These Gingerbread Eggnog Cupcakes feature a warmly spiced cupcake, topped with a festive eggnog frosting. It’s the perfect way to use up your leftover eggnog!
And just like that, Christmas has come and gone. I wasn’t ready for it to be over, but I have to say that this Christmas was pretty great. Frank and I marathoned all of the classic Christmas movies, we watched the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City, and we got a beautiful little tree this year. Of course, now that Christmas is over, that means the new year is just around the riverbend. Um, how did 2017 whiz by so quickly?!
Before we get to 2018, I’ve got just one more recipe to share with you all. You might remember from my Double Eggnog Doughnuts post from last year that I’ve developed quite a taste for eggnog. In other words, I freaking love eggnog. So of course, I had to find a way to incorporate it into a baked good again this year.
And with that, I present to you these Gingerbread Eggnog Cupcakes!
I am a total sucker for all things gingerbread so it only seemed right to pair eggnog with it. It’s a good thing I decided to do so because the marriage of these two flavors is truly a thing of beauty. The cupcake itself is moist and spicy, but not too spicy. It’s just right.
The frosting is rich and really kicks the cake up a notch. It’s a pretty sweet frosting, so it’s perfect for those of you with a sweet tooth! Really, you can pair these gingerbread cupcakes up with any frosting (hello, cream cheese frosting), but I highly recommend giving this eggnog frosting a try!
The cupcake recipe itself is fairly simple, but the key here is in the sweeteners: the dark brown sugar and the molasses. With their powers combined, you’ll end up with a warmly spiced (and moist!) gingerbread cake. There’s nothing better than a nice gingerbread… anything on a cold winter’s day. FYI, it is snowing in New York at the moment so these cupcakes are the peeeerfect treat for me to turn to while I’m bundled up and watching Black Mirror.
Once the cupcakes have cooled, it’s frosting time! I used a Wilton 1M piping tip to get that soft serve ice cream look, but feel free to use whatever tip your heart desires. And the final step? Sprinkles, of course. As you can see, I used just about every variety of Christmas sprinkles out there to really give these cupcakes a festive look. I’m particularly fond of these holly sprinkles from Wilton – I mean, how cute are they?!
I hope you give these cupcakes a try! And more importantly, I wish you and yours a Happy New Year! I hope it’s filled with good bakes and good noms.
If you give these cupcakes a shot, let me know by posting a comment/rating the recipe!
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Gingerbread Eggnog Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 90 minutes
- Yield: 14 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These classic gingerbread cupcakes are topped with a festive eggnog frosting. It’s the perfect way to use up your leftover eggnog!
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cupcakes
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup water
Eggnog Frosting
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 5 tablespoons eggnog
- 1/4 teaspoon rum extract (optional)
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line your 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, brown sugar, molasses, and egg.
- Pour 1/4 cup of water into the butter mixture, followed by half of the dry mixture and stir. Repeat this step one more time until the mixture is thoroughly combined.
- Fill each liner 2/3 of the way and bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
- Once they’ve cooled, mix the softened butter and shortening together in a large bowl until smooth.
- Add 2 cups of the confectioner’s sugar to the butter mixture and stir until completely combined.
- Stir in the eggnog, rum extract, and nutmeg. Then, add the remaining 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar and stir until completely combined.
- Frost your cupcakes and decorate as you like!
Notes
Cupcake recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.
I actually hate when some yammer head leaves a comment about a recipe without having taken the time to actually make the damn thing. Buuuuuut… These babies look gooooooood. I would serve it by cutting 1/2 of the cake off, setting the top piece on a hot dry Teflon pan until perfect (a point that only I can determine*), putting it on a plate and placing the bottom on top of the frosting like a sandwich. Black coffee and a big bong hit. Now who’s the yammer head?
* There Was a woman in Albuquerque once that was almost as good as me.