This flavorful and moist gluten-free Ginger Spice Cake is frosted with a homemade vegan blood orange buttercream frosting! It’s perfect for your next party!

post updated: 4/1/24

In my house I’m not really considered a great baker. My dad is a fantastic baker, he’s a great cook too, and I think I got the cooking gene and maybe not so much the baking gene. But to my defense, gluten-free + vegan baking is challenging! So now you’re thinking, well why should I keep reading if she stinks at baking?! Let me go on… this cake is quite the exception to my baking fails, and quite frankly- I killed it! I’m pretty proud of this Ginger Spice Cake with Blood Orange “Buttercream” Frosting!

Ok, so you caught me. I didn’t do all the work gasp! I’ll admit I owe most of the credit to… these beautiful blood oranges!! Any recipe with blood oranges seems great- I mean, do you see how gorgeous they are? Perhaps one of nature’s finest, so you can imagine how elated I was when my local grocery store had them in stock! I pretty much screamed when I saw them (no- I’m not joking… I mean for real, pretty embarrassing lol).

The Cake Ingredients

• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 3/4 cup flour, (I used Bob’s Redmill 1:1 gluten-free baking flour)
• 1/4 cup oats
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tbsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 flax egg, (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 2.5 tbsp water)
• 1/4 cup vegan butter (melted), (Earth Balance)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup/agave
• 3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup mashed banana
• 1/4 cup almond ricotta, (Kite Hill or homemade)

Blood Orange “Buttercream” Frosting

• 1/2 cup vegan butter, (Earth Balance)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1 blood orange, (juiced)

How To Make This Ginger Spice Cake

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If you are making your own homemade ricotta, do so now and store leftovers in the fridge. Get the recipe for Homemade Ricotta here.

Whisk together all the dry cake ingredients in a large bowl, followed by all the wet ingredients..I used 2- 6″ round cake pans to make this a double layered cake, but you could easily just make 1 cake from this. Spray your pans generously with coconut oil. Pour your batter into the cake pans and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

**NOTE: if using 2 cake pans, split the cake batter equally between the two pans.

While your cake is baking, make your frosting. First, slightly melt your butter in the microwave to soften it (not completely melt it). Add it to a large bowl or your kitchen aid mixer, along with 1 cup of powdered sugar, and vanilla extract and beat on low to combine.Add another cup of powdered sugar and half of the orange juice.

**NOTE: I used a hand-held lemon juicer and cut my orange into 4ths and manually squeezed the orange juice into the bowl.

Finally, add the last cup of powdered sugar and the remaining orange juice and beat on low until you achieve desired frosting. Let the cakes cool for a while before frosting, frost, decorate and devour!

**NOTE: If making a double layer cake, place one cake round on a dish/cake stand, then spread a generous amount of frosting on the top, then place the other cake round on top and then frost the whole thing

NOTES

** Homemade Ricotta adapted slightly from Minimalist Baker.

This Ginger Spice Cake with Blood Orange “Buttercream” Frosting is moist (sorry to all you moist word haters!), sweet, flavorful, and of course I dare to say… delicious! I love the soft + feminine vibe. Summer is coming (I hope) so make this beauty for your next girlie get together or heck, just because you deserve it! Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead!

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