This tasty and simple gingerbread cake with cinnamon whipped cream and bananas is the quintessential Christmas or holiday dessert.

I suppose I could make this cake year-round since it happens to be one of my favorite desserts of the holiday season but it just seems a little weird to be eating gingerbread in July, so I end up reserving this treat for December and then I eat it about 26 times, just to get my fill for the year.

Piece of gingerbread cake topped with whipped cream and sliced bananas.

It’s simply gingerbread. Warm, moist, spicy gingerbread, topped with cinnamon whipped cream and sliced bananas.

The combination is so simple yet it satisfies my every tastebud and holiday dessert pleasure.

Of course, I usually have to follow it up with a snitch of dark chocolate from inside the closed pantry door but that speaks more to my dark chocolate addiction than it does to the fact that this is a non-chocolate dessert.

I love this one. I really do. While you may find the sliced bananas a strange garnish, I urge you to try it. It is unspeakably divine.

Top view of a piece of brown gingerbread cake topped with whipped cream and sliced bananas.

One Year Ago: Pomegranate Cheesecake
Two Years Ago: Holiday Morning Buns

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Gingerbread with Cinnamon Whipped Cream and Bananas

4.50 stars (20 ratings)

Ingredients

Gingerbread:

  • ½ cup (106 g) sugar
  • ½ cup (113 g) butter, softened
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup molasses
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 ½ cups (355 g) flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 cup very hot water

Cinnamon Whipped Cream:

  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ cup (29 g) powdered sugar

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9X13-inch baking pan and set aside.
  • In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well blended. Add the egg and molasses and blend again. Sift the dry ingredients together in a mesh strainer directly into the molasses/butter/sugar mixture and mix. Add the hot water and beat until the batter is smooth. It will be fairly thin.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 32-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t overbake or the gingerbread will be dry.
  • Serve the gingerbread warm or cold with cinnamon whipped cream and sliced bananas, if desired.
  • For the cinnamon whipped cream: In a medium bowl, begin beating the whipped cream. After it starts to just slightly thicken, add the sugar and cinnamon and beat until medium-stiff peaks form.
Serving: 1 Serving, Calories: 344kcal, Carbohydrates: 43g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 18g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Cholesterol: 72mg, Sodium: 267mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 26g

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Lion House Recipes