SunButter Gingerbread Cake Bars! Soft delicate cupcake meets moist crumbly blondie with a delicious dairy-free white chocolate drizzle. Vegan and gluten-free!
THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER
With the most lovable blondie-meets-cupcake texture. And all the best December spices mingling with the deep sweetness of molasses. And my favorite kind of butter to bake with, SunButter, bringing its moisture and delicious subtle seed flavor to this holiday party in a pan.
Also important to mention, these three little words: WHITE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE.
Yeah, cookies should be feeling mega jealous right now.
Others who are currently feeling left out: a) butter butter b) non-flax eggs and c) white sugar. Because these bars are vegan and gluten-free and don’t involve any of those things. Which wins them a seat at the “healthier” holiday dessert table, dontcha think? But vegan white chocolate made with the yummy magical stuff that is melted cacao butter drippily drizzled on top to sweetly offset all those spices means they could hold their own at the “classic” dessert table too. This is one of those best of both worlds situations.
Healthy AND holiday-y ingredients in these SunButter Gingerbread Cake Bars include:
- SunButter. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this stuff is texture/moisture fairy dust in baking. Gooey but also soft and fluffy? With SunButter it’s possible.
- Coconut sugar.
- Molasses. Gives it that classic gingerbread flavor, but you can replace with maple syrup if you’re not a fan.
- Flax eggs.
- Almond milk.
- Lemon juice. Makes anything ginger spiced that much better.
- Oat flour. We ground our own from rolled oats.
- Baking soda.
- Ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Or you could use this gingerbread spice mix for a more complex flavor than just ginger + cinnamon.
And if you swap out the almond milk for coconut, they can be nut-free too!
The glaze. Cacao butter isn’t the easiest stuff to work with, so this took some trial and error. In the end I landed on a really simple combination of melted cacao butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, and salt. I just couldn’t get the texture right with maple syrup as the sweetener, so if you want a refined sugar-free glaze instead try this recipe.
Besides all the above delicious reasons, I extra love these bars because they were made in collaboration with my creative baking partner Sonya. Because we all know holiday baking is better with friends. Also because I never would’ve been able to narrow down all my gazillions of gingerbread ideas without her (cookies? muffins? brownies? a house?). Nor would I have been able to shoot a video this majestically festive without the help of my friend Dan, so this one was a big time team effort.
Even though we are all currently in South Africa and sadly couldn’t bring any of these bars with us, I hope you make/love/devour them with some of your favorite people too!
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SunButter Gingerbread Cake Bars! Soft delicate cupcake meets moist crumbly blondie with a delicious dairy-free white chocolate drizzle. Vegan and gluten-free!
Ingredients
Cake Bars
- 2/3 cup (165g) Organic SunButter
- 1/3 cup (55g) coconut sugar
- 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax + 4 tbsp water)
- 3 tbsp (60g) molasses
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2/3 cup (160g) almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups (150g) oat flour
- 2 tsps ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Glaze*
- 1/4 cup (50g) cacao butter
- 1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Stir together the flax and water for the flax eggs. Set aside to gel.
- Whisk together the SunButter, coconut sugar, flax eggs, molasses, lemon juice, almond milk, and vanilla.
- Add the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Mix to combine.
- Spread into a lightly greased pan (I used 9×9″ square).
- Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely before glazing or eating (they will be very fragile if you slice them warm).
- For the glaze, melt the cacao butter over a double boiler. Remove from the heat, and whisk in the remaining ingredients. Add more powdered sugar if necessary to reach desired drizzle-able consistency.
- Drizzle on the glaze, slice, and enjoy!
- Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Or freeze (un-glazed) for longer storage.
Notes
*Or if you can’t get cacao butter, try this glaze instead.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 232
- Sugar: 13g
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 6g
Keywords: vegan, gluten-free, dairy free, white chocolate, christmas, easy, blondie
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YUM! I love how your IG Feed and all the recipes you have been posting the past few weeks are brown with a beautiful white drizzle. The pictures are stunning! So many possibilities with holiday ingredients and you are creating some swoon-worthy treats. Kinda stressing me out because I am running out of sweet, sweet December time to make all these delicious confections!!!
Haha it has kinda been a theme lately huh, just making up for all the snow I’m not getting with glaze drizzles❄️😂 Gah I know, where did this month go? I feel like I should eat only gingerbread and cookies for the next week now to really make the most of the time we have left😂
I sooo want to make this! I hate to ask but what do you think I could sub for the oat flour? This is on the to do list for tomorrow!! Thank you!
You could try buckwheat or quinoa flour instead! Or if you can eat gluten, spelt or all purpose would work too. Hope you love them 🙂
Hi Natalie! This recipe looked amazing, and I tried it. My bars came out dark green!! I’ve since learned the nutbutter has clorophyll which can do that, so how did yours turn out so beautiful? Is it maybe that I opted for maple syrup rather than the darker molasses?
Yep, sunbutter will do that but doesn’t in the presence of lemon juice (or an acid). Was your lemon juice fresh? If not the acidity may not have been strong enough to stop the green. And yes, the darker molasses probably helps to hide it too!
These look so amazing Natalie! I’m so behind on catching up on this post with the holidays and I’m missing seeing your new posts but glad you are taking time off to enjoy the holidays! These look out of this world delicious! I love gingerbread so much and turning them into these fudgy irresistible bars is such a fantastic idea! I bet all those spices even somewhat hide the sunbutter taste which is crucial for me and Olivia, she is SO picky, lol! All the ingredients look so healthy and fantastic and the texture is perfect. I don’t even care if Christmas is over either, I’m actually making gingerbread cake either today or tomorrow, haha! I hope you are having some wonderful family time and are doing well. Sending lots of love. xx
Ha you think you’re behind, I haven’t been home or in a normal work routine in almost a month…oh the holidays😆 But definitely enjoying it and seeing lots of family/friends! If you ask me gingerbread season is never over, I wish I could steal a piece of that cake you have planned😋 Might have to make a batch myself when I finally get home next week. Much love and happy new years to you Brandi!
Super fresh squeezed lemon juice, but maybe lemon was older. I plan to try again with molasses and see what happens. Meanwhile my neighbor’s kid who is gluten free loved the green monster cake!
Hahaha! Whenever that happens to me with sunbutter I think “I gotta remember this for halloween”😂 Still tastes good, but I hope the new batch comes out prettier!
This look yummy!!!
These were SO good! Never too late for gingerbread😋
Hey Natalie!!! I want to make this for my parents but sunbutter is really hard to find here in Malaysia. And as a international student here, I can’t really order the stuff online 😩. So can I sub the sunbutter with almond butter?
Absolutely! Any kind of nut butter will work here really, although peanut butter might taste a little odd haha. I hope you and you parents love it 🙂
Hi, Can I bake these beauties in cupcake molds? I can’t wait to make them! Thank you 🙂
For sure, that will work! Hope you enjoy 🙂
Omg the texture of these cake bars is so perfect – hard when making GF & egg free cakes! I will definitely pump up the volume on the spices next time…I love that deep spicy gingerbread flavour. I so appreciate you sharing this recipe! 🙌🏽
★★★★★
I am sooooooo happy you loved them Cindy, isn’t the texture a delish mix of kinda like cake but kinda like a brownie?! I never object to extra spice, sounds like a very good plan to me😋 appreciate your feedback!