Guest Recipe: Emily's Gingerbread Cupcakes

Gingerbread is the perfect flavour for Christmas. If you love cupcakes and want to surprise your guests this festive season, why not try these delicious gingerbread cupcakes? They are easy to make and are the perfect warming treat for any cold evening!

• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 25 min
• Total Time: 35 min

Serves: 12 cupcakes

Category: Cakes,Christmas

Ingredients

For the cupcakes
• 180g butter, room temperature
• 120g golden caster sugar
• 60g brown sugar
• 180g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp ginger
• A splash of milk
• A drop of caramel extract

For the icing

• One tub of cream cheese frosting or vanilla frosting
• Gingerbread/Christmas-themed sugar toppers
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• A splash of caramel extract

Method

How to Make the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven (fan oven 180C/350F/Gas oven 4)
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy with a hand whisk.
3. Sift in the flour and mix well with the whisk.
4. Crack in the eggs and whisk the mix until combined, adding in a splash of milk and caramel extract.
5. Add the spices into the bowl and mix well. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
6. Scoop the mixture into cupcake cases using a teaspoon. It should perfectly fill up 12 muffin cases or one cake tin layer.
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The cakes should come out a golden colour. To check the cakes are cooked, use a cake tester. It should come out clean. If you gently push on the top, the cake should spring back.
8. Leave the gingerbread muffins in the tray to cool before decorating.

If you want to make your own buttercream icing, you can easily find recipes to suit your taste. However, Christmas is a busy time and you’ll no doubt want to spend more time with your family. Why not use ready-made frosting and adding your own spice? Plus, you'll get to eat them more quickly!

How to Make the Frosting

1. Spoon out 1 tub of frosting into a bowl.
2. Add the mixed spice and caramel extract, and whisk with an electric whisk.
3. Mix the two together until combined and fluffy. You could add extra icing sugar if you want a thicker buttercream.
4. Spoon into a piping back with your tip of choice. You could get creative with what you use!
5. Pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes in whatever pattern you like.
6. Top with festive Christmas decorations or a mini gingerbread person!

You can store these cupcakes in an airtight container for up to a week. Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen for 1-2 months.

Make sure you fully thaw before icing and serving! They don't last long when put on the table and will go down as a treat with any guests this Christmas.

I recommend serving with a cup of coffee or a Bailey's!

Alternatives to Try

If you don't want a spiced frosting, you could always use cream cheese or vanilla frosting as it is. Both work perfectly with the gingerbread cake! You could also sprinkle cinnamon on the top to make the cupcakes look prettier and add extra flavour.

If you want to bake more, why not create some mini gingerbread people? You could use a small cookie cutter to create mini people to top your cupcakes with instead of using sprinkles. Breaking up gingerbread from the shops is also an option if you're running out of time!

If you're serving these at a party, you could make boozy buttercream! These cupcakes taste amazing with Irish cream frosting. There are lots of recipes online for you to try that would all work with the cupcake recipe.

And you don’t have to make cupcakes! You can double the recipe and create a two-layer gingerbread cake. You could also keep the recipe the same and make a gingerbread traybake, perfect for kids’ Christmas parties or school fairs.

Emily is a lifestyle, productivity and personal finance blogger based in Cambridge. Over on her blog, Love Em, you’ll find tips and tricks to save and make money while living your life intentionally and to its fullest potential.