When a gingerbread cupcake is done right, it can be one of your fave holiday desserts. My trick is making sure the ginger isn’t too intense but just enough to carry through. I also keep everything balanced with a moist molasses batter that’s got warm spices in the mix. Then I calm it all down by going more subtle with a classic vanilla maple buttercream topping. Everything just works so well.
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How to Make Gingerbread Cupcakes
Make the Cupcakes
- Add the butter, both sugars and molasses to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high speed until light and fluffy for about 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated.
- Add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, allspice, and cloves to the bowl in increments. Mix on low speed until well combined.
- Add in the buttermilk and vanilla and mix again until the batter is smooth.
- Scoop the batter into your cupcake liners filling three-quarters full.
- Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
Make the Buttercream Frosting
- Add the butter and salt to your stand mixer and beat at medium-low speed.
- Add the confectioners’ sugar in small portions and mix on low until all the sugar is added. Once it’s all in the bowl turn the speed up to medium-high and mix until it’s completely combined.
- Add the heavy cream, maple syrup, and vanilla extract to the bowl.
- Mix until the frosting is nice and fluffy.
Decorating the Cupcakes
- Pipe the buttercream on completely cooled and room-temperature cupcakes.
- Decorate your cupcakes with ginger cookies and serve.
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Gingerbread Cupcakes Recipe
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I’ll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup molasses
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 3 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 ½ tbsp Pure Vanilla extract
For the Buttercream
- 3 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ tsp salt
- 9 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 3 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- Ginger cookies with snowflakes
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and add liners to muffin pans and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add together butter, both sugars and molasses and beat on high speed until light and fluffy for about 5 minutes.
- Next add in eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated.
- Slow mixer to lowest speed and carefully add flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, allspice, and cloves in increments and mix until well combined.
- Lastly, mix in buttermilk and vanilla until smooth.
- Scoop batter into liners 3/4s full and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. These cupcakes don’t have a high dome, just fyi.
- Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.
For the Buttercream
- In your stand mixer, add butter and salt at medium low speed.
- Next, turn the mixer down to low and slowly add confectioners’ sugar in small portions until all is added, then turn the speed to medium high to combine.
- Add heavy cream, maple syrup, vanilla extract and mix until nice and fluffy.
- Pipe buttercream on room temperature cupcakes, decorate with ginger cookies and serve.
Video
Notes
- Do not over-bake. For a moist cupcake you want to bake just until a toothpick comes out clean. Over-baking may result in dry, tough cupcakes.
- Frosting your cupcakes. Be sure the cupcakes are completely cooled. If they are still warm the frosting may melt and slide off when added to the cupcakes.
- Don’t overfill the cupcake liners: These cupcakes don’t have a high peaked dome so you want to fill them up a bit more than other cupcakes. Fill to three-quarters but not any higher to leave a little room for the cupcakes to rise without overflowing.
- Use fresh spices: Spices don’t last forever in your cabinet. Be sure your ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg are fresh to ensure they provide the best flavor. Expired or stale spices can lead to a less flavorful cupcake.
- Accurate measurements are key to baking success: Use a spoon to measure dry ingredients into the measuring cups and level off with a knife when measuring.
Nutrition
Recipe Tips
- Do not over-bake. For a moist cupcake, you want to bake just until a toothpick comes out clean. Overbaking is gonna make those super dry.
- Frosting your cupcakes. Be sure the cupcakes are completely cooled. If they are still warm the frosting may melt and slide off.
- Don’t overfill the cupcake liners: These cupcakes don’t have a high peaked dome so you want to fill them up a bit more than other cupcakes. Fill to three-quarters but not any higher to leave a little room for the cupcakes to rise without overflowing.
- Use fresh spices: Be sure your ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg are fresh to ensure they provide the best flavor. Expired or stale spices ain’t it.
Recipe Help
The cupcakes do not bake up into a high dome but have rather flat tops. They shouldn’t have sunk though. The most likely cause is that they needed to bake for a bit more time. Make sure to check for doneness with a toothpick rather than only relying on time. Not all ovens are exactly the same so the baking time may vary slightly.
No worries! A freezer bag works great! Simply transfer your frosting to the bag and zip it shut. Then cut off one corner in order to squeeze out the frosting. Be sure you don’t cut the hole too large. You can also simply spread the frosting on top with a spatula or knife.
More Holiday Dessert Recipes
- Perfect Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate
- Pineapple Rum Cake
- Fruit Cake
- Cranberry Orange Cake Recipe
- Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake
- Red Velvet Cheesecake
If you love ginger flavors, definitely try my Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies, Gingerbread Cake, and Gingerbread Pancakes!
*Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating and leave comments below!* Post a photo of how your version of the recipe came out on Instagram (using #grandbabycakes)!!
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This is so pretty! I have to bake them up!
These sound delicious right about now! These look outstanding!!
These are divine! My family will love these! Yum!
They both look incredible! Saving!
All of these look so pretty to even be eaten! Lovely desserts for a holiday party; thank you for sharing!
Do you suggest using light or dark molasses?
I used light molasses and it was great.
Jocelyn, I assume you grease the Bundt pan well, but you don’t tell how long to bake the cake?????
Hi Jackie, I have no idea what happened but it is all there now with all of the instructions. For some reason, the bottom of the instructions didn’t go live originally. Let me know if you have any questions.
The recipe looks amazing but I’m hoping the nutrition information provided for the cake is incorrect! Perhaps it’s 662 calories and not 6,626?! Thanks for checking.
Ha yes it has been updated. The servings weren’t saved. Sorry about that!
Hi – could you please tell me what the bake temperature and baking time is for the Bundt cake? Also, are all the ingredients added in the same order? And do you recommend spraying and flouring the Bundt pan? Thank you.
Hi Debbie, yep its there now. Sorry about that, for some reason it didn’t show up originally.
These cupcakes look and sound so delicious and perfect with a cup of tea!
Thank you so much! I love the idea of serving this with tea.