Super moist and flavorful gingerbread cupcakes topped with classic cream cheese frosting that are a festive and fun dessert for the holidays!
Why You’ll Love These Cupcakes
- The cake is super moist and flavorful. There’s lots of ginger and molasses to give it that classic gingerbread flavor.
- Reverse creaming to make the cake batter leads to a tender texture that melts in your mouth.
- Classic cream cheese frosting on top pairs really well with the rich gingerbread sponge.
- They are a great holiday cupcake idea.
If you love these cupcakes, I’d also encourage you to try out pumpkin gingerbread cupcakes as well.
Key Ingredients & Notes
- All-Purpose Flour: Make sure to measure the flour correctly to avoid adding too much or too little. I highly recommend using a food scale for the most accurate results, otherwise use the spoon and level method.
- Baking soda and baking powder: as leavening agents.
- Dark Brown Sugar: dark brown sugar has more molasses in it than light brown sugar, and adds a deep, caramel-y sweetness to the cake batter.
- Unsalted butter and oil: A combination of butter and oil make up the primary fats in the batter. Use any neutral oil such as vegetable, canola, grapeseed, etc.
- Eggs, at room temperature: cold eggs do not combine well into the batter and may cause it to split. Soak eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes to warm them up for baking.
- Unsulphured Molasses: There are many types of molasses, all of which are a little different. Make sure you are using unsulphured molasses and not blackstrap molasses or sulphured.
- Spices: Wintery spices bring a lot of flavor to the cupcakes. You’ll need ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
- Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream: Both work great in this recipe. If using yogurt, make sure it is unsweetened and unflavored.
- Milk: use whole, full fat milk for the best results, but skim or dairy-free would also work.
- Vanilla extract: always and forever adding vanilla to baked goods.
- (Optional) Cocoa Powder: a little bit of cocoa powder in the batter gives the cupcakes a deep color without impacting the flavor.
How to Make Gingerbread Cupcakes
I use the reverse creaming method to make these gingerbread cupcakes. Reverse creaming is where you beat the dry ingredients with fats first, and then add the liquids last. This is the opposite of most traditional methods of making cake batter, where the dry ingredients go in last. I personally love reverse creaming since it yields a really soft, tender crumb and it’s a really forgiving method for making batter.
Step 1: Beat all of the dry ingredients, butter, and oil together in a mixer until it looks like wet sand.
Step 2: Beat in the eggs, molasses, and vanilla until smooth. Make sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl! It should look like a loose paste.
Step 3: Whisk the yogurt and milk together, and then slowly beat it into the batter until it is smooth. Make sure to not add the liquid ingredients too quickly.
Step 4: Divide the batter between two cupcake pans, filling them up to just over ¾ full. This recipe makes around 14 cupcakes.
Step 5: Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the cupcakes bounce back when you gently tap the tops.
To make the cream cheese frosting, the first step is to beat cream cheese and butter together until combined. Then, add in powdered sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt and whip it together until it’s light and fluffy. Frost the cupcakes with a knife or your favorite piping tip!
Tips for Success
Don’t over bake the cupcakes. To test if the cupcakes are done, you can use one of two methods. The first is the classic toothpick method, where you stick a toothpick through the thickest part of the cupcake and check if it comes out clean. The second is to gently tap the top of the cupcake at its thickest point. If it bounces back then the cupcakes are done.
Use room temperature ingredients. It’s important that the eggs, yogurt, and milk are all warmed to room temperature before baking. Cold ingredients and this cake batter are not friends. Since cold ingredients don’t mix together as well and can cause the batter to curdle, they will negatively impact the final texture of the cupcake. To quickly warm up the eggs, soak them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes. Then, to warm up the milk and yogurt (or sour cream), microwave them together for around 15 seconds.
Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting them. Even slightly warm cupcakes can cause the frosting to melt. However, if you just want to eat cupcakes without frosting (which I do quite frequently), then this doesn’t matter as much and you can definitely enjoy them warm!
Use fresh leavening agents. Did you know that baking powder and baking soda lose their effectiveness over time? f your leavening agents are well over a year old, or you’ve noticed your bakes not coming out with quite as good a rise, it may be time to replace them.
How to Store Leftovers
How to store leftovers will depend on whether the cupcakes are frosted or unfrosted.
Unfrosted cupcakes: Store unfrosted cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days, though for best results enjoy them within 2 days. You can also pre-make the cupcakes ahead of time and frost them when you’re ready to enjoy.
Frosted cupcakes: Since there is cream cheese in the frosting, make sure to store frosted cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge. They’ll last in there for up to 4 days, but are best enjoyed within the first day or two!
Pin and Save for Later
Not ready to bake yet but want to come back to this recipe? No problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (or tap on mobile) to save this recipe to your favorite baking Pinterest board.
Gingerbread Cupcakes
Ultra moist and flavorful gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cupcakes
- 1½ cups (180g) all purpose flour
- ¾ baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp fine kosher salt
- optional: 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 4 tbsp melted butter
- 4 tbsp oil
- ⅔ cup (120g) dark brown sugar 120g
- ½ cup unsulphured molasses
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- ½ cup milk, warmed to room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream or greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 tbsp (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 6 oz plain cream cheese, softened
- 3½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 13-14 cupcake tins.
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, spices, and dark brown sugar together until well combined.
- While continuing to run the mixer, drizzle in the melted butter, followed by the oil. Continue beating for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture resembles a moist sand.
- Beat in the egg, followed by the egg yolk, molasses, and vanilla extract. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Beat the mixture until it is well combined and resembles a soft paste (approximately 1 minute).
- Whisk the sour cream (or yogurt) and milk together. If the ingredients are cold, warm them quickly in the microwave for 15 seconds to bring them to room temp.
- While running the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in the milk mixture to incorporate it into the batter. Mix until the batter is smooth, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl if needed.
- Divide the batter between the cupcake tins, filling to just over ¾ full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the cupcakes are set and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, start by beating the cream cheese, butter, and a pinch of salt together in a mixer for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.
- Beat in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Then add the vanilla and continue beating for 2-3 minutes until you have a smooth frosting.
- Pipe the frosting onto cooled cupcakes, and feel free to decorate with gingerbread cookies.
Notes
- Do not use cold eggs when making the cupcake batter. Soak eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes to warm them up before using.
- If you only have one cupcake pan, then you may need to split the batter into two batches to bake.
- This makes enough frosting to pipe a bit of frosting onto each cupcake. If you prefer your cupcakes with less frosting, cut the recipe in half and use a knife to spread just a thin layer onto each cupcake.
- Store leftovers frosted cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge. However, unfrosted cupcakes can be left out at room temperature for up to 2 days.
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