These sticky gingerbread cupcakes are topped with a zesty orange-cinnamon buttercream. The perfect festive cupcake! They are easy to make and absolutely delicious.
I’ve been looking for a perfect gingerbread cupcake recipe for ages, and I’ve finally found it!
I must admit I go crazy for gingerbread – and not just in December! But my gingerbread baking definitely ramps up significantly during the festive period – I always make my easy iced gingerbread cookies and these soft and chewy spiced ginger cookies for Christmas gifts.
Just look at them – aren’t they cute??
These festive cupcakes are moist, sticky and full of festive flavour. I tried a few recipes before settling with this one – it’s perfect and easy!
And just as you might have already guessed, they smell amazing while they are baking – it’s such a spicy, festive smell!
Just like in this easy gingerbread loaf cake recipe, I use both golden syrup and treacle in these cupcakes – but if you can’t find treacle, don’t worry – you can just use more golden syrup.
I think the cupcakes look so cute topped with Christmas sprinkles and mini gingerbread people – almost too cute to eat!
easy gingerbread cupcake recipe
This is a “melt and mix” recipe – all you need to do is melt butter and sugar with some syrup or treacle, stir together some milk and an egg and mix in your dry ingredients. Super simple! Perfect if you’re in a hurry but still want to whip up something delicious for your family.
tips for making this sticky gingerbread cupcake recipe
- When measuring out the syrup or treacle, grease the bowl of your scales and spoon with some flavourless oil. It makes your life much easier!
- Sifting the dry ingredients together might seem like a bit of a pointless step, but it’s defintely worth doing. Mixing the flour, salt and spices together will give you a more even bake.
- When adding the dry ingredients to the wet, it’s much better to add it in three stages. If you dump it all in at once you will end up with lots of lumps that will take you ages to smooth out.
- When the cupcakes are ready, they will spring back when lightly pressed.
variations
Instead of using the zesty orange buttercream, you could top the cupcakes with my Biscoff frosting instead. I use this frosing to ice my gingerbread latte cake – it is absolutely heavenly!
storage instructions
These gingerbread cupcakes will keep for up to 3-4 days in an airtight container.
You can freeze the uniced cupcakes for up to 3 months.
did you make this recipe?
I really hope you loved them! Let me know what you thought of the recipe by leaving a comment below and please rate the recipe by clicking on the stars in the recipe card.
If you’ve taken a picture of your gingerbread cupcakes, I would love to see it!
Kids and grown ups won’t be able to resist these sticky gingerbread cupcakes!
More chrisTmas cupcake Recipes
more recipes using ginger for you to try
Sticky Gingerbread Cupcakes
These sticky gingerbread cupcakes are topped with a zesty orange-cinnamon buttercream. They are the perfect festive cupcake!
Ingredients
- 110g soft butter
- 110g soft light or dark brown sugar
- 110g golden syrup
- 110g treacle (or just add 110g golden syrup if you don't have treacle)
- 150ml milk
- 1 large egg
- 220g self raising flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- FOR THE ORANGE BUTTERCREAM:
- 350g icing sugar
- 150g soft unsalted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or orange extract
- finely grated zest of one large orange
- 3-4 tablespoons orange juice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F/Gas mark 4. Line a 12 hole cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Melt the butter, sugar, syrup and treacle together in a small pan over a low heat, stirring occasionally. Once the mixture has melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Place the milk and egg in a large bowl and mix well. Pour in the slightly cooled syrup/butter mixture and mix well again.
- Sift the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg together .Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in 3 stages, using a whisk to mix it all together. When the batter is smooth, pour into the liners, filling them no more than 2/3 full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the cakes are risen and spring back when lightly pressed. Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- to make the buttercream, cream together the soft butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes using an electric mixer on high speed. Add the vanilla or orange extract, orange zest and juice and ground cinnamon and beat for a further 2-3 minutes, scraping down the bowl with a spatula. Stop mixing when the buttercream is very light and fluffy.
- Using a piping bag fitted with an open star tip, pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcakes. Decorate with festive sprinkles and gingerbread people.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 429Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 63mgSodium: 312mgCarbohydrates: 65gFiber: 2gSugar: 45gProtein: 3g
Calories and nutritional information are provided by a third party application and should be viewed as indicative figures only.