Gingerbread is made by using a variety of spices. The most common spices are ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Sometimes anise and cardamom are added. The bread is then sweetened with molasses, but can also be sweetened with honey or brown sugar. In order to keep it vegan use maple syrup to replace honey when it is called for in a recipe. This vegan gingerbread loaf uses ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg with molasses and date sugar to give it a subtle sweetness.