If you love ginger, you will love my Triple Ginger Pound Cake!
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Richly spiced, fragrant and perfect any time of day, Triple Ginger Pound Cake is a not to be missed treat. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee, or a glass of milk, this is one of my favourite little indulgences at tea time, but it also makes a wonderful dessert with a scoop of ice cream.
As you can see from the small photographs above, I’ve been making this recipe for a long time. I am re-publishing the blog post as it is such a wonderful recipe, hence a shame to leave deliciousness like this languishing back in the archives.
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My Triple Ginger Pound Cake contains three kinds of ginger – ground ginger, fresh root ginger and crystallised ginger. However, despite the abundance of one of my favourite spices, I find even those who profess not to like ginger very much love this cake. The dried ginger, grated root ginger, and crystallised ginger in this cake all complement each other, giving a deep, rich, mellow flavour.
This is not a cake I would have expected kids to like, but I’ve been proven wrong time and time again. It’s a good thing the recipe makes two loaves! Triple Ginger Pound Cake is great for entertaining and it also makes a wonderful hostess or holiday gift.
Love a good pound cake? Get more yummy recipes here!
I like to use buttermilk in cakes as it gives a wonderful texture and flavour, but I’ve also used ordinary milk in this recipe very successfully. And while Triple Ginger Pound Cake tastes good naked, glaze makes it look prettier. Either the vanilla glaze or the ginger glaze taste wonderful, although I tend to make the ginger glaze most often as it brings the cake to new levels of gingery gorgeousness.
Give my Triple Ginger Pound Cake recipe a try and taste just how very addictive a triumvirate of ginger can be!
Triple Ginger Pound Cake Recipe
Adapted from The Betty Crocker Cookbook
Makes 2 – 2 lb loaf cakes
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose (plain) flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup finely chopped crystallised ginger
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened (preferably unsalted)
2 teaspoons grated ginger root
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F (170°C – I set my fan oven at 155°C). Grease and flour or line two 2 pound loaf pans.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, ginger, baking powder and salt. Gently stir the chopped crystallised ginger through the flour mixture so it doesn’t stick together. Set aside.
Put the sugar, butter ginger root, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend these ingredients together on low. Then turn the mixer to high and beat together for about 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape the bowl occasionally.
Using a low speed, beat the flour mixture into the sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
Pour into the prepared pans. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
Cool for 20 minutes, before removing from the pans and allowing to cool completely on a rack. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar, or drizzled with vanilla or ginger glaze.
Vanilla Glaze
⅓ cup butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 tablespoons hot water
Blend the butter and the icing sugar together in an electric mixer.
Beat in the vanilla.
Gradually add the hot water, a bit at time, until a syrupy consistency is reached.
Drizzle over the cakes.
Allow the glaze to set before slicing the cakes.
Ginger Glaze
½ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 to 4 tablespoons water
Whisk the icing sugar and the ground ginger together with a fork.
Gradually add the water, whisking well after each addition, until a smooth, drizzle-able consistency is reached.
Drizzle over the cakes.
Allow the glaze to set before slicing the cakes.
Printable Recipe
- 3 cups all purpose (plain) flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup finely chopped crystallised ginger
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened (preferably unsalted)
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger root
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk
- For the vanilla glaze
- ⅓ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 to 3 tablespoons hot water
- For the ginger glaze
- ½ cup icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3 to 4 tablespoons water
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (170°C - I set my fan oven at 155°C).
- Grease and flour or line two 2 pound loaf pans.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, ginger, baking powder and salt.
- Gently stir the chopped crystallised ginger through the flour mixture so it doesn’t stick together.
- Set aside.
- Put the sugar, butter, ginger root, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl.
- Using an electric mixer, blend these ingredients together on low.
- Then turn the mixer to high and beat together for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Scrape the bowl occasionally.
- Using a low speed, beat the flour mixture into the sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
- Pour into the prepared pans.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
- Cool for 20 minutes, before removing from the pans and allowing to cool completely on a rack. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar, or drizzled with vanilla or ginger glaze.
- To make the vanilla glaze:
- Blend the butter and the icing sugar together in an electric mixer.
- Beat in the vanilla.
- Gradually add the hot water, a bit at time, until a syrupy consistency is reached.
- Drizzle over the cakes.
- Allow the glaze to set before slicing the cakes.
- To make the ginger glaze:
- Whisk the icing sugar and the ground ginger together with a fork.
- Gradually add the water, whisking well after each addition, until a smooth, drizzle-able consistency is reached.
- Drizzle over the cakes. Allow the glaze to set before slicing the cakes.
April, this sounds wonderful, I am going to make it for a friend of ours who loves ginger — I like your adjustments too. 🙂
April, I love this pound cake, yumm. ginger is my weakness.
This sounds so wonderful and I am coping the recipe, but will need to order some of the crystallized ginger. I make a lovely fruit cake but this sounds so mild and will be great at our fellowship time at church. (My husband will love it too.)
I’m so glad you like the sound of my Ginger Cake, Hazel. It really is delicious, and very mild despite all the lovely layers of ginger flavour. I hadn’t used crystallised ginger much before this, but now that I have tried it I keep it on hand all the time 🙂
I had a friend from Austrialia who always gave me crystalized ginger and told me how popular it was in recipes where he was from. I never baked with them. Can’t wait to try. Thanks so much for sharing your cake with us on foodie friday.
Crystallized ginger really is delicious, Diane. I always chop it finely though as a little goes a long way 🙂
I can’t even imagine the wonderful aroma this must have while baking. After reading the recipe, I think I would also be hesitant to use all of the ginger–especially the amount of crystallized ginger. Wow! Thanks for being brave.
Sorry it took me so long to stop by this week. Thank you for linking!
It really does smell amazing. You could always adjust the amounts of ginger if you preferred, although it’s amazing how mild this cake tastes considering how much ginger it has in it 🙂
I love ginger, this sounds great!
Thank you, Joy 🙂
Thanks for sharing! This sounds simply delicious.
Thank you, Kelly 🙂
Three kinds of ginger, wow! My mum is a huge ginger fan so I’m going to save this and maybe try it when we’re together. Knowing me, I’ll skip the glaze. I’m a bit of an impatient baker 🙂
I hope your mum loves it – and that you do too, Pauline! The cake takes lovely without glaze too. Sometimes I just sprinkle it with icing sugar – but it tastes great plain too.
I love ginger and pound cake. I’m sure I would enjoy this recipe. Looks easy to make as well.
I’m sure you would love it, Judee – and it really is easy to make too 🙂
April, what a lovely treat for upcoming fall entertaining! My cousin LOVES finding new desserts featuring ginger so I will certainly share your recipe with her!
Thank you so much, Linda! And thank you for sharing too 🙂 I hope your cousin enjoys the recipe!
Hi April,
We will just love your pound cake. I am looking forward to trying it with a cup of tea in the very near future! Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
Thank you so much, Miz Helen. I hope your week is wonderful too!
I love ginger but never thought of including ginger in a cake! This looks absolutely delicious, April!
You will definitely love it if you love ginger, Hadia! Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it if you make it 🙂
This cake is tempting, I wish there was no egg in it, any alternative to an egg?
Thank you so much, Sadhna. I’m sorry, I don’t know much about egg-free baking. I found this though – http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/955371/baking-without-eggs I wonder if any of these would work? Please do let me know if you try them.
I have never eaten or made a pound cake. The texture of this cake looks really different then a typical cake. I have to try this. Yum.
You should definitely try pound cake, Leanna. The texture is firmer than many cakes, but it really is wonderful. I hope you enjoy my recipe – do let me know what you think if you try it!