Skip to main content

Festive Gingerbread Cupcakes


So, in other news today, Susie has published yet another gingerbread post ...

Yes, gingerbread, again. I know. I'm sorry. But it is that time of year. And besides, I think I told you that I love the stuff ...

Anyway, you may recall my recent Snowy Gingerbread Cottage post, in which I told you all about the humongous amount of gingerbread dough I made from a BBC Good Food recipe? I said that I had made an army of gingerbread men, and this is where they turned up. As incredibly cute (even if I say so myself) cupcake toppers dipped in dark chocolate!


Sadly, I can't take the credit for this fab idea, as I first noticed it on a Sweetapolita post last year. But it stuck in my head and I thought that when I had an opportune time, I would give it a go. And Oh My, they are delicious! Even on their own.


But on top of Gingerbread Cupcakes with Ginger Buttercream? Now you're talking my kind of winter warmer.


The cupcakes are easy to make, and I have adapted the recipe slightly from one I found in Christmas Heaven (one of the regular Food Heaven series of baking magazines) by Tamara Jane. The recipe can also be found in her book, Celebration Cupcakes.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Ginger Buttercream

Ingredients (makes 12)

150g plain flour
1/8 tspn bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tspn salt
1 tbspn ground ginger
1/4 tspn mixed spice
75g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 medium eggs (53-63g each in the shell) lightly beaten
50g crystallised ginger, finely chopped
80ml soured cream

For the buttercream
125g soft unsalted butter
400g icing sugar, sifted
45ml whole milk
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
1 tspn ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 155 Fan / 170 Conventional / Gas 3. Prepare a muffin tray with cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt into a bowl and set aside.

Place the butter and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and blend using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy (this should take a good 5 minutes with the mixer on medium-high).

Add the eggs one by one and mix until smooth.

Add half the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, along with half the soured cream. Mix until blended. Add the remaining dry ingredients and soured cream and mix until blended.

Fold in the crystallised ginger so that it is evenly distributed.


Scoop the mixture into the cupcake liners so that they are about half full.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 - 22 minutes, until risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


To make the buttercream, place the butter in the mixer with the paddle attachment and blend so that it's smooth. Add the other ingredients, and then with the mixer on low to start, then moving to medium-high, mix until well blended. Keep the mixer going for a few more minutes so that the buttercream is light and fluffy. If you need to (if the mixture is a bit stiff) you could add a little more milk - maybe 1 tspn. Use to  pipe or smooth onto the cupcakes (I used it to pipe swirls using a Wilton 2D piping tip).


To make the cupcake toppers, I just used some gingerbread dough rolled thinly and cut out small cookies using the smallest gingerbread man I had. They only took a few minutes to bake until they were crisp and golden. Once they had cooled completely, I melted about 75g of plain, dark chocolate (70%), and then dipped the cookies, leaving them on a piece of baking parchment to harden. I also made some candy canes as well - you could do anything! The only thing to bear in mind is that the buttercream can make the cookies soften after a little while - so add the toppers just before serving so they stay crunchy.


The cupcakes are really lovely and moist, and they are not too gingery. There is a lovely warming background note, and then you get a little piece of crystallised ginger which intensifies the flavour momentarily. The buttercream is not too sweet, either - just right with the cupcakes - and the dark chocolate on the toppers gives an exotic hint of bitterness.

Enjoy,

Susie

Comments

  1. ANOTHER fabulous ginger recipe, bring them on as I adore ginger! And such gorgeous little cakes too....very elegant! Karen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Karen - I don't think you can have too much ginger! :)

      Delete
  2. It's obviously a case of great minds think alike as I have gingerbread cupcakes lined up for the weekend too...I hope they look as good as these as yours look gorgeous...love your gingerbread men half dipped in chocolate...a very effective look. And just had a look back at your caramel cake...looks pretty good to me! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, yes - can't wait to see yours though Laura, as your work is always so lovely. You always manage to make everything look really special! :)

      Delete
  3. Now that is ginger heaven. Those little chocolate gingerbread men are so loveable especially perched on top of ginger cupcakes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love ginger too and you are so right about it being perfect at this time of year. I have just realised that this is the same sponge recipe that I made a few weeks ago, from the extraordinary art of cake blog. I agree that these are fantastic little cakes. I used a different icing, but I may try yours next time. I love the little gingerbread man toppers, and I just happen to have recently purchased a mini gingerbread cookie cutter! Thank you for a great blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These look so cute and professional. I especially love the gingerbread men toppers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. These look fabulous! I love the cute gingerbread men decorations. They sound yummy too :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. How goooooood do these little fellas look! Just perfect for the Christmas run up. Have you got a shop? If not you should have.

    ReplyDelete
  8. These look magnificent, I wish I could ice a cake like that and the gingerbread men are divine:-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Camilla! The icing is just piped with a Wilton 2D tip - as long as the consistency of the icing is right, you just steadily swirl around the top of the cupcake - the tip does all the wok for you. :)

      Delete
  9. I am in love! absolutely adore the way you half dipped them in chocolate! I'm planning on making all our decorations this year for our tree since i didn't bring any out with me...and these will definitely feature!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gem! I love the idea of decorating the tree with cookies. Hope you share yours on the blog as I'd love to see it! :)

      Delete
  10. Adorable - love the addition of chocolate to the gingerbread.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks CC - it does add a bit of a difference to them! :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Your comments are very much appreciated.

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Indulgent Chocolate and Walnut Brownies for the Weekly Bake Off

It's been a great couple of weeks in the Bake Off , as Amy has chosen some fantastic chocolate recipes from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes . Although I made last week's American Chocolate Ripple Cheesecake, I didn't enter it. Not because it was a disaster (it was incredibly delicious though very rich - Josh has been able to eek it out all week as he only needs a little piece to get his daily chocolate fix!), but I simply ran out of time. So this week, I decided to get my skates on and make the bake early. Particularly as it's brownies. Yes. Brownies. Those dark, fudgey, chocolatey little bites of heaven. But for me, this week was an experiment. You see, I already have a fantastic brownie recipe . It's been made countless times and been played around with to give an endless variety of treats. (Have I ever mentioned Maya Gold in brownies? Yes? Well I'll have to post about them someday soon because they are amazing - like some sort of out of body exp

Not Viennese, but Swiss Cakes for the Weekly Bake Off

One of my strongest childhood memories is the ritual of our family's Sunday Tea, which always took a certain form. My nan would put the kettle on at just before 4pm, and a pot of steaming hot tea would soon be brewed. There were sandwiches, and always, always some form of cake. Quite often, if nan and mum had had a busy weekend, it would be provided by Mr Kipling. My brother and I looked forward to this with some enthusiasm, as there were quite often French Fancies and Vienniese Whirls, which were our hands-down favourites. We could leave the Battenburg Slices, and the jam tarts were often a bit too dry  for us (definitely not as good as homemade). But the soft sweet inside of an iced French Fancy (my favourite being the lemon yellow ones), and the moistness of the Viennese Whirls were something to savour. Of course, you can still buy these. But they just don't seem to taste the same somehow. So when Amy announced this week's Bake Off challenge as the Apricot Swiss

Limoncello Cake

I really love this cake. I mean really love it. So much so, it's my new best friend. It's like sunshine on a plate. The citrussy aroma tempts you while the sultry lemony pucker hits you full in the mouth. And who can resist anything with 'Limoncello' in the title? The mere mention of the word transports you to to the Sicilian sun. It's one more reason I have to thank Random Recipes for getting me to delve into my cookbooks. This month's challenge had a bit of a twist. Dom, of Belleau Kitchen (who runs the challenge) created a Randometer thingummy-bob to test us. You had to enter how many cookbooks you owned, and then it would generate a random number. You counted along your shelf to that book, and then entered the number of pages, to generate another number and so find your Random Recipe. The gods must have been looking favourably on me this month, as I ended up with this gorgeous lemon cake, from Peggy Porschen's 'Boutique Baking