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This Gingerbread Cake Roll is a blend of gingerbread and eggnog in one divine dessert for the holidays.
‘Tis the season for all things gingerbread and eggnog. I’ve killed three birds with one stone in this post: I’ve got both flavors covered in a holiday cake roll. This Gingerbread Cake Roll with Eggnog Whipped Cream was a hit with my family, and it will be with yours too!
Table of Contents
Delicious Gingerbread Cake Roll
Normally my mom will eat anything I make. But the two things she doesn’t like are gingerbread and eggnog. She’d help me make gingerbread men when I was a kid…but she’d never eat them. And she’d just make disgusting faces when my dad and I guzzled the eggnog.
My parents were both big time “your tastes will change” and “you’ll like it when you’re older” people. And I have to give it to them…they were sort of right. I eat pork chops now. And I like spinach – but only raw. But I’ll never, ever eat mustard or white bratwurst, thankyouverymuch. My point? Tastes change as you get older. I’m going somewhere, I promise.
The point is that my mom put aside her dislike of gingerbread and eggnog to try this cake roll at Thanksgiving. She’s doesn’t suffer from food neophobia (it’s a thing) like I do. And guess what?
She LIKED this Gingerbread Cake Roll. And she even liked the Eggnog Whipped Cream!
Pretty much my point is that even if you don’t like these essential Christmas ingredients, there is still a very good chance you’ll like this cake roll.
How to make Gingerbread Cake Roll
Let’s break down this cake roll recipe, shall we? We’re old pros at cake rolls around here, right? Oh, you’re not? Okay then, go read my step-by-step photo tutorial of how to make a carrot cake roll and my tips and tricks for cake roll success in my zucchini cake roll recipe.
{Or maybe you could go drool over the lemon cake roll. Or the ice cream cake roll. I’m Crazy for Cake Rolls around here!}
The cake part of this roll is a gingerbread cake. It’s a similar recipe to the Spiced Apple Cake Roll, but with more spice and molasses. You bake the cake in a jelly roll pan (a 10×15 pan with 1″ sides). I always like to line my pan with foil and spray with the floured cooking spray for easy removal. I’ve been told you can also use parchment, but I’ve never tried it.
I always bake my cakes at 350°F for about 10-11 minutes. A toothpick will come out clean. Err on the side of more done to less done but not so much it’s totally dried out.
You roll the hot and just out of the oven cake up in a clean kitchen towel that’s been coated with powdered sugar. Then you let it cool completely.
Note: because of all the molasses and the applesauce in this cake, it’s a moist one. The exterior of the cake is one that will transfer to your fingers. That’s okay, mine still rolled and unrolled just fine.
When the cake is cool (about 2 hours or you can wait until the next day), you make your whipped cream. I infused my whipped cream with some low-fat eggnog. I added only a few tablespoons so it’s not too strong, but the eggnog flavor is there. If you really don’t like eggnog, you could fill this cake with plain whipped cream or lemon whipped cream, or even ice cream.
Once it’s filled you can wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for up to 2 days. Before I served it I piped on some whipped cream. Note that the whipped cream won’t be perfect two days later, but if you stir it up a little, there should be enough that’s okay to pipe onto the top of the cake. (I made this on a Tuesday, and served it on a Thursday.)
This Gingerbread Cake Roll has lots of Christmas flavor in a very subtle way. In other words, it’s the perfect cake roll! And my mom gave it two thumbs up.
Gingerbread Cake Roll with Eggnog Whipped Cream Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (65g) unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup (173g or 118ml) molasses
- 1 cup (124g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the filling:
- 1 cup (237ml) heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons (28g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (79ml) eggnog
Instructions
- Line a 10×15 inch jelly roll pan with foil (for easy removal).Grease and flour the pan (I use the cooking spray that has flour in it for this step.) You can also line your pan with parchment paper instead of foil. Grease it just in case!
- Beat eggs at high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar, applesauce, and molasses.
- Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and salt. Add to other mixture. Spread into pan.
- Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. The cake will spring back when touched without transfer to your finger. Err on the side of overdone for cake rolls, that makes them roll easier. Turn out immediately onto a kitchen towel sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar. Starting at the narrow end, roll towel and cake together. Cool completely. Note: the cake is sticky, soft, and spongey. It might come off a little on your fingers, but that’s okay. Cooling will take at least 2 hours. You can make the cake a day ahead. Just wrap the cooled cake with plastic wrap overnight.
- Make the filling: Beat cold heavy whipping cream in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer) until soft peaks form. (This takes about 2 minutes with my stand mixer on medium speed.) Add powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add eggnog 1 tablespoon at a time, slowly. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to overwhip.
- Once cake is cool, carefully unroll it. It might leave a little mess on the towel, but that’s okay, as long as you can peel it off. Spread about half the whipped cream over the top of the cake, leaving an edge at the end. Starting at the narrow end, re-roll the cake. As you roll it the filling will shift a little and you may need to remove some if you’ve put too much on the cake. That’s okay, just have a knife handy to scrape off any excess as you roll. At this point you can wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When ready, place cake on serving plate and top with some of the remaining whipped cream and dust with cinnamon.
Recipe Notes
- Make sure to roll the cake while hot. Allow to cool completely before filling.
- Cake can be wrapped well in plastic and made up to a day ahead (with filling in refrigerator, without can be on the counter).
- If your cake cracks, make a bit of extra whipped cream and frost the outside of the cake.
Recipe Nutrition
Favorite Gingerbread Recipes
Question: I liked the flavors a lot, but the texture came out rubbery. I think this comes from an error in overwhipping eggs or over mixing the other ingredients. Anyone with insight?
This was delicious and so easy! I substituted vegetable oil for the apple sauce because I didn’t have apple sauce handy – it worked perfectly! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your swap. I don’t have unsweetened applesauce in my house either (actually surprised to see that as an ingredient really) nor do I want to go out to buy some just to make this cake roll. I do have a question. Did you use the same amount of oil that the recipe is calling re the applesauce? I just made a chocolate cake roll that called for 2 tbsp of veg oil. The size of that roll is a 12×17. This one is obviously smaller so I’m kinda thinking 1/4 of a cup of veg oil for this cake would be too much. Can you please share the amount you used? Thanks!
I plan on using the filling to cover my cheesecake tomorrow! It’s an eggnog cheesecake. The top of my oven scraped my cheesecake so I’m using the filling to cover it ?
This turned out surprisingly well (I had never made a cake roll and was super afraid it would fall apart). I can’t tell if I overcooked my cake, or if it is the nature of gingerbread, but mine was kind of dense/not very moist – the gingerbread flavor was solid though. The eggnog whipped cream was also fantastic. Overall, great instructions, and good recipe. Just based on personal preference I would likely fill my cake roll with a frosting rather than a whipped cream next time. Thank you for this!
I made this for Christmas dinner. It was a big hit and really tasted like Christmas. A very intense Gingerbread man flavor for the cake and very subtle eggnog cream filling. I meant to add a splash of rum to the cream but frankly, I just forgot. I think it would have been quite delicious and given the cream a little more character to stand up against the intensity of the gingerbread. I also bumped up the flour by two tablespoons and the sugar by a tablespoon, because the batter was really thin and quite bitter. I’m sure it was the size of my eggs – perhaps they were a bit larger – and maybe the brand of molasses I used was stronger (?) I garnished the cream on top with raspberries dusted with a little powdered sugar and tiny mint leaves, and put blackberries and raspberries all around the base on the larger mint leaves. Beautiful and delicious. The berries and mint were a lovely complimentary, fresh flavor with the gingerbread and cream and so pretty. Definitely something I would make again – very quick and easy and the end result was very impressive – looked and tasted fabulous.
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