Gingerbread Crumb Cake is the best holiday coffee cake ever! Moist, easy gingerbread molasses spice cake topped with a buttery brown sugar cinnamon crumble.
New York Crumb Cake is a classic holiday breakfast, but there’s no doubt this Gingerbread Cookie-inspired Coffee Cake is THE perfect recipe for Christmas Brunch!
GINGERBREAD CRUMB CAKE
Gingerbread is so full of warm and cozy holiday flavor, it’s hard not to picture rows of cute little Gingerbread boys and girls when you hear “Christmas Cookie”. A bite of gingery, molasses-y gingerbread feels like a big wintery hug. Some people wait all year for pumpkin everything, but this easy coffee cake recipe is for the die-hard Gingerbread latte crowd – we see you and we get you!
Gingerbread Crumb Cake has all the best parts of gingerbread, full of ginger and rich molasses flavor, in a tender and moist cake. The crumble is buttery with more molasses flavor from the dark brown sugar, the perfect topping for this holiday coffee cake. Everything in the topping is also used in the cake, so prepping is easy and the cake is ready to bake in no time.
MORE TASTY COFFEE CAKE RECIPES
Blueberry Coffee Cake
New York Crumb Cake
Apple Crisp Crumb Cake
Honey Bun Cake
This Gingerbread Crumb Cake is sure to be a crowd-pleasing brunch dish! It keeps well at room temperature for days so you can make it ahead of time for an easy, ready to go breakfast on Christmas morning. Treat Santa well this year and swap out cookies with a big piece of this tasty Gingerbread Crumb Cake topped with Whipped Cream.
What goes better with gingerbread than eggnog? Serve Gingerbread Crumb Cake with a glass of Homemade Eggnog, Use a little extra ‘nog to make a glaze for your coffee cake with our quick recipe below. You can also turn Sugar Cookie Frosting into a glaze by leaving out the shortening. If you want a drizzle, but don’t want a powdered sugar glaze, try Salted Caramel Sauce or Chocolate Ganache!
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VARIATIONS ON GINGERBREAD CRUMB CAKE
- Cream Cheese: Make an ultra decadent Gingerbread Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Mix 2 packs (8 oz each) softened cream cheese, ½ cup sugar, and 1 egg. Pour ½ of the cake batter into pan. Dollop cream cheese filling and gently spread a little. Top with remaining cake batter and crumb topping before baking as usual.
- Pumpkin Gingerbread: Combine two holiday flavors by folding in 1 can Pumpkin Puree, 1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice, and ½ cup chopped pecans to the batter.
- Orange Gingerbread: Zesty orange tastes delicious with gingerbread! Add a tablespoon orange zest and up to ¼ cup fresh orange juice. You can also use 1 teaspoon orange extract, but fresh is definitely better!
- Fall and Winter Flavors: More fall and winter flavors you can try in Gingerbread Crumb Cake are maple, hazelnut, and apple. Try adding maple syrup, chocolate hazelnut spread, or apple butter.
- Mix-Ins: You can fold in up to a ½ cup mix-ins like candied ginger pieces, diced apples, raisins, chopped walnuts or pecans, carrot shreds, or sweetened coconut flakes.
- Gingerbread Crumb Muffins: Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with gingerbread cake batter, top with crumble, and bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. This recipe should make about 20-24 muffins.
- Gingerbread Crumb Bundt Cake: Grease a tube pan or springform bundt pan well and pour batter into pan. Top with crumble and bake for 60-65 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before removing bottom of pan. You don’t want to bake inverted in a bundt pan because the crumb topping won’t brown and will absorb into the cake.
Eggnog Glaze for Gingerbread Crumb Cake
Whisk together 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons Eggnog, ¼ cinnamon, and a pinch nutmeg. Add more eggnog to get the desired consistency. A tip for to know if your glaze is a good consistency is to drizzle a little over a cracker and wait 2- minutes. If it doesn’t disappear, you are good to go! Make sure your cake is completely cooled before drizzling with glaze.
EASY HOLIDAY BREAKFAST IDEAS
Easy French Toast Bake
Gooey Monkey Bread
Easy Cinnamon Rolls (in 1 Hour!)
Breakfast Casserole
HOW TO STORE GINGERBREAD CRUMB CAKE
- Serve: Gingerbread Crumb Cake is best served warm or at room temperature. Store at room temperature covered with plastic wrap or aluminum foil for up to 3 days.
- Store: Refrigerate Gingerbread Crumb Cake in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Loosely place a paper towel under the lid to absorb moisture. Bring to room temperature to serve.
- Freeze: Cool cake completely before freezing. Wrap pan in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze Gingerbread Crumb Cake for up to 3 months. Remove plastic wrap before thawing so moisture doesn’t collect. Reheat in the oven on low or bring to room temperature before serving.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar , packed
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
Crumb Topping:
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar , packed
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter , melted
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
Instructions
Prepare crumb topping:
- Add brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter into a bowl.
- Whisk together and add in cake flour until combined.
- Form into a dough ball. Let sit until you are done making the cake.
Coffee Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with baking spray.
- In your stand mixer cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add in the molasses and eggs until combined.
- Sift together whole wheat flour, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating half and half to the stand mixture on the lowest speed until just combined.
- Pour the mixture into your baking dish pan and spread evenly.
- Take the topping dough and break apart into chunks about the size of marbles over the cake batter in a uniform pattern.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a knife is inserted and comes out clean.
Nutrition
Hi! This sounds super delicious. Just curious as to why you call for cake flour for the crumb topping?? Would all purpose flour work as well I hope?
Instead of trying to get the “science” right on this answer I went to King Arthur Flour for your answer 🙂
Unbleached cake flour has a protein content of 10%, while all-purpose flour has a protein content of 11.7%. The lower protein content in cake flour means it has less gluten-forming potential, making it better suited to cakes.
Can I substitute something else for the whole wheat flour?
Yes you can. It will affect the texture of your cake. Let us know what you decided to use instead and how your cake turned out!
I just made this and realized in the list of ingredients it shows 1 teaspoon of vanilla however, in the description it doesn’t mention vanilla anywhere, so I did not put it in. I hope I didn’t waste all that time and effort.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. That’s an “oops”. How did your cake turn out?
Can I make this into a muffin coffee cake?
I have not tried that but I could see that being an awesome recipe!
This really is a cozy and comforting cake, and super delicious! I love the big crumbles on top, they are my favorite part!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Wilhelmina.
This is my favorite crumb cake out there BY FAR!
Wow! Thanks so much!
Wow! This was amazing and so delicious! I can’t wait to make this again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Beth. Thanks for the 5 star rating.