Sour cream gingerbread on a red plate

Fanny Farmer Sour Cream Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Sour cream gingerbread loaf is so easy to make. It’s a light textured cake that stays moist for days stored in a tin. Extra delicious frosted with cream cheese icing.

Sour cream gingerbread on a red plate

You never have to worry about gingerbread going stale.

Leftover cake on the counter isn’t always a blessing. Sometimes you just don’t feel like eating it three days in a row. Unfrosted cakes can always be frozen but gingerbread offers a better solution — You can store it on the counter in a tin and a few days later it tastes even better. Gingerbread gets more and more sticky (which is part of its charm) and the flavour intensifies.

Sour cream gingerbread with sauce

Gingerbread stores better than any other cake. It actually gets more moist as each day passes and the flavours develop beautifully.

This recipe makes a 9″x5″ loaf and can also be baked in an 8″ square or round cake pan (adjust baking time to about 30 minutes).

This recipe is slightly adapted from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook (originally published in 1896 as The Boston Cooking School Cookbook). It’s a classic East Coast cookbook full of gingerbread recipes and other treats that never go out of fashion.

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Fanny Farmer Sour Cream Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Sour cream gingerbread loaf is so easy to make. It’s a light textured cake that stays moist for days stored in a tin. Extra delicious frosted with cream cheese icing.

  • Author: Crosby’s Molasses
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 50 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Category: Cakes

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned in and leveled
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. ginger (or a blend of your favourite gingerbread spices)
  • 1/2 cup melted butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Grease and flour a 9″x5″ loaf pan or line it with parchment paper.
  3. Beat eggs well. Add sour cream, molasses and sugar.
  4. Whisk flour with baking soda and ginger and stir into the egg mixture. Add butter and beat well.
  5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pressed and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.
  6. Cool completely before frosting.

Notes

Cream Cheese Icing

  • 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • ¼ cup butter, softened
  • 2- 2 ½ cups icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  1. Beat together cream cheese and butter.
  2. Beat in the sugar until you reach desired stiffness. Mix in vanilla.
  3. Spread on cooled cake.

*This recipe makes a 9″x5″ loaf and can also be baked in an 8″ square or round cake pan (adjust baking time to about 30 minutes).

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Comments

  • December 14, 2023
    reply

    Beverly

    I made this with 2% MF Greek yogurt and it was a bit of a failure. The centre of the loaf is sunken but the sides rose appropriately. I should be able to use it for a trifle but that was not the intended purpose of making it. Any thoughts on what went wrong? It smelled so good when baking and I am sad that it was a flop.

  • December 8, 2023
    reply

    Gisele Lanthier

    I Will do this cake but I wish to add raisins and walnuts. Would half a cup of be ok? I will also had nutmeg and cinnamon…. Wish me luck.

  • December 2, 2023
    reply

    Stevie

    Hello. I would like my gingerbread spicier. What quantity of spices would be appropriate for this recipe? (I know I’ll figure it out as I go along, but I’d like a jump start on the first loaf!!)

  • November 22, 2022
    reply

    Catherine

    Ooh. Definitely want to try this. Will it work with 0% Greek yogurt?

    • November 24, 2022
      reply

      Crosby Molasses

      Hello Catherine. We have never tried this recipe with 0% greek yogurt but I don’t see why it won’t work :). -Marie from Crosby’s Kitchen

  • December 16, 2020
    reply

    Kerry

    Does the loaf freeze well?

  • October 3, 2019
    reply

    Anne Marie Desveaux

    Love your recipes love baking with Crosby’s molasses when I was growing up we also ate homemade bread with Crosby’s molasses is so yummy

  • August 13, 2018
    reply

    Gale

    Can this gingerbread with sour cream be bake in a 13×9 pan? How long would I bake it? How would I go about changing the recipe?

  • January 1, 2018
    reply

    Elaine

    Can this recipe be made gluten free by using King Arthur Measure for Measure GF flour? I have made the Fanny Farmer regular gingerbread with it successfully.

    • January 2, 2018
      reply

      Lynn Purdy

      Elaine, we have had good luck making gingerbread with GF flour. So, please give it a try.

  • November 16, 2016
    reply

    Lorraine Neron

    Love your recipes !!!…Delicious and easy to make !!!!…Thanks !

  • December 4, 2015
    reply

    Veronica

    Can the sour cream cgingerbread cake be baked in a loaf psn.

    • November 30, 2020
      reply

      Monica West

      Yes

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