The Marrow’s Ginger Stout Cake

Name: The Marrow’s Ginger Stout Cake
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature; 125 grams raw (Demerara) sugar (1/2 cup); 1 cup stout; 1 cup molasses; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 240 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups); 1 tablespoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves; 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon allspice; 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt; 3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger; 3 large eggs, at room temperature; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 210 grams dark brown sugar, lightly packed (1 cup); 200 grams granulated sugar (1 cup); 3/4 cup safflower oil

By Melissa Clark

Updated March 11, 2025

The Marrow’s Ginger Stout Cake — Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.

Total Time: 1½ hours plus cooling
Rating: 5(1,908)
Comments: Read comments

This is a rich, fragrant ginger cake with a crunchy raw-sugar coating and moist crumb. The combination of grated fresh ginger root and powdered ginger, along with black pepper and cloves, gives it a particularly intense spice flavor. Make sure to use a good stout here. Since you’ll only use part of a bottle, choose one you’d be happy to finish off while the cake is in the oven.

As with most gingerbread, this is a good keeping cake, and can be made a day or two ahead. Store it wrapped in foil at room temperature. Then serve it with cream whipped with a little crème fraiche or sour cream for tartness, which will offset all that crunchy sugar coating the cake.

Featured in: A Company-Worthy Ginger Cake with Molasses and Stout

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Ingredients

Yield:12 servings

2tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
125grams raw (Demerara) sugar (½ cup)
1cup stout
1cup molasses
½teaspoon baking soda
240grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)
1tablespoon ground ginger
1teaspoon cinnamon
¼teaspoon ground cloves
¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼teaspoon allspice
¼teaspoon fine sea salt
3tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3large eggs, at room temperature
1teaspoon vanilla extract
210grams dark brown sugar, lightly packed (1 cup)
200grams granulated sugar (1 cup)
¾cup safflower oil

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a Bundt pan well with the softened butter. Coat the entire pan with raw sugar so that it sticks to the butter. Turn the pan over to dump out any excess sugar.
Step 2
Add the stout and molasses to a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat. Carefully whisk in the baking soda and let cool to room temperature. Be careful as the stout mixture will bubble up.
Step 3
Sift together the flour, ground spices, pepper and salt. Set aside.
Step 4
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the fresh ginger, eggs, vanilla extract, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed for five minutes.
Step 5
Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the oil. Mix for another 5 minutes. Slowly add the stout mixture and mix for another 5 minutes.
Step 6
Carefully add the dry ingredients in two parts, mixing well in between each addition.
Step 7
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes and then flip upside down to release while still warm. Let cool completely.

Ratings

5 out of 5

1,908 user ratings

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Comments

jj7 years ago

340 grams of flour is way more than 2 cups. Which measurement is correct?

SB7 years ago

There is no one measurement for grams of flour per cup-- which is why professional bakers have always used wight rather than volume measurements. If you scoop the flour directly into a volume-measuring cup as opposed to spooning it in, you can end up with 30% more flour in the cup by weight. Chances are the two cups here are scooped. Always, always go by weight when baking-- it's 100% consistent from baker to baker, while the way you fill a volume measure varies enormously.

Tessa7 years ago

Very similar to a Cook's Illustrated gingerbread recipe. I use a 9x13 pan rather than a Bundt pan, lined with parchment paper, turn it out to cool, and frost this with cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese and gingerbread go very nicely together.

Lauri1 month ago

I just made this last night from the same recipe that I printed out some years ago- this says it's been updated by Melissa Clark this year. I don't see any differences- what are they?

Alyson Schultz2 months ago

This recipe is almost identical to Claudia Fleming’s Gingerbread recipe published in her “Last Course”. That recipe uses 1/2 T of baking soda. Its purpose is to de-acidify the stout/molasses mixture, not to leaven. In the dry ingredients, she adds 1 1/2 t of baking powder. She also calls for 1/2 C each of the brown and white sugars. Her 2 C flour weight is 280 grams, not 240…. I’ve seen so many versions, one published by Melissa Clark and Claudia Fleming that uses the reduced sugar, but no baking powder. I’m currently trying splitting the difference with 3/4 C sugar, with the addition of baking powder. Fingers crossed it comes out of the Bundt pan. My fall back will be to trifle it!

Dia Sherman3 months ago

I made this cake per recipe with one exception: in light of comments that it was too molasses forward, I subbed in about a third of a cup of maple syrup for a third of the molasses. Alas, still too much molasses for me. I coated my Nordic Ware Bundt with the mixture recommended by another baker here: equal parts shortening, veg oil and flour, and the cake slid right out.

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