gingerbread cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting

 Can gingerbread be considered cake? just wondering….

Anyway, I accidentally baked gingerbread today. I wanted to alter a basic vanilla cupcake recip by adding molasses cane sugar and spices. Fifteen minutes after I popped them in the oven, I started smelling gingerbread. Guessed I should have seen that one coming. haha.

The magic ingredients that made gingerbread out of a vanilla cake recipe.

Family portrait. A highly reproductive mom and dad with their offspring. It’s like the cupcake version of rabbits! haha.

Anyway, they tasted great and the frosting complimented them perfectly. Learnt from my previous attempt at miniature cupcakes and didn’t frost too much either, and each bite turned out with just the right proportion of cake and cream. Can’t wait to bring some to campus tomorrow and pass them around… I love feeding people. Some kinda primitive maternal instinct I suppose *grin*

And FYI, molasses are really the most intriguing thing. They are so sticky and moist…you feel like you’re making sandcastles when you pack them into measuring cups. And the smell…it’s something wonderfully weird. Very “natural” and raw, you can actually detect the unprocessed-ness from the smell alone! Am I making any sense here? Haha. Just buy a packet or bottle of the stuff and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Gingerbread cupcakes with Vanilla buttercream frosting

(makes about 60 miniature cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup packed molasses cane sugar

1/4 cup white caster sugar

2 large eggs, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup milk

For the frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/8 cup cream

1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 4-5 mins. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition for about a minute. Beat in vanilla.

2. Whisk together all the dry ingredients and fold into the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk.

3. Spoon into cupcake holders and bake at 170 degree C for about 15-20 minutes, till a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

4. For frosting, beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. Spoon in half the sifted icing sugar and best till combines. Add the cream and beat for about 2 minutes until light. Add the remaining sugar and beat until fluffy, about 5-6 minutes (Add more sugar/cream to get desired consistency). The recipe makes quite a bit if you’re frosting only small stars like I did. I stored the extra in the fridge, it can keep for abour two weeks. Also, the weather here really makes the buttecream soft very quickly so you may have to keep on putting the cream in the fridge to harden a little before piping.