Baking Spices: Which Ones to Use and How Much
Which spices baked goods rely on, how much of each goes into 2 cups of flour, and how the classic blends put them together.
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves are the core baking spices, with cardamom, mace and anise behind them. Cinnamon goes in by the half teaspoon or more for 2 cups of flour, while cloves and nutmeg go in by the quarter teaspoon. The amounts stay small because the inside of a cake steeps spice in a wet crumb instead of toasting it.
Which spices are used in baking?
Each of the core baking spices keeps its character through a long, moist bake. That is why the same handful turns up in spice cake, pumpkin pie and gingerbread alike.
Green cardamom, mace and anise fill in behind them, mostly in Nordic, British and Dutch baking.
| Spice | What it does in a bake | Where it leads |
|---|---|---|
| Cinnamon | A sweet, woody base that holds the other spices together | Cinnamon rolls, snickerdoodles, apple fillings |
| Ground ginger | Dry heat that sharpens the mix | Gingerbread, gingersnaps, parkin |
| Nutmeg | Rounds butter, eggs and dairy from underneath | Custard tart, doughnuts, eggnog bakes |
| Mace | A lighter, more floral nutmeg with no brown flecks | Pound cake, pale sponges, fruit fillings |
| Allspice | Clove-like warmth that bridges the sweet and the sharp | Spice cake, Christmas cake, pumpkin pie |
| Cloves | A dark, numbing edge in tiny amounts | Gingerbread, fruitcake, spiced cookies |
| Cardamom | Floral and citrus lift | Swedish buns, Nordic breads, rice pudding |
| Anise seed | A licorice sweetness | Speculaas, biscotti, springerle |
Ground cinnamon is the only spice on the list that can carry a bake alone. Ground ginger and grated nutmeg are the usual second and third voices, and the clove decides whether the mix tastes warm or medicinal.
Ground allspice and ground cloves share eugenol as their leading aroma compound. The two pile up quickly if a recipe uses both at full strength, so one of them usually stays small.
Ground mace comes from the lacy covering around the nutmeg seed, and it can take nutmeg's place in a pale cake where dark flecks would show.
Why does spice taste milder inside a cake?
The inside of a cake never gets hotter than boiling water.
Most cakes finish with a center temperature of about 93 to 99 degrees Celsius, or 200 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit. Only the crust climbs higher and browns.
Spice in the batter is therefore steeped in a warm, wet crumb for half an hour or more, instead of being toasted in dry heat.
| What happens | In a hot pan | In a batter |
|---|---|---|
| Heat | Brief, dry heat browns and changes the spice | Long, moist heat only steeps it |
| Aroma | Much of it leaves with the steam | The setting crumb traps most of it |
| Dilution | A few hundred grams of food | Close to a kilogram of batter |
The dilution row is the one people underestimate, since a teaspoon that would be loud in a pan sauce becomes a background note in a whole cake.
That dilution means a recipe's spice amounts can look timid on paper and still taste right in the slice.
How much of each baking spice should you use?
The amounts below suit a bake with about 2 cups of flour, such as a loaf cake, a single 9-inch layer or a dozen muffins. The middle column is for a spice playing a supporting part, and the next column is for a bake named after it.
| Spice | In a mixed bake | When it leads | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cinnamon | 1/2 to 1 tsp | 2 tsp or more in cinnamon rolls and snickerdoodles | Dusty and slightly bitter |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 to 1 tsp | 2 to 3 tsp in gingerbread | Harsh without molasses to carry it |
| Nutmeg | 1/4 tsp | Up to 1/2 tsp | Soapy and slightly numbing |
| Mace | 1/8 to 1/4 tsp | 1/4 tsp in pound cake | Soapy, like too much nutmeg |
| Allspice | 1/4 tsp | 1/2 tsp in spice cake | Reads as clove, so less if clove is also in |
| Cloves | 1/8 to 1/4 tsp | 1/4 to 1/2 tsp in spice cake or gingerbread | Medicinal, and the quickest way to spoil a bake |
| Cardamom | 1/2 tsp | About 1 tsp in Nordic buns | Perfumed and soapy |
Published recipes vary widely in their total. A lightly spiced pumpkin loaf can use under 2 teaspoons of mixed spice, while spice cakes commonly carry 4 to 5 teaspoons for about 2 1/2 cups of flour.
- The bowl: Two cups of flour, before sugar, eggs and fat go in.
- The spoon: About the total ground spice for a lightly spiced loaf.
- Read it as: The spice seasons close to a kilogram of batter, not a pan of sauce.
Cloves and nutmeg spoil most over-spiced bakes, and they fail in different ways.
Clove oil is mostly eugenol, the numbing compound dentists have used since the 19th century. A small excess in a cake reads as medicinal rather than warm.
One whole clove grinds to roughly an eighth of a teaspoon. Two buds therefore already reach the quarter teaspoon that flavors a whole cake.
- Cloves: About an eighth of a teaspoon per bud once ground.
- Nutmeg: One whole seed grates into more than a single cake needs.
- The check: Smell the batter before adding more of either.
Nutmeg fails more suddenly. Past its range it turns soapy and slightly numbing, and extra sugar only sits on top of that taste.
Smelling the batter before it goes into the tin is the practical check, since a crumb that only steeps its spice bakes close to how the batter smells.
Cinnamon goes wrong more gently. Too much tastes dusty rather than warmer, and cutting it back often brings the other spices forward faster than adding more of them.
What goes into pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice and speculaas?
Every classic baking blend is the same few spices in different proportions, and cinnamon leads almost all of them. The second voice changes from blend to blend, and it determines whether the mix leans hot, round or sharp.
| Blend | What is in it | What sets it apart | Best in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pumpkin pie spice | Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, sometimes clove | Ginger gives it heat | Pumpkin pie, spice cake, quick breads |
| Apple pie spice | Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice | No ginger, so it tastes sweeter | Apple and pear fillings, crisps, muffins |
| Speculaas spice | Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, white pepper, often anise | Clove and pepper give a sharp finish | Speculaas cookies, spiced shortbread |
| British mixed spice | Cinnamon and coriander seed, with nutmeg, ginger, cloves or caraway | Coriander adds a citrus note | Christmas cake, hot cross buns, Christmas pudding |
McCormick's pumpkin pie spice lists no clove at all, while most homemade versions add a half part.
That gap matters when a homemade jar goes into a recipe written for the commercial one. The clove shows, and the bake tastes darker than the recipe intended.
Speculaas is the most complex of the four. Its white pepper and clove make the Dutch cookies taste sharp as well as sweet.
Any of these blends can stand in for a recipe's separate spices when you use the same total amount.
Can you use fresh ginger instead of ground in baking?
Not as a straight swap, because the two forms differ in both flavor and water content.
Drying turns much of the gingerol in fresh root into shogaol, which is roughly twice as pungent. That conversion is where the dry, sharp heat of gingerbread comes from.
Fresh root still leads with gingerol. It tastes brighter, more lemony and milder once baked.
- Left: Dry powder, adding nothing to the wet ingredients.
- Right: Grated fresh root, sitting in released juice.
- Consequence: A tablespoon of fresh is mostly water.
The usual conversion is 1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger for 1/4 teaspoon of ground. Replacing a full teaspoon of ground ginger that way takes about 4 tablespoons of wet pulp, and a tight cake batter shows it as a heavier crumb.
Fresh ginger suits bakes where moisture is welcome and brightness is the point, such as a sticky pudding or a ginger syrup.
Crystallized ginger is a third option. It adds chewy pieces and sweet heat to cookies and scones without adding liquid.
What can you substitute for a missing baking spice?
Pumpkin pie spice is the most useful single swap, because it already holds cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.
Beyond that, each missing spice has one closest relative.
| Missing spice | Substitute | Starting amount | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cinnamon | Pumpkin pie spice | 1 tsp per 1 tsp | Adds ginger, nutmeg and sometimes clove |
| Nutmeg | Mace | 1 tsp per 1 tsp | Lighter and more floral, with no brown flecks |
| Mace | Freshly grated nutmeg | 3/4 tsp per 1 tsp | Sweeter and heavier, with darker flecks |
| Allspice | Cinnamon, clove and nutmeg | 1/2 tsp cinnamon plus 1/4 tsp each of clove and nutmeg per 1 tsp | Loses the dry peppery bite |
| Cloves | Allspice | 1 tsp per 1 tsp, up to 2 tsp | Rounder and less numbing |
| Ground ginger | Allspice | 1/4 tsp per 1 tsp | Clove-like warmth with no heat |
| Cardamom | Cinnamon and nutmeg, mixed equally | 1 tsp per 1 tsp | The warmth stays and the floral note goes |
Leaving a minor spice out is often the cleaner choice. A spice cake missing its quarter teaspoon of allspice still tastes like spice cake, while a doubled stand-in can pull it toward clove.
A bake named for its spice has no real substitute. Swedish cardamom buns without cardamom turn into plain sweet rolls, whatever goes in instead.
Gingerbread works the same way, since allspice in place of its ginger makes a pleasant spice cake rather than gingerbread.
Do vanilla, citrus zest and cocoa count as baking spices?
All three season a bake, but none of them follows the rules for ground spice. Each one survives the oven differently, and that changes where it goes in the recipe.
Vanilla extract carries its aroma in alcohol and goes in with the wet ingredients. Most cakes and batches of cookies take 1 to 2 teaspoons, and a strongly spiced bake loses little without it.
Citrus zest is the most fragile flavor in the bowl, so bakers often rub it into the sugar first to break open its oil glands.
Cocoa behaves more like flour than like spice, which is why recipes that add it usually take out some flour to make room.
None of the three belongs in the teaspoon count for spice, because each follows its own measure.
How do you mix spices into batter evenly?
Ground spice clumps, and a pocket of unmixed cinnamon or clove bakes into a dark, bitter streak. Beating the batter afterward cannot break up a clump once liquid has wet it.
The fix happens in the dry bowl, before any liquid meets the spice.
- Add it to the flourMeasure the ground spice into the flour, leavening and salt rather than into the wet ingredients.
- Whisk for thirty secondsA dry whisk spreads the spice through the flour and breaks up small lumps.
- Sift if it clumpsSifting helps most with cinnamon and cocoa, the two that hold their lumps.
- Smell before bakingThe batter should smell clearly spiced before it goes into the tin.
Recipes that melt butter offer a second route. Stirring the ground spice into the warm butter for a minute blooms it in fat and spreads it evenly before the flour goes in.
Can you fix an under-spiced or over-spiced cake?
Spice cannot be stirred into a finished crumb, so any correction has to go on the outside.
A glaze, a dusting of cinnamon sugar or a spiced whipped cream all taste louder than the same amount would inside the cake. Spice added after baking never sat in the steaming crumb, so it keeps the light aroma that the bake would have muted.
Both problems point to the same habit. The last moment to change the amount is before the batter goes in the oven, when adjusting it still costs nothing.
How do you buy baking spices and keep them fresh?
Freshness matters more in baking than in a pan dish, because a batter only extracts whatever aroma the spice still has. A hot pan can wake a tired jar for a moment, but a cake cannot.
Nutmeg and cloves are better bought whole, while cassia cinnamon and dried ginger are among the few spices better bought ground.
- Whole nutmegA seed grated straight into the bowl is far stronger than a jar of ground nutmeg that has been open for months.
- Whole clovesA few buds ground as needed avoid the dusty note of an old jar.
- Ground cinnamonMost supermarket cinnamon is cassia, and its hard, dense bark does not grind evenly at home.
- Ground gingerDried ginger root is too fibrous to grind finely in a home grinder.
- The cinnamon labelCeylon is milder than cassia, so a recipe written for one tastes different made with the other.
A jar that smells faint when opened will taste faint in the cake, whatever the date on the lid says.
Heat and light speed aroma loss, so baking spices keep longest in a cupboard away from the oven, within the windows on the shelf life chart.
Whole spice rarely goes into a batter, because nothing in a cake breaks it down. The exception is a syrup or poaching liquid, where a cinnamon stick or a few cloves steep and come out before serving.