Mini Gingerbread Men :)

Yesterday, I posted a delicious gingerbread & cream cheese frosting cupcake frosting recipe and today I'm sharing the recipe for those cute little gingerbread men that sit on top of the cupcake! You can find the cupcake recipe HERE and here a picture of the cupcake for reference:

So cute, right? Well the recipe I used for the little ginger bread men is from Mrs. Field's Cookie Book and I quartered the recipe because I only needed 15 gingerbread men. I ended up with 88 (!!!) mini gingerbread men! So if you want to cut this recipe down even more - go for it, but the extra gingerbread men are delicious for snacking on!

In a small mixing bowl, cream together 1/4 cup of softened butter and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. Then, mix in 1/4 of an egg (this is about 1 tablespoon) and 2 tablespoons of molasses. Once the wet ingredients are well combined, mix in 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/16 teaspoon of salt (I just used a pinch), 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger. Finally, mix in 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour (I ended up needing more flour to thicken the dough).

Once your dough gathers into a ball, place it on a generously floured surface.

Roll the dough out to be about 1/4 of an inch thick and use a cookie cutter to cut out the dough into gingerbread men (or whatever shape you would like). I used a gingerbread man cookie cutter that is about 1 1/2 inches tall.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet. I ended up with 88 gingerbread men and I eventually got tired of cutting these little guys out so I baked the last little bit of dough as circles! Bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the cookies are done baking, transfer them to a wire rack to let them cool. When the cookies are completely cool you can ice the little faces and buttons on them! For the icing, I kept it simple - 1/3 cup of icing sugar and 1/2 - 1 tablespoon of milk. I loaded this icing into a piping bag with a tiny circle tip. I piped little smiley faces on the ginger bread men and used a little piping to stick on some red sprinkles to make the buttons.

The above picture shows the final product - on top of each cupcakes is some cream cheese frosting, some Christmas sprinkles and a mini gingerbread man. Now if only I could get Christmas to come faster!!

MINI GINGERBREAD MAN
ingredients
for the cookies...
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/16 teaspoon salt (I used a pinch)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 of an egg (about a tablespoon)
2 tablespoons of molasses

for the icing...
1/3 cup of icing sugar
1/2 - 1 tablespoon milk

directions
1. Cream together the butter and brown sugar in a small mixing bowl. Mix in the egg and the molasses.
2. Stir in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ground ginger.
3. Mix in the flour (you might need additional flour to thicken the dough).
4. Once the dough forms a ball, transfer it onto a generously floured surface. Roll the dough out to be about 1/4 of an inch thick.
5. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the little gingerbread men - I used about a gingerbread man cookie cutter that is about 1 1/2 tall.
6. Place the cookies on baking sheet and bake them for 9-11 minutes.
7. When the cookies are baked, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are cooling, mix together the icing sugar and the milk.
8. Prepare a piping bag with a small circular tip and fill it with the icing. Pipe eyes and a smile on the gingerbread men's faces and use a bit of icing and a red sprinkle to put buttons on their stomachs.

Let me know if you have any questions :)