loaf cake, and then decorate how you want - I used gingerbread biscuits
Notes
- This recipe is based on my chocolate fudge loaf cake and gingerbread loaf cake with a few changes
- I used this 2lb loaf tin as always
- Read my blog post about cream cheese frosting if you are worried
- PLEASE USE THE COFFEE - it just makes it taste more chocolatey, it doesn't taste of coffee.
- You can make your own buttermilk with 75ml full-fat milk, and 1tbsp of lemon juice.
- This cake will last for 3-4 days, in the fridge, due to the cream cheese frosting
- This cake will freeze for 3+ months
Enjoy!
Find my other recipes on my recipes page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.