Homemade Gingerbread Spice Mix to use for pancakes, waffles, lattes, cakes, breads, cookies or anything you want to give a gingerbread flavor to. Made with just 5 easy spices!
I am so excited to share this Gingerbread DIY Spice Mix with you all today. The biggest reason is because I’ve been giddy as heck to share the big recipe coming this week…Classic Gingerbread Cake! I even had a reader ask me on IG yesterday if I had one and I was like, guess what, you are in luck, haha.
It’s my favorite holiday cake ever. You know, the kind we all loved growing up. Full of flavor, spice and everything nice. Haha. Couldn’t help it. Remember I said in my last post that I had written 4 recipes last week…well, this one is a really simple one, and I kind of already had written a version for a dessert in my book, but finally put the whole blend together last week.
To me, to truly get that amazing rich, classic flavor of a gingerbread cake, you need all of these classic spices:
- Ginger
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Allspice
- Cloves
I’ve tasted some gingerbread cakes in my life that were perfection and some that were lacking in that deep flavor. This blend has every spice to give you the best flavor and the most important one…cloves. Through my trials, I’ve found the difference is night and day with or without cloves in a gingerbread cake.
I’m obsessed with making my own spice blends for my recipes. I have many DIY spice blends coming in my cookbook in 2018! I find that I can tailor make them to my tastes and also, they are much fresher.
The stores do sell gingerbread spice mix. For example, the McCormick brand sells one, but they are missing the key ingredient, cloves. It only has the cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg. The better quality ones like King Arthur and Williams Sonoma have the cloves. For best taste, freshness and flavor, just make this one and keep it on hand year round. Also, it can be a bit tricky to find in stores anyways. You won’t regret it and soon, you’ll be putting it in everything.
Use this blend to replace any recipe calling for gingerbread spice for the amount listed for in the recipe. Or, add to lattes, pancakes, muffins, anything you like to give it a gingerbread flavor! It has more ginger than cinnamon, because hello, it’s for GINGERbread. It tastes of course rather strong on it’s own, but that is because it’s meant to go IN recipes my friends.
Snag the recipe for this Gingerbread cake!
MORE HOMEMADE SPICE MIXES
- Homemade Chili Powder
- Golden Mix Spice Mix
- Gingerbread Spice Mix
- Cajun Spice Seasoning
- Chai Spice Blend (also in my cookbook)
- Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend
- Curry Powder
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If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Homemade Gingerbread Spice Mix
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (16g) quality ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons (24g) ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon (8g) ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon (8g) ground allspice
- 1 tablespoon (7g) ground cloves (Do not omit no matter what! This is a crucial ingredient to the classic gingerbread flavor.)
Instructions
- Add everything to a bowl and whisk very well. Add to a sealed jar and give another shake. Store for 6 months. I like to give the jar a really good shake before each use.
- Use this blend to replace any recipe calling for gingerbread spice for the amount listed for in the recipe. Or, add to lattes, pancakes, waffles, muffins, anything you like to give it a gingerbread flavor! Depending on the recipe, start with 1-2 teaspoons and taste and adjust the batter after tasting.
I made it this morning and I put it in my oatmeal. It was absolutely wonderful. I will be trying it in a lot of things.
Thank you.
That’s amazing to hear Rhonda!
This morning, I got up and made a big batch of steel cut oats in my Instant Pot and guess what I seasoned it with? Yep, gingerbread spice mix! It was sooooo yummy!!
I love that you shared this!!! I’ve been all about making our own spice mixes and this one sounds so perfect!! Gingerbread is a mix I haven’t seen already put together in the store, so I’m super excited about this!! I’ve definitely been missing out on the flavor since I keep forgetting to add clove – thank you! Looking forward to playing around with this mix.
I love this idea for gifting even before the holidays, like at thanksgiving time, to get friends and loved ones all set for all the gingerbread goodies they’ll probably be making in December! Next year I’m most definitely going to need to use this to make my own, I typically just use whatever warming spices I have, with extra ginger, so I was glad you mentioned that! Gingerbread is just too good. I cannot wait to see your cake!!
Awesome I love when you post your spice mix recipes. I loved your curry spice mix and I am sure this will be amazing as well. That gingerbread cake looks amazing and I am excited to have the recipe come out. I really have to get cracking on your baked good recipes. I am making your classic oatmeal cookies to bring to work (thanks for your feedback on that) which I am excited about but I typically don’t bake so I don’t get to many of your baked goods sadly (I have made a few of your chocolate chip cookie recipes which of course were amazing). But it is a matter of such little free time at this point in my life, once I get to a point where I have more free time I definitely will be diving into many of your baking recipes. If this gingerbread cake recipe comes up while I still have a few weekends off I might just have to tackle that in addition to the cookies 🙂 Thanks for sharing this spice mix I am sure it is just perfect, I trust your taste and culinary expertise.
This is such a cute holiday gift idea! And better yet, handy to have around if you love to bake! I swear I’ve gone through a bottle of cinnamon and ginger in the past month hehe. Thanks for sharing, Brandi!
Thank you so much Nisha, same here!
This is a total eye-opener for me, I honestly think in all my years of gingerbread-loving I’ve never had a cake/muffin/cookie with the full range of spices. Even back when my mom was making it from traditional cookbooks and stuff. I imagine it’s a total game changer though…just when I thought I loved gingerbread A LOT as is haha. Also this blend could go in just about anything any time of year for me too. Banana bread + this…mmmm <3 I don't know what rock I've been living under or why this isn't common knowledge, but I guess I'll HAVE to make another batch now 😀 P.S. Send cake leftovers!!!
Haha, it’s certainly not required! But all the old-fashioned cake recipes (like King Arthur, Southern Living, etc.) that I’ve had always had cloves for sure. I totally don’t do all those spices with cookies either though, like Gingersnaps, but for old-fashioned classic gingerbread cake, it’s just mind-blowing how they taste! I’ve just found I noticed a big difference in that flavor that makes you kind of melt into bliss and cloves is that ingredient. You can probably get away without the nutmeg and allspice, but cloves to me is the “secret”. If you look at all the gingerbread box mixes, they all have those spices and I think that’s why they always tasted so rich and full of flavor and addicting, lol. Oh yes, try this with banana bread, I bet it would be fantastic! Heck, I’d even eat banana bread with these spices, haha!
I love how bright and festive your photo for this is! It’s always good to have some gingerbread spice around!
Aww thanks lady! So glad you love the photos! I love adjusting the settings for a certain effect and the white balance setting adjustment gave me this holiday “glow” I wanted 🙂
Yeah, I needed this blend on hand for how many times I’ve trialed this cake since last year, lmao!