All the warm flavors of the holiday season packed into one bitesize cupcake.
It took me five tries to get this gingerbread cupcakes recipe right. Call it determination. Call it my love for all things sweet. Through my mission to master gingerbread, I implemented a variety of ingredient adjustments and ratio adjustments to tweak the taste to my liking. While I appreciate the sticky, spiciness of gingerbread, there are some things that just don’t sit well with me- that remind me of a fruitcake that everyone serves at Christmas, but that no one actually likes… do they? So my goal was to #bringbackgingerbread.
The first gingerbread recipe I tried had a larger amount of flour than most other recipes, which resulted in a dry cupcake. While the cream cheese frosting drew attention away from this blatant flaw, I wasn’t satisfied. I began by replacing the butter in the recipe for oil- for a tender crumb. The product was a sticky, dense mass. Flavorful? Yes. But not an appropriate texture for a cupcake, known for fragility and delicacy. Finally, the cupcake I was pleased with consisted of less flour, more liquid, butter and of course, fresh ginger. I find it strange how people can give this cake the name of ‘gingerbread’ without any ginger- especially when ginger is such a pungent, rich root, adding the perfect amount of smell and flavor to a dish.
Let’s hope that all of my work was worth it, and you enjoy this gingerbread cupcakes recipe!
It is important to note that most gingerbread recipes call for molasses, a thick, syrupy liquid made from sugarcane. Molasses is often added to granulated sugar to make brown sugar because it adds that slight caramel flavor. It is dense and gives the cupcakes a rich earthiness. In the UK, molasses is known as black treacle. For my friends living in Poland, you can buy treacle at Kuchnie Świata or online at Allegro.pl, but if you want to look for a more local version, look for “Melasa” or “Syrop Trzcinowy” – it is pretty widely available.
These cupcakes pair beautifully with the lemon-infused cream cheese icing. They have a tender crumb and just the right amount of ginger. If you’re looking for something to make for Christmas or New Year’s, look no further.
URLs in this post:
[1] Print Recipe: https://hotchocolatehits.com/wprm_print/23270
[2] Pin Recipe: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/bookmarklet/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhotchocolatehits.com%2F2015%2F12%2Ffresh-gingerbread-cupcakes.html%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fhotchocolatehits.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F12%2FScreenshot-2023-08-24-at-10.36.59.png&description=Fresh+Gingerbread+Cupcakes&is_video=false
[3] Rate Recipe: #commentform
[4] Taste of Home: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/gingerbread-cupcakes
[5] The Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/cream-cheese-frosting-recipe.html
[6] Red velvet cupcakes: https://hotchocolatehits.com/2015/07/red-velvet-cupcakes.html/
[7] Spicy chocolate cupcakes: https://hotchocolatehits.com/2014/03/hot-chocolate-cupcakes.html/
[8] Vanilla cupcakes (vegan option): https://hotchocolatehits.com/2020/11/fluffy-vanilla-cupcakes-eggless-and-optionally-vegan.html/