Juicy chocolate spice cake with gingerbread spice and cinnamon glaze. A real classic for the cold season!
An aromatic, moist spice cake is one of my absolute standard baking repertoire in the cold season. Similar to the Austrian Linzer Torte or grandma's apple pie, it is easy to make for autumn and winter. It warms you from the inside - and always hits the spot.
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Taste and Occasion
The chocolate spice cake is a true winter recipe. Dark chocolate, delicious spices and a moist dough make you feel comfortable when it's freezing outside.
But one must say that such a moist chocolate spice cake tastes delicious even at 25 degrees (in October!!!). The last time we had it was at a friend's birthday party during a coffee get-together on the terrace, where we enjoyed the summery autumn in our T-shirts, sweating a little...
Ingredients
The easy spice cake recipe with gingerbread spice is a mixture of my classic chocolate cake and the red wine cake. Since I love slightly moist cakes more than anything else, the spice cake must, of course, also be moist.
In this case, this happens with ground almonds and chopped or grated chocolate in the sponge cake. I usually grind the almonds myself, as they are not all entirely finely grated, but a few remain slightly chunky. This results in great consistency.
Besides, you can process a lot of nut-core leftovers. Because the spice cake in the box form also works well with ground hazelnuts or walnuts. You're also flexible when it comes to decoration: Easy to dust with a little powdered sugar, cover with chocolate icing or cinnamon icing. Everything is guaranteed to be delicious - I speak from experience…
Both the dough and the icing contain either ready-made gingerbread spices - or your individual mixture. I especially like Grandma's spice cake with a mix of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, vanilla and a little pepper. Spekulatiusgewürz does it, too 😉 . Or, a little less wintery and Christmasy, just cinnamon.
How to make the Chocolate Spice Cake
The first steps are to preheat your oven to 180°C / 356 °F, to grease a large box form and dust with some cocoa. Then, beat eggs with sugar until the mixture becomes frothy. Whisk milk and oil in a separate bowl.
Now, mix all the dry ingredients - flour, almonds or nuts, baking powder, spices and cocoa. Add everything to the egg mixture alternating with the milk and oil mixture. Stir vigorously, but not too long.
At the end, fold in chopped or grated chocolate. Put the dough into the box form and smooth it down. Bake the cake for 55-60 minutes and make a stick test at the end.
Leave the moist chocolate spice cake to cool. Either serve dusted only with powdered sugar or cover with spice glaze. For this, mix the sieved powdered sugar with gingerbread spice and 4 to 5 spoons of milk to a very thick icing.
Top Tip
Instead of gingerbread spice you can of course use a self-made mixture, for example of cinnamon (approx. 2 teaspoons), ginger powder (approx. 0.5 teaspoon), ground clove, cardamom, vanilla, pepper.
Instead of ground almonds, ground hazelnuts, walnuts or a mix of different nuts and kernels are also suitable for the dark chocolate spice cake.
Recipe Card
Moist Chocolate Spice Cake
Equipment
- 1 box form (28 cm / 11 inches)
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, medium-sized
- 200 grams (0.9 cups) brown sugar
- 200 milliliters (0.8 cups) milk
- 130 milliliters (0.6 cups) sunflower oil
- 250 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 150 grams (1.3 cups) ground almonds , and/or nuts
- 1 sachet baking powder
- 40 grams (½ cups) baking cocoa
- 10 grams (2 teaspoon) gingerbread spice
- 80 grams (½ cups) dark chocolate , chopped or grated
For the Glaze
- 150 grams (1.3 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice , or cinnamon
- 5 tablespoons milk , rough indication
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C / 356 °F. Grease a large box form and dust with some cocoa. Beat the eggs with the sugar until frothy. Whisk milk and oil.
- Mix the dry ingredients - flour, almonds or nuts, baking powder, spices and cocoa. Add to the egg mixture alternating with the milk and oil mixture. Stir vigorously, but not too long. Fold in chopped or grated chocolate. Put the dough into the mould and smooth it down.
- Bake the cake for 55-60 minutes. Make a stick test. Leave to cool. Either serve dusted only with powdered sugar or cover with spice glaze. For this, mix the sieved powdered sugar with gingerbread spice and 4 to 5 spoons of milk to a very thick icing.
Ingredient substitutions
Similar Recipes
If you are interested in some alternatives, you can also try my delicious recipe for pumpkin muffins with cinnamon frosting.
Nutrition
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About Kathrin & Jan
It's like a little miracle to me every time. Seemingly simple ingredients are made into something that can brighten up your life. Butter, sugar, eggs, and flour melt into an airy biscuit, a fine tart, a juicy cake, or a crispy biscuit. Baking simply makes you happy. Welcome and enjoy our blog!
Kathrin & Jan
Hello,
I really like this recipe, but it seems the measurements of the ingredients are not adding up? It seems to be a lot of flour and other dry ingredients and not very much liquids... eggs, oil, milk; other dry ingredients like brown sugar, baking cocoa, etc. Can you help me with this. My cake turned out very dry and I used your U.S. units of measurement. And it wasn't very sweet tasting, little less than 1 cup of sugar (.9 cup sugar)?
Thank you!
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne, I'm sorry the cake didn't turn out quite the way it was supposed to. Actually, it is very moist and not dry at all. The ingredients are correct except for the amount of oil, I just recalculated. It's 1.1 cups instead of 0.9, but that should not make a big difference. Maybe you made a mistake? It could also be that the cake should have baked a little shorter in your oven. Maybe you like to give the recipe another chance 🙂 ?