Well, I asked which recipe you wanted this week, and you resoundingly begged for the gingerbread plantain cake with maple cashew frosting.
I can't really blame you. It takes a few of my favorite things (molasses, plantains, maple syrup) and marries them together in a nutritiously dense holiday cake.
Oh, and speaking of marriage... (I actually didn't plan that segway. It just happened. Score!)
It's actually perfect that you asked for this gingerbread cake recipe, because it's the perfect way to announce that I'm marrying my favorite person (a.k.a. Tjay) on New Year's Day! Cue the confetti and balloons. You'd think that this was a long time coming, but we actually decided to get married about a month ago...You know, I actually think the story deserves it's own post. I'll get right on that.
Back to the gingerbread plantain cake.
That's why you're really here, right?
I've been thinking a lot lately about my 3-Ingredient Sweet Plantain Cake and how badass it is. And I got to thinking if I could just add a few things to it and have a completely new kind of cake. Since winter is starting to sneak in (we got our first real snow recently) and I freaking love molasses (I could happily eat it by the spoonful until I get sick), I decided to give a gingerbread plantain cake a whirl.
And hot damn, it worked.
By just adding molasses and a couple spices to my already-simple plantain cake recipe, I came up with a denser, but super delicious gingerbread cake. With no flour, no nuts, no dairy, no gluten.
So after cutting up this cake and enjoying a slice topped with some eggs (because it's my life and I live it how I want), I realized that this cake is just begging to be slathered in a frosting. A maple cashew frosting, to be exact.
Luckily this frosting is exceedingly easy to make (just like the cake). The worst part is just letting the cashews soak. After that, you just toss everything in the blender and blend until it's silky smooth. It's a sweet and sticky frosting, and it goes oh so well with this cake. You can certainly make one without the other, but why do that? They're meant for each other. Don't keep them apart!
So you'll see in my pictures that the cake has been cut before I put the frosting on. I wouldn't recommend doing that when you make this. But I didn't want to remake the cake just for pictures (I'm kind of a naughty food blogger) - plus, my local Natural Grocers is having supply issues with plantains, so I'm not even sure I'll get another chance to make it anytime soon. Sad day!
But when you make it, you should totally double the cake and frosting recipes so you can make a layered gingerbread plantain cake and have a pretty little photoshoot and tag me in the pictures when you excitedly post them to Instagram because I want to swoon over them with you. Deal?
Print📖 Recipe
Gingerbread Plantain Cake + Maple Cashew Frosting
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
Ingredients
Gingerbread Plantain Cake
- 3 large ripe yellow plantains (~3 cups pureed plantain - the more ripe, the better!)
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ c blackstrap molasses
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
Maple Cashew Frosting
- 1 cup cashews, soaked in boiling water for at least 30 minutes
- ¼ c maple syrup
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp clove
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Peel plantains. Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender or large food processor and blend until smooth.
- Pour into well-seasoned and oiled 12-inch cast iron pan (or 9 inch round cake pan for a thicker cake) and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, soak the cashews and rinse out the blender. After the cashews have soaked for 30 minutes, drain them and add them to the blender along with the other frosting ingredients. Blend for 3-5 minutes or until completely smooth.
- Once the cake has cooled, slather the frosting all over that baby. Take a picture, send it to me, then serve.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
Andrew H says
How well would this freeze?
Chelsea says
I haven't tried, so unfortunately I can't give you feedback on how it will freeze! I may try it this year to see what happens. For now the only tip I can give you is to not freeze the cake if it's already frosted.
Leila says
Very excited to find this recipe to use my very very ripe plantains up with! Super easy recipe - my 5yr old and I have just made it together. It's in the oven now, waiting to see how it turns out!
Chelsea says
Leila, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! I hope it turned out for you!