I have never had the Starbucks gingerbread loaf. That looks delicious! Dry mustard?! That was a surprise.

Yes, most of the copycat recipes on line don't have the mustard but it's in the list of ingredients!

That looks delicious, Martha! I'm not a baker. A 5 lb. bag of flour can last a year in my house and sugar even longer. I cheat and buy Trader Joe's gingerbread and cornbread mixes. I know how to bake, but I despise doing it for some reason...

I wonder if someone at Sbux saw a yellowish powder and mistook it for mustard!

Looks really good. Might have to try a slice at the shop and then give your recipe a go. Thanks for sharing!

But my question is, would Philadelphia Cream Cheese Frosting taste even better as the frosting???

You reminded me that I need to go buy a box of their cranberry bliss bars. I love those things and put a box in the freezer every year. I forgot to do it last year and I've been craving a bite for months. :-(

Sooz, their iced lemon loaf is my favorite of any of the Starbuck's pastries!! Try this recipe - I've made it myself and I think it is very close, if not dead-on.

Sooz -- I'll see what I can do -- that was going to be next on my list -- I have mastered: cranberry bliss bars, pumpkin scones, pumpkin loaf and now gingerbread loaf.

Shellajoyce -- perhaps but not authentic --

Martha, it really does look tasty and moist. Interesting there's no ginger.

I LOVE Starbuck's Lemon Loaf. Thanks for posting the link, Gardengal.

I haven't tried their Gingerbread Loaf, but will. Thanks for posting your recipe, Martha.

Chloebud -- that's what I thought. But their food label HAS to have a list of ingredients in the product and mustard is listed and ginger is not!

I wonder why they didn't just call it Spice Loaf...?

Gingerbread probably conjures up many more fond memories than spice loaf would?

Could be, olychick...and it does look like it could be a ginger loaf. For anyone who'd want to, it would be easy to tweak by subbing some of the cinnamon with ginger.

I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make but you can find other copycat recipes for this same loaf that include ground ginger in place of the mustard powder. All other ingredients appear to be identical.

In the original ingredients, "natural flavors" are on the list earlier (higher quantity by weight) than baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and a lot of other items. That element could include a ginger flavoring.

I wondered about that, too; strange since other spices are listed separately. I just wrote to them to ask "Where's the ginger?" Will post when I get a reply.

It's funny looking at the ingredients; I always thought it had candied ginger (maybe pieces in the frosting? I haven't had a piece for a year or more) but I see that it's orange peel. So much for my discriminating palate!

Thanks for the recipe link, gardengal48!

Thanks in advance, Martha, for your next foray into the world of Starbucks i.e. specifically lemon loaf!

The classic French spice bread, pain d'épice, has mustard in it.

Ooh, Martha! You keep scoring tens. And your photography is excellent. I can taste, smell, feel that delicious cake. I hope you’re only 20 minutes away....

Well, I heard back from Starbucks today about no ginger in the ginger loaf. Poor guy in customer service apologized that I was unhappy with my purchase, please provide a copy of my receipt and the store where I purchased it and they will immediately credit my Starbucks card with a gift amount. Nice!

But I wrote back and said I wasn't complaining about a purchase, just inquiring why it appears there is no ginger in their ginger loaf. No credit necessary. We'll see if I hear back again.

well, I plan to fix this today [tuesday] but I need to go snag some applesauce

I have occasionally seen recipes for gingerbread calling for mustard powder in addition to ginger. As to the candied peel, I'm curious because I actually bought some candied peel and I would like a good recipe that uses it. Not even sure why I bought it, I think for some type of Christmas bread. But now I have a whole lot of it. It doesn't really spoil though . . .

Is the peel in the bread or the icing? If I did make the bread I probably wouldn't ice it.

olychick, that was nice of them. Also nice of you to say no credit necessary.

pink mountain -- it was both -- some in the loaf and a little sprinkled on the top -- not very much! I'm ordering peel to to make it again.

Olychick -- but the guy didn't tell you -- just offered credit?

Cloud Swift -- I looked up "natural flavorings" and if I read it right, it is natural ingredients but say, for strawberry flavoring it may not be strawberries but a couple of different seeds and nuts that produce a more strawberry flavor than an actual strawberry. That being said, if the "ginger" is in the natural flavorings, it's not really ginger but just some natural ingredients that have a ginger flavor! And I'm not sure where the home cook would every find that! LOL!

Martha - yes, natural flavoring might be something concocted from some other types of "natural" things to produce the flavor - used because it is cheaper or provides a stronger flavor or whatever. Even if a home cook could find it, it would be more artificial than I would want to use. As a home cook, I'd just put in some ginger. My point was just that it could be where the ginger is hiding. Or part of the ginger flavor with the mustard powder to provide some of a ginger-like bite.

Martha, he had no ability to answer my question..it seemed like he just cut and pasted a script into the email reply. So when I wrote back, I asked again. This time I got a reply thanking me for my input and assuring me they would pass on the information to the "appropriate" department. No promise of follow up of any kind.

I have a very good friend who works in the Starbucks legal department, so I wrote to him and asked if his would be one of the appropriate departments, lol. Like could they be fined or sued for false labeling?

I'll give them a couple of weeks and follow up. I might call and try to talk to someone and go up the chain of command. It doesn't really matter to me, but I am so curious now! And I'm in Covid jail so I might as well harass customer service workers (just kidding, I'm very nice to them all).