Spice Cake Recipe (Southern Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting)

This spice cake is the Southern kind: two tall, tender buttermilk layers warm with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and a pinch of cloves, stacked with tangy cream cheese frosting and finished with toasted pecans. Brown sugar keeps the crumb moist for days, and the whole cake comes together with one bowl for the dry ingredients, one for the batter and a hand mixer.

Below you’ll find what makes a Southern spice cake different from carrot cake or gingerbread, the spice blend and why each spice is there, the step-by-step method, the frosting, a pan size and bake time table (layers, 9×13, Bundt and cupcakes), pumpkin and apple versions, a doctored box-mix option, storage, a fix-it table and answers to common questions. The recipe card makes one two-layer 9-inch cake, enough for 16 slices.

What Is Spice Cake?

A spice cake is a butter or oil cake flavored with warm baking spices instead of chocolate, fruit or vanilla alone. Cinnamon is always the lead. Nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves fill in behind it, and brown sugar or molasses adds a caramel note that makes the spices taste rounder.

The Southern version has been a church supper and holiday table classic for generations. It usually means three things: buttermilk in the batter for a soft, slightly tangy crumb; a generous layer of cream cheese frosting, or sometimes a caramel or brown sugar icing; and pecans, either in the batter, pressed on the sides or scattered on top. It’s a layer cake you can make on a weeknight and still serve at Thanksgiving.

Spice cake vs. carrot cake vs. gingerbread

If you love the cinnamon and cream cheese combination but want a sweeter, coffee-cake style treat, the sock it to me cake and the honey bun cake both use a brown sugar and cinnamon swirl.

The Spice Blend for Spice Cake

A good spice cake tastes warm and balanced, not like a mouthful of one spice. This blend is about 4½ teaspoons total for a cake made with 2¾ cups of flour, which is enough to taste clearly through the frosting without turning bitter.

• Short on spices? Use 4 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice plus ½ teaspoon extra cinnamon in place of the whole blend.
• Use fresh jars. Ground spices lose their aroma after about a year. Rub a pinch between your fingers: if you barely smell it, buy a new jar, because stale spices are the most common reason a spice cake tastes bland.
• Bloom them in butter. Beating the spices into the butter and sugar, instead of only whisking them into the flour, spreads their oils through the fat and gives a fuller flavor. This recipe splits the difference: the spices go into the flour so they’re evenly spread, and the creamed butter carries them.

Ingredients for This Spice Cake Recipe

Every ingredient has a job in this spice cake recipe, so it’s worth knowing which swaps work and which don’t.

• All-purpose flour (2¾ cups / 344 g). Spoon it into the cup and level it, or weigh it. Scooping straight from the bag can add 20% more flour and gives a dry cake. Cake flour also works for an even softer crumb: use 3 cups (360 g).
• Baking soda and baking powder. Soda reacts with the acidic buttermilk and brown sugar; powder gives extra lift so the layers rise evenly.
• Unsalted butter (1 cup / 226 g). Soft enough that a finger leaves a dent, about 65°F (18°C), but not shiny or greasy. Butter gives the best flavor. For a cake that stays softer in the fridge, replace half the butter with ½ cup (120 ml) of neutral oil, added with the eggs.
• Granulated and light brown sugar (1 cup each). White sugar helps the creaming and gives structure; brown sugar adds moisture and a molasses note that suits the spices. Dark brown sugar makes a deeper, more gingerbread-like cake.
• Large eggs (4), at room temperature. Cold eggs can curdle the creamed butter. Set them in warm tap water for 10 minutes if you forgot to take them out.
• Buttermilk (1¼ cups / 300 ml). The classic Southern choice for a tender, tangy crumb. No buttermilk? Stir 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a measuring cup, top it up to 1¼ cups with milk and let it sit 5 minutes. Plain yogurt thinned with milk also works.
• Vanilla and salt. Both make the spices taste brighter and less flat.
• Pecans (1 cup / 115 g), toasted. Optional, but very Southern. Toast them at 350°F (175°C) for 7 to 9 minutes, until fragrant, then chop.

Raw flour and raw eggs can carry harmful bacteria, so skip tasting the batter. The FDA’s guide to handling flour safely explains why flour counts as a raw ingredient until it’s baked, and why you should wash hands, bowls and counters after using it.

How to Make Spice Cake

The method is a classic creamed butter cake. Give each step its full time and you’ll get high, level layers with a soft crumb.

1. Prepare the pans. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with a rack in the center. Grease two 9-inch round pans, line the bottoms with parchment circles and grease the parchment. Dust with flour and tap out the extra.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves in a medium bowl for 30 seconds so the leaveners and spices are evenly spread.
3. Cream the butter and sugars. Beat the soft butter with both sugars on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the bowl twice, until the mixture is pale, fluffy and noticeably lighter in color. This traps the air that makes the cake rise.
4. Add the eggs. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing about 20 seconds after each, then beat in the vanilla. If the mixture looks a little curdled, keep going; the flour will bring it back.
5. Alternate flour and buttermilk. On low speed, add one third of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, then another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and the last of the flour. Mix only until no dry streaks remain. Overmixing at this stage makes a tough, tunneled cake.
6. Fold in the nuts (optional). If you’d like pecans inside the cake, fold in ½ cup with a spatula and save the rest for the top.
7. Bake. Divide the batter evenly between the pans (about 650 g each if you weigh it), smooth the tops and tap the pans on the counter to pop big bubbles. Bake 28 to 32 minutes, until the tops spring back when pressed and a toothpick in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. The center of a done butter cake reads about 205 to 210°F (96 to 99°C) on an instant-read thermometer.
8. Cool. Cool the layers in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes, run a thin knife around the edge, turn them out, peel off the parchment and cool completely, at least 1 hour. Frosting a warm cake melts the cream cheese frosting and makes the layers slide.

Tips for tall, level layers

• Check your oven with an oven thermometer. A hot oven makes domed, cracked layers; a cool one gives a dense, sunken center.
• Wrap the pans with damp cake strips, or a folded damp towel pinned with foil, for flat tops you won’t need to trim.
• If the layers do dome, slice off the top with a long serrated knife once they’re cool. The scraps are the baker’s treat.

Cream Cheese Frosting for Spice Cake

Cream cheese frosting is the classic partner for a Southern spice cake because its tang cuts through the brown sugar and makes the spices pop. This batch frosts the middle, top and sides of a two-layer 9-inch cake with a fairly thin, rustic coat.

1. Beat 8 ounces (226 g) of cold, full-fat block cream cheese with ½ cup (113 g) of soft butter for 2 minutes, until smooth with no lumps.
2. Add 4 cups (480 g) of powdered sugar, a cup at a time, on low speed, then beat in 1 teaspoon of vanilla, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
3. Beat on medium-high for 1 minute only, until fluffy. Long beating warms the cream cheese and makes the frosting runny.

• Use block cream cheese. Tub or whipped cream cheese has more water and gives a soupy frosting.
• Too soft? Chill the bowl for 15 to 20 minutes before frosting.
• Want a thicker coat? Make 1½ times the recipe for a smooth, bakery-style finish with piped borders.
• Other options: a brown butter cream cheese frosting (brown and cool the butter first), a quick caramel icing, or a plain dusting of powdered sugar for a snack cake.

Assembling the cake

Put one layer top-side down on a plate and tuck strips of parchment under the edges to keep the plate clean. Spread about 1 cup of frosting over it, set the second layer on top, top-side down, and spread a thin crumb coat over the top and sides. Chill 20 minutes, then add the rest of the frosting and press the toasted pecans onto the top edge or the lower sides. For a step-by-step guide to smooth sides and a clean finish, see how to frost a cake.

Spice Cake Pan Sizes and Bake Times

The same batter bakes beautifully in other pans. Fill pans no more than two-thirds full and start checking 5 minutes early.

Southern Spice Cake Recipe Variations

Once you have the base of this Southern spice cake down, it’s easy to change with the season.

Pumpkin spice cake

Reduce the buttermilk to ½ cup (120 ml) and beat 1 cup (245 g) of plain canned pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling) into the creamed butter with the eggs. Add 3 to 5 minutes to the bake time. The cake will be moister and a deeper orange. For more fall baking, try our pumpkin dump cake and pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.

Apple spice cake

Fold 2 cups (about 250 g) of peeled, finely diced apples, such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp, into the finished batter. Bake as a 9×13 or Bundt cake, which hold the fruit better than thin layers, and add about 5 minutes. A caramel icing suits it best. If you’d rather skip the mixer altogether, the apple dump cake has a similar flavor with almost no work.

Old-fashioned raisin spice cake

Soak ¾ cup of raisins in hot water for 10 minutes, drain and pat dry, toss with 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture and fold them in with the pecans. This is the version many older Southern cookbooks call a “spice layer cake.”

Spice cake from a box mix

Short on time? A boxed spice cake mix gets much closer to homemade if you use buttermilk instead of water, melted butter instead of oil, and add 1 extra egg, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Bake as the box directs and top with the cream cheese frosting above. The flavor and texture won’t match a scratch spice cake recipe, but it’s a fair weeknight shortcut.

Spice loaf or snack cake

Halve the recipe and bake it in an 8-inch square pan for 30 to 35 minutes, or in a 9×5-inch loaf pan for 50 to 60 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar or spread with a thin layer of frosting. For another loaf-pan cake that keeps well, see our cream cheese pound cake.

Serving and Storing Spice Cake

Spice cake is one of those cakes that tastes even better on day two, after the spices have mellowed and the moisture from the frosting has settled into the crumb. Serve it at cool room temperature: take it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before slicing so the frosting softens and the butter in the cake isn’t firm.

• Coffee or tea. A slice with hot coffee or a chai latte is the classic pairing.
• A scoop of ice cream. Vanilla bean, butter pecan or cinnamon ice cream are all excellent.
• A drizzle. Warm caramel sauce or a spoonful of apple butter dresses up a plain square from the 9×13 version.

How long spice cake keeps

Because cream cheese frosting is made from a perishable dairy product, keep the frosted cake in the refrigerator and don’t leave it out at room temperature for more than about 2 hours, the same rule the FoodSafety.gov cold food storage chart uses for dairy. On a warm day outdoors, bring out slices as you need them.

Troubleshooting Spice Cake

Spice Cake Recipe FAQs

What does spice cake taste like?

Spice cake tastes warm and cozy, much like the inside of a cinnamon roll or a slice of pumpkin pie without the pumpkin. Cinnamon leads, with sweet notes from nutmeg and brown sugar, a gentle bite from ginger and a hint of clove. Cream cheese frosting adds a tangy contrast.

Is spice cake the same as carrot cake?

No. They share the same spices and the same frosting, but carrot cake is built around grated carrots, and often pineapple, raisins and nuts, which make it denser and moister. Spice cake has a plain, finer crumb that lets the spices lead.

Can I make spice cake ahead of time?

Yes. Bake the layers up to 2 days ahead and keep them wrapped at room temperature, or freeze them for up to 3 months. Frost the cake the day before serving and keep it in the refrigerator. Many bakers think a Southern spice cake is at its best on the second day.

Can I make this spice cake recipe with oil instead of butter?

You can. Replace the butter with 1 cup (240 ml) of neutral oil, beat it with the sugars and eggs instead of creaming, and expect a slightly moister, less buttery cake that stays softer in the fridge. A mix of half butter and half oil gives the best of both.

Why is my spice cake dry?

The two usual causes are too much flour and too much time in the oven. Weigh the flour or spoon it into the cup, check the cake 3 to 4 minutes before the earliest time, and pull it when a toothpick shows a few moist crumbs. For more cake ideas from scratch and from mixes, browse all our cake recipes.

Spice Cake Recipe Card

Calories are an estimate per slice (one sixteenth of the frosted two-layer cake, with pecans) based on USDA FoodData Central values for all-purpose flour, butter, granulated and brown sugar, eggs, cultured buttermilk, block cream cheese, powdered sugar and pecans. Without the pecans it’s about 520 calories a slice.

Chef Emma

Southern Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

A two-layer Southern spice cake made with buttermilk, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, frosted with tangy cream cheese frosting and topped with toasted pecans. Makes one 9-inch layer cake, 16 slices.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Cool and frost 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Servings: 16 slices

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Southern

Calories: 570

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Spice cake

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour 344 g, spooned and leveled
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp fine salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup unsalted butter 226 g, softened to about 65°F
• 1 cup granulated sugar 200 g
• 1 cup light brown sugar 213 g, packed
• 4 large eggs room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1¼ cups buttermilk 300 ml, room temperature

Cream cheese frosting

• 8 oz full-fat block cream cheese 226 g, cold
• ½ cup unsalted butter 113 g, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar 480 g
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt

Topping

• 1 cup pecans 115 g, toasted and chopped (optional)

Equipment

• Two 9-inch round cake pans
• Parchment paper
• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• Wire cooling rack
• Offset spatula

Method

 

Spice cake

1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two 9-inch round pans, line the bottoms with parchment, grease the parchment and dust with flour.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves in a medium bowl for 30 seconds.
3. Beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium-high for 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the bowl twice, until pale and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, about 20 seconds after each, then the vanilla.
5. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk in two parts, beginning and ending with flour. Mix only until no dry streaks remain. Fold in ½ cup of the pecans if you like.
6. Divide the batter between the pans, smooth the tops and bake 28 to 32 minutes, until the tops spring back and a toothpick in the center shows a few moist crumbs (about 205 to 210°F / 96 to 99°C inside).
7. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, turn out onto a rack, peel off the parchment and cool completely, at least 1 hour.

Cream cheese frosting

1. Beat the cold cream cheese and soft butter for 2 minutes until smooth.
2. Beat in the powdered sugar a cup at a time on low, then the vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Beat on medium-high for 1 minute only, until fluffy. Chill 15 minutes if soft.

Assemble

1. Set one layer top-side down on a plate, spread with about 1 cup of frosting and top with the second layer, top-side down.
2. Spread a thin crumb coat over the top and sides, chill 20 minutes, then frost with the rest and press the toasted pecans onto the top edge or sides.
3. Refrigerate the frosted cake. Let slices sit 30 minutes at room temperature before serving, and don’t leave the cake out more than about 2 hours.

Notes

Makes one two-layer 9-inch cake, 16 slices. Other pans: three 8-inch rounds 22 to 26 minutes, 9×13 35 to 40 minutes, Bundt at 325°F (165°C) 50 to 60 minutes, about 30 cupcakes 18 to 21 minutes. No buttermilk: stir 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into 1¼ cups of milk and let it stand 5 minutes. Don’t taste raw batter (raw flour and eggs). Keep the frosted cake refrigerated for up to 5 days; freeze unfrosted layers up to 3 months. Calories are an estimate per slice with pecans, from USDA FoodData Central values; about 520 without pecans.