Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Since I now have a beautiful cupcake stand to fill, I decided to make some gingerbread cupcakes for the Christmas season.  I have never had the gingerbread flavours in cupcake form, so I made two different recipes to compare.

The first type I made were chocolate gingerbread cupcakes with a classic cream cheese icing (in the silver cupcake liners).  These smelled wonderful as they were baking, but I wasn't very happy with the flavour. In fact, my fiance actually advised me against giving them to friends and family!  To be honest, I had to agree with him.  The molasses completely overpowered the cupcake's other flavours so you couldn't taste the chocolate or the other lovely spices in the cupcakes. So those were a scratch.  I still really like the concept of chocolate with gingerbread, so I think I will play with this recipe and see if I can produce a chocolate gingerbread cupcake worth sharing :)

The second batch of cupcakes were Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.  I found these cupcakes on tastykitchen.com, and they renewed our faith in gingerbread cupcakes!  These were much lighter in flavour, but you could still taste the spices and the addition of molasses.  The cinnamon cream cheese frosting went so well with these, but they were delicious with classic cream cheese frosting too!  

I do apologize for the dark shots.  The good news is that the shortest day of the year was this past Tuesday, so they days are now slowly getting longer!  Hopefully I will be able to work with natural light again soon :)


This recipe makes 1 dozen cupcakes, and the cinnamon cream cheese icing makes enough to lightly frost 2 dozen cupcakes (as shown), or generously frost 1 dozen cupcakes.  As much as I love my cupcakes naked, these are amazing with the cinnamon cream cheese frosting!


Gingerbread Cupcakes

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add the flour, water, and molasses and mix well
5. Add the egg, baking soda, and spices and continue to mix until combined
6. Fill the prepared muffin tin with the batter, and bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted
7. Let cool before frosting

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
• 1 pkg (250 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream together the butter and cream cheese
2. Add the icing sugar a cup at a time, mixing until smooth after each addition
3. If the icing seems to thin after the last cup of icing sugar, you can add 1/4 cup more at a time until you reach your desired consistency
4. Mix in the cinnamon and vanilla
5. Frost your delicious gingerbread cupcakes
6. Enjoy!

From my family to yours, we hope everyone has an absolutely amazing Christmas this year!