Mini Gingerbread Bundt Cakes

Last year, I served up a wildly successful Eggnog Bundt Cake recipe. This year to go along with that, I made these Mini Gingerbread Bundt Cakes.

I’d say they were as big a hit as the eggnog cake. My grand-niece had two of them for dessert and then 3 more the next day after school. And my daughter and son-in-law loved them so much that any leftovers were gobbled up. In fact, I’m making another batch this weekend! PS – I’m not a huge gingerbread fan and I went back for seconds of these little cakes.

I used this mini bundt pan for this recipe. It worked like a DREAM. It cleans up beautifully and I was about to get 2 dozen of the cakes out of this recipe. However, I overfilled them slightly and had to trim off the excess. If I had filled them correctly, I think I would have ended up with about 30 of the mini gingerbread bundt cakes. Note that if you click on this link and purchase a pan, I will receive a commission on your purchase.

Mini Gingerbread Bundt Cakes Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2¼ cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground cloves
• ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. salt 
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool
• ¾ cup molasses**
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup buttermilk***
• ½ cup whole milk
• Pam cooking spray – get the one made for baking with the flour in it

Instructions:  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the baking pan with the cooking spray. Note: I tried to do this with butter and flour and found it really much easier to get thorough coverage with the cooking spray. 
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients. 
3. Using your mixer, cream the molasses, sugar, and butter together. Once well mixed, add in the egg until smooth.
4. Add the milk and buttermilk in slowly. This may look like a hot mess for a bit but don’t worry. It will look like a proper batter once combined with the dry ingredients.
5. Add the dry mixture to the wet, 1/3 of the mixture at a time. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl well!
6. Fill the bundt pan – about 3/4 of the way full in each cup. Do not overfill! I dampened my fingers and smoothed out the tops of each cup of batter a little just to make them sit a little more evenly when they come out of the oven.
7. Bake on the center rack for about half an hour. A toothpick should come out clean when they are finished.
8. Let them cool for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow them to cool completely. 

You can leave these little cakes plain – trust me, they are delicious as is or decorate them. 

For other options, you can dust them with icing (powdered) sugar (they look so cute and snowy that way) or glaze them. For a simple glaze, use about 3/4 cup of icing sugar and add as much milk as needed to make it the consistency you like. Leave as is or add a dash of cinnamon to it. Or use some eggnog in place of the milk. Just like with last year’s Eggnog Bundt Cake recipe, the sugared cranberries (SO easy to do) are a beautiful accompaniment for these too. 

**I ran out of molasses for the second batch I made of these. I used 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. maple syrup, and enough water to make this equal 3/4 cup as a substitute.

***I also ran out of buttermilk. Yeah, I kind of suck sometimes. For that I used this mixture – 1/2 Tbsp. white vinegar (can also use lemon juice instead) in a measuring cup. Fill to the 1/2 mark with milk. Let stand for 5 minutes before using. 

What are you making for Christmas dessert?