Recipe: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Rum Buttercream| FOOD

Each year it’s become a Christmas tradition of mine to bake something gingerbread related on this blog; so far we’ve had the classic gingerbread biscuits (crowd-pleaser), the impressive gingerbread house and a gingerbread loaf. This year I decided to make gingerbread cupcakes with a rum buttercream!

The cupcake recipe is simple and straightforward, beating together the eggs, sugar and other wet ingredients ensures that the mix is light, giving fluffy cupcakes. While making these cupcakes, I ran out of cupcake cases so I ended up creating this as a cake version too which was a very happy accident which also looked fantastic. The flavours of ginger and rum go really well so for the buttercream, I adapted a standard buttercream recipe and added rum, emulating my rum butter recipe which I love. I piped this on top of the cupcakes and cake but you can use any piping nozzle you prefer.

To decorate, I made mini gingerbread men using my classic gingerbread biscuits recipe and just popped them on top of the cupcakes. It’s a little bit of extra effort but it makes them look incredible – you’ll have everybody reaching for these cupcakes at Christmas.

Keep scrolling for the recipe!

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Christmas Gingerbread Cupcakes – The Recipe

Makes 15

INGREDIENTS

For the cupcakes:

140g butter (room temperature)

180g soft dark brown sugar

60g black treacle

60g golden syrup

2 medium eggs

2 egg yolks

300g self raising flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cinammon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

240ml warmed milk

For the rum buttercream:

175g unsalted butter

350g icing sugar

4 tbsp rum

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and line two 12 hole muffin trays with 15 cases
2. Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add in the eggs, treacle and syrup and beat together
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, spices and salt. Mix together and add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
5. Beat together and then add half of the warmed milk. Mix well and then add the remaining flour and milk
6. Divide the mixture into the cake cases and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
7. Leave to cool completely
8. To make the icing, beat together the butter, icing sugar and rum using an electric whisk
9. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe onto the top of the cupcakes
10. Add any decorations before enjoying with a cup of tea

Have you made gingerbread cupcakes before?

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