Gingerbread Cupcakes

Last week was a little nuts, and by the time Friday rolled around, I needed some Christmas in my life! These adorable, festive cupcakes were perfect! Today, I am going to share the recipe for the gingerbread cupcake & the cream cheese frosting and tomorrow, I am going to share how I did those little gingerbread men on top because they were quite time consuming and I figured they deserved a post of their own! You can find the recipe for the gingerbread men HERE.

I found this recipe on Cooking Classy and if you are interested, you can find the original recipe HERE.

In a small bowl, mix together 1 2/3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg. Once the dry ingredients are mixed, set this bowl aside.

Then, in a medium sized mixing bowl mix together 1/4 cup of softened butter and 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Add in 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and 2 eggs - add the eggs in one at a time.

Mix in 1/2 cup of molasses.

Stir 1/3 of the flour mixture into the batter, then add in 1/4 cup of milk - stir until just combined. Repeat this process (add in another third of the flour mixture and another 1/4 cup of milk!) and finish off by adding the remaining 1/3 of the flour mixture.

Line your muffin tin with cupcake wrappers or lightly grease it. Fill it cup to by about 3/4 of the way full of batter.

Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the cupcakes are baked, let them sit in the muffin tin to cool for 10-15 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to let them cool completely.

While your cupcakes are cooling, whip up the icing! Using an electric mixer, mix together 1/2 cup of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of softened butter, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 cups of icing sugar (I ended up using a little more than 2 cups of icing sugar to thicken my icing sugar).

The icing recipe above, is the halved version of the original recipe. This recipe made 15 cupcakes, and I had just the right amount of icing with the halved version of the recipe! When the cupcakes are completely cooled, you can frost them!

I used a star piping tip as usual, but instead of swirling the icing around the cupcakes several times, I didn't move the piping bag at all, and just let the icing gather on top of the cupcake.

I topped my cupcakes with some little Christmas sprinkles and mini gingerbread men! They cupcakes turned out so cute and they tasted even better than they looked! If you are craving a little Christmas, I highly recommend making these!

GINGERBREAD CUPCAKES 
yield: 15 cupcakes
ingredients
for the cupcakes...
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup of milk

for the cupcakes...
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups icing sugar (I used more to thicken my icing)

directions
1. In a small mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg then set the small bowl aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together. Then, add in the vegetable oil and beat the eggs in one at a time. Once both eggs are added, mix in 1/2 cup of malasses.
3. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the medium mixing bowl and 1/4 cup of milk - mix until just combined. Add in another 1/3 of the flour mixture and another 1/4 of milk and mix until just combined again. Finally, mix in the remaining third of the flour mixture.
4. Grease a muffin tin or line it with cupcake wrappers. Fill each cup to be 3/4 of the way full of batter.
5. Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. When the cupcakes are baked, let them cool in the muffin tin for 10-15 minutes, before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. For the icing, use an electric mixer to whip together cream cheese, softened butter, vanilla extract and icing sugar. Ice the cupcakes using a knife or by filling a piping bag with the icing.

And that's it! I'll be back tomorrow with the recipe for the little gingerbread men I put on top of my cupcakes!