Gingerbread Cupcakes

In the last few weeks, whenever I've been on other baking blogs or just surfing around for recipes, one thing popped up all the time:
Gingerbread Cupcakes.
Which is why I decided I should make some too. A few days ago I posted a gingerbread recipe, as a par of my 12 Days of Cookies, and I liked this recipe so much, that I decided to use it as an inspiration for my gingerbread cupcakes.
Which is why, when you read it, you think " wait a minute, that sounds familiar!!". Yes I used the same spices and I'm glad I did it, because those cupcakes are scrumptious!! 
As a frosting I made a Ginger Cream cheese frosting. The ginger flavor is light, and the cake is strong, which is really good. Those two parts balance each other out and make it perfect.
The cupcake it fluffy and moist, and after baking them, your house smells incredible and so christmas like, yummy.
For some time now, I started using sunflower oil instead of butter.
I don't know why, but I like it better. The fixing of the dough is easier and quicker and I think they come out better. 

For about 12 Cupcakes you'll need:

2 cups(240g) Flour
1 Tsp. Baking powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. ground Ginger
1/4 Tsp. ground Cardamom
1/4 Tsp. ground Cloves
1/2 cup(115g) Brown sugar
1/3 cup(80ml) Sunflower Oil
4 Eggs, at room temperature 
1 cup(240ml) Sugar beet syrup/ Molasses

1. Preheat oven to 340°F/170°C
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and the cloves into a medium size bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix the brown sugar and the oil. Give it a quick stir until combined.
Add one egg at a time, and make sure each is well combined until you add the next.
When this is done, stir in the sugar beet syrup/ molasses.

2. Now we add the dry ingredient to the liquid ingredient in 3 steps. Make here also sure that everything is combined until you add more dry ingredients.
Line a Muffin tin with paper baking cups. Fill the cups 3/4 full and bake for about 25- 30 minutes.
Let them cool completely before frosting them.

As for the frosting, I thought "Hmmm, you only want a light taste of ginger so you wont need that much", well I was wrong. I used fresh and ground ginger.

Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting:
16 ounces(450g) Cream Cheese, softened 
1/2 cup(115g) Butter, softened
2 cups(240g) Powdered sugar, sifted
5 cm/2 inch Fresh ginger, chafed
1/2 Tsp. ground ginger

1. Place the butter into a large bowl. With the highest speed of a hand mixer, beat for 3 minutes until it has a lighter color.
Add the powdered sugar, and start mixing with the lowest speed and get higher until the butter and powdered sugar are combined and it resembles really thick buttercream.

2.Add the cream cheese to the "buttercream" and mix until just combined.
Add the ginger and stir with a spatula. When you taste the cream cheese, it takes a few seconds until you really taste the ginger.
Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

I used a Wilton M1 tip for piping the frosting unto the cupcake. I love using this tip because it always looks so good on cupcakes.

 As for decorating the cupcakes, I used sprinkles, also by Wilton, with snowflakes and red and green sprinkles. It looks so pretty on top of those cupcakes and fits perfectly to the baking cups, which are also white, red and green.

I cut one cupcake in half, so that you can see how fluffy and moist(god actually I so don't like that word) they are.

Gosh, they really look good. And they taste soooo good. The gingerbread taste of the cake comes out so wonderfully and the with the frosting it's just perfect.

These Cupcakes are easy to make, but make an impression. So if you expect guest make those, and they'll believe you are a master baker even if you are only a beginner.

XOXO Owlicious