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. 
This sounds amazing! I’d be shocked if the people you manage don’t think you’re the best boss ever!
beantownbaker — May 1st, 2013 @ 7:56 am
Ha, I’m ok with bribing them with baked goods into feeling that way 🙂
I wish my boss would do something like this for us. This cake sounds phenomenal! Anything that tastes like a donut gets an A+ from me!
beantownbaker — May 1st, 2013 @ 7:57 am
I had a boss once who would bring a store bought cake and cut it into the same number of pieces as there were people at the meeting. And he made us sing. It was horrible.
Definitely the best boss when you get homemade cakes that have been compared to a glazed donut! Congrats!!
beantownbaker — May 1st, 2013 @ 9:05 am
Thanks 🙂 I am pretty lucky in that my team is pretty awesome too.
Congratulations on the promotion! Your team sounds lucky to have you and this cake looks gorgeous!
beantownbaker — May 1st, 2013 @ 4:21 pm
Thanks!
Congratulations on the promotion!! This looks and sounds delicious!
beantownbaker — May 2nd, 2013 @ 9:05 am
Thanks
oh my! a giant glazed donut in cake form??!! yes please! i am sort of curious though as to why it’s called a kentucky butter cake 🙂
beantownbaker — May 2nd, 2013 @ 9:04 am
I have no idea why it’s called Kentucky butter cake. I did a quick Google search and it doesn’t look like anyone knows.
I’m glad there’s no explanation as to why it’s called a Kentucky Butter Cake, because I am making this for a themed food fest at work next week, and I’m changing it to Hawaiian Butter Cake so that I don’t have to find another recipe. 🙂
beantownbaker — May 2nd, 2013 @ 12:07 pm
I like the way you work 🙂
The staff meeting treat sounds like a regular monthly blog post…cant wait to see what is on deck next month
beantownbaker — May 2nd, 2013 @ 12:08 pm
For sure! I have already started asking my team members who have May birthdays about what they’d like. One said anything with chocolate. One said anything but chocolate. So that’s going to be a challenge! Luckily I’m the only June birthday so I’m going to go all out for June!
Ever seen The Office? Hehe… they looove birthday parties! And that’s so sweet that you’re acknowledging your workers like that. I’m sure you’re a great boss!
beantownbaker — May 2nd, 2013 @ 12:08 pm
Ha – if only we could all have parties like they do on The Office…
best boss ever 🙂 this looks fantastic!! we have birthday buddies that we bring cake for, and it’s a pretty awesome tradition 🙂
beantownbaker — May 2nd, 2013 @ 4:13 pm
Oh I like the birthday buddies idea! I’m not sure that would work for my team since it’s ~80% guys… I do joke that everyone needs a buddy cause sometimes I look around and can’t tell who we’re missing. It would be a lot easier to just ask if everyone’s buddy was here like when we were kids on field trips.
Yum! Looks devine! Such a perfect looking cake and the glaze makes it look extra shiny and pretty!
Oh, this is such a perfect looking cake 🙂
Oh, I so want a slice of this! Love cakes that are soaked with syrup. So yummy!
i made this on Friday for a brunch on Saturday. It was delicious and I got lots of compliments! I was surprised when i made it because there were no instructions about adding the butter to the batter. I assumed that the butter should be softened and mixed in, but I would’ve expected it to be mixed in earlier so that it would incorporate more fully. You might consider adding clarification to that step.
beantownbaker — May 6th, 2013 @ 5:46 pm
Glad you enjoyed the cake. The second sentence in the second step talks about adding the butter. Are the instructions confusing?
I think I’ve seen this recipe elsewhere on the interwebs… (of course my eye is drawn to anything Kentucky, my home state!) Glad to hear it’s so good!
beantownbaker — May 6th, 2013 @ 5:47 pm
It’s definitely out there on the web! I couldn’t find any info about why it’s called Kentucky Butter Cake though. Do you know anything about it? Do you guys eat it in Kentucky?
So the glaze is on the bottom of the cake correct? You don’t reserve any to pour over the top?
beantownbaker — May 13th, 2013 @ 8:24 am
Yep, you pour it all in to the bottom of the cake while it’s in the pan.
Hi there! Wonderful cake. Just wondering — did you let the cake sit overnight with the syrup soaking?
beantownbaker — September 10th, 2013 @ 7:58 am
Yep, I let the cake sit overnight after adding the syrup.