So, in protest, I’m throwing this Caramel Gingerbread Cake your way today which is my way of saying that Christmas is just over 6 months away and are you as excited as I am?! And really, who says gingerbread is a holiday-only dessert? It’s the best thing ever and should be celebrated any time of year.

How to make this Caramel Gingerbread Cake

This gingerbread cake recipe is one of my absolute favorites. I’ve made a similar version of it before and used that recipe as a basis for the one I bring you today. I increased the amounts a bit to have taller layers, but otherwise the recipe is the same.

The most important thing to note about this gingerbread cake recipe is to not use blackstrap molasses. I used Fancy Molasses which is a lighter, sweeter type of molasses. Blackstrap is way too strong in flavor for the amount I’ve used in the recipe. This will result in a darker, more bitter-tasting cake. If you’re all about that molasses flavor though, then by all means give blackstrap a try, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I’ve made this caramel buttercream many times before. It’s insanely delicious and you’ll be eating that caramel sauce with a spoon. You can read all about my tips on making caramel sauce and this caramel buttercream here.

I do recommend making your own caramel sauce. It’s really not that difficult and the flavor is just SO delicious. You could certainly use the store-bought stuff in a pinch though. I can’t say how well it would work for the drip though.

Be sure to check out my How to Make Caramel post for a detailed tutorial.

Caramel Drip

Speaking of drip cakes… last time I made a Caramel Cake I talked extensively about the do’s and don’ts of caramel drips.

It’s notoriously hard to work with and, as you can see here, sometimes it doesn’t totally cooperate. I should have cooked my caramel a little bit longer, and/or not heated it up a bit before I did the drip. I thought it was too thick, but apparently it was not. Clearly I should have re-read my own caramel drip tips.

Still though, I think it looks pretty, and delicious, even though the caramel drips down all the way to the bottom. The most important thing is the taste anyway, right? And let me tell you, this cake does not disappoint in the flavor department.

Gingerbread Streusel

I wanted to add some more texture and flavor to the cake so I hunted down some gingersnap cookies. These were harder to find than I thought. I didn’t expect them to be easy to find this time of year, but the places I know that carry them were sold out. See, clearly people do love gingerbread any time of year.

I threw the cookies into a large Ziploc bag and crushed them up. Be sure to use crunchy gingersnaps for this, not chewy gingerbread cookies, they won’t work as well.

Since the cookies were already sweet, all I did was add a little melted butter until the crushed cookies started to clump, then spread that on a baking sheet and baked for about 10 mins. I added a bit too much butter to mine so the streusel was a tiny bit on the greasy side. Only add as much as needed for it to just start to come together.

The combo of caramel and gingerbread has to be one of the best there is. I don’t think we’ll be sharing much (or any) of this Caramel Gingerbread Cake with friends (sorry!) because it truly is that good.

So, if you’re on the Christmas in June bandwagon like I am, or just want to eat an insanely delicious cake, this recipe is for you! Who else is down for gingerbread all year round??