Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Gingerbread is a classic holiday flavor. I actually had never had gingerbread until I met Hubby. I guess it just wasn’t part of my eating background growing up. A few years ago I made some gingerbread cut out cookies that had a lemon cream cheese frosting piped onto them. I was remembering those cookies when I decided to make these cupcakes. I’m entering these cupcakes into Baking Bites Holiday Cupcake Contest (and just barely in time since entries are due by midnight tonight!)
I love these cupcakes because they have very festive sprinkles, (I love sprinkles), festive colors, and festive flavors. For the frosting, I made a lemon cream cheese frosting. Lemon actually pairs really well with gingerbread even though most people gave a weird look when I told them the frosting flavor.
I mentioned the festive colors. Not only are the sprinkles red and green, but the cupcake liners are as well. I love the vibrant colors of these liners and I’m hoping Santa brought me some more, because I’m starting to run low.
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: 24
Ingredients:
For the Gingerbread Cupcakes
1 1/2 c flour
2 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 c (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/2 c sugar
3 Tbsp molasses
4 eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 stick unsalted butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, grated
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Directions:
For the Gingerbread Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
Sift flour and spices together and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses and beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low, add flour mixture until just combined.
Fill each muffin tin ~3/4 full. Bake ~25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
With an electric mixer on medium, beat the cream cheese and butter until softened. Slowly add the sugar, zest, and juice and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes.
Gingerbread Cupcakes recipe from Martha Stewart
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting recipe adapted from 52 Cupcakes
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Yum! These look FABULOUS!!
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
I’m so curious to see what homemade marshmallows taste like! They look pretty awesome in the pictures!
yum!!! i love homemade marshmallows!!! i like to chocolate dip 2 sides so they look like little ice cream sandwiches!
I wouldn’t even need chocolate and graham crackers to enjoy these. I could gobble them up all by their lonesome.
Hmm, I would think they’re really tricky but it sounds like I was wrong. I’m not the biggest marshmallow fan but I have a feeling that homemade taste way better!
Marshmallows have been on my shortlist for a while now. You just pushed me over the edge. I can just see some dipped in chocolate or rolled in toasted coconut and packaged up for the holidays! Question – where do you find the gelatin in the supermarket? In the baking aisle?
Rachel
http://theavidappetite.com
You can actually put the marshmallows in the fridge, and they will set up faster.
I don’t like store-bought marshmallows (unless they’re toasted), but the homemade ones just have such an incredible texture… and I love that you can flavor them however you want. I used to make 5-spice marshmallows at Flour. I really want to make them at home.
These look gorgeous! I might have to make some for hot chocolate season.
I
WANT
THESE
NOW.
Seriously. These look amazing!!
How many grams of gelatine are in each pack? I have a feeling different countries have different amounts…
I had a great cassis marshmallow at an afternoon tea recently and thought they were really hard to make.
I have yet to make homemade marshmallows….I need to get over that fear!
Silly question…
If I was making Rice Krispie Treats could I just mix the cereal in and then pour it all into a pan to set up?
I just thought they might taste better with the homemade marshmallow.
Thanks.
Rachel – The gelatin is near the Jello in my super market. It’s up on the top shelf.
Cupcake Kelly – My box of gelatin says 1 oz for 4 small envelopes. Does that help?
yipeiokyay – Sounds like it could work. You might want to throw some butter in too? Alton Brown did say you can use them to make Rice Krispies treats during the episode, but he implied that you do it after they have set up.
To everyone who has been afraid of making marshmallows – it’s seriously SO EASY. Do it!
I love love love making marshmallows! You can flavor them, too, so try out different extracts and flavorigns in them for an extra kick. Peppermint ones with mini chocolate chips on top are AWESOME
Okay, even tho I read your blog often, this is the first recipe I’ve actually tried. I’ve been dying to do homemade ‘mallows because the stay-puff ones taste like the gas they use to puff them up. 🙁 Mine are drying now, so no report on how they came out yet, but I have to agree – except for my nervousness working with hot candy (legacy of a drop of hot caramel on a bare foot that left a mark for years) – these were super-easy.
Question: my gelatin smelled kind of bad when it had sat in the water for a while, tho the smell seems to have gone away. Did this happen to you? Could my gelatin have been a little funky? (Can gelatin even go funky?). Thx!!
Virginia – I do remember the gelatin having a weird smell that does go away. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. A friend told me that if you can’t wait the full 4-hours you can pop them in the fridge to speed up the process.