Ginger Ale Cake with Caramel Glaze

As this cake was baking, I tweeted, “Do you know what smells like the breath of a baby angel? Ginger ale bundt cake in the oven.” Beside the very obvious ginger element, this cake features cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla, too. It’s basically the perfect fall cake. This is the season of spice. I don’t know why, but it’s practically a law of the universe that we should strive to consume our body weights in ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg this time of year. Presenting:

~ ginger ale cake with caramel glaze ~

When I found the recipe, it wasn’t paired with any type of frosting or glaze. Instead, a dusting of powdered sugar was all that it needed. I figured it was a sign the cake was rich on its own, but powdered sugar doesn’t seem very autumnal. Caramel is, so I thought a very light glaze might work so I gave it a whirl.

Ginger Ale Cake

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups of packed light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of ginger ale
3 cups of flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease your pans of choice. I recommend larger pans, like 9X13 or a Bundt because it makes a lot of batter. I’m afraid if you were going for a two-layer, they’d overflow and that is no fun.

Mix all the dry ingredients—flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger—together in a large bowl. I sifted mine because there are so many dry ingredients and I wanted to make sure they mixed well. Set aside.

In a mixer, cream the softened butter and both sugars. Add the eggs, vanilla and ginger ale. Mix well.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture until well blended. Pour the thick batter into the greased pan.

If you are using a sheet pan, bake for 45 minutes (although if I were you, I’d start checking the cake at 30 minutes because there are theories out there that all sheet cakes take 30 minutes). I made Bundt, so I can’t attest to the sheet cake time. For Bundt cake, give it 50 minutes. Check around the 45 minute mark, though. Overdone cakes are sadness.

Cool for ten minutes, then remove from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Then:

Caramel Glaze

4 Tbsp butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup half and half
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 to 1 cup sifted powdered sugar

I put a cookie sheet under the cake while it was cooling on the wire rack. This will catch glazefalls.

Put butter, sugar, cream, and salt in a pot and heat on medium. Stir constantly until it boils, then boil for one minute. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Let it cool more, until it’s pourable, but not runny. Pour it over the cooled cake evenly and allow the glaze to harden before transferring to a cake stand and/or serving.

The ginger ale cake was adapted from this recipe and the caramel glaze was adapted from this recipe. I made some changes, clarifications, and substitutions.