Deck The Holiday Gingerbread Mini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

To me there is no flavor and aroma that says Christmas more than gingerbread baking. It’s so welcoming with it’s warm fragrant spices of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.

mini gingerbread cupcake cream cheese frosting

It’s another baking memory I have growing up. My mom would make gingerbread for a Sunday dinner from a boxed mix along with an envelope of Dream Whip. Try not to judge. It was the 60’s and boxed mixes, cans and frozen vegetable medleys meant your mom was the modern, groovy mom and your house was the one your friends wanted to be asked to stay for dinner. Nevertheless, I find myself smiling over the batter made from scratch as the mixer spins round twirling this scent throughout my kitchen. You’ll find the recipe at the end of the post that I used to make these mini gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Since I finally finished decorating my tree today, and I’ve still got to head out and take care of last minute shopping, my baking time is tight but I’ve got some really cute Royal Icing Decorations made by Wilton that I used to decorate my mini gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for a company party and I knew from the crazy response  from the Halloween royal icing decorations on my Instagram and Facebook pages and when my photo was featured on Wilton’s Instagram page (over 6200 “likes”) that you were crazy about them too!

If you’re thinking these decorations are like fragile home-made royal decorations, they’re not. They’re thicker and very sturdy and they come well packaged.

This holiday season Wilton offered 4 different designs:

The Vintage Holly and Snowflake have a shimmer, pearlized effect.  Very pretty.

Wilton Christmas Icing Decorations

How adorable are these stockings that come with an edible ink marker so you can personalize a cupcake or cookie?  Another idea is to place a personalized icing stocking on a big fluff of whipped cream in a cup of hot cocoa. How cute would that be for a kids’ party or to warm up with a hot toddy after an evening of caroling? Fa-la-la-la-la-love it!

Wilton Christmas Icing Decorations

After I gave a swirl of icing to a cupcake using a plain open 1/2″ round decorating tip, I placed the royal icing decoration on top and added a few Wilton white nonpareils to resemble tiny snowballs before the icing set so they would stick to the surface.

Wilton Christmas Icing Decorations

For a wintry presentation, I placed the cupcakes on a silver tray and sprinkled the white nonpareils and Wilton’s chunky White Sugar Crystal between the cupcakes and around the rim for a frosty, icy effect. The white sugar crystal are like chunky little cubes of rock candy.

 Wilton Christmas Icing Decorations

Festive, Merry & Fast! In other words, perfect!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year! See you in 2016, my friends!

Wilton products used in this post: (Many of these products can be found locally where Wilton products are sold)

Royal Icing Decorations-
Stocking Icing Decoration with Edible Ink Marker
Christmas Tree Icing Decoration
Snowflake Icing Decoration
Vintage Holly Icing Decoration

Perfect Results Mini Muffin Pan
White Nonpareils Sprinkles
White Sugar Crystals
Gold Foil Mini Baking Cups
Candy Cane Mini Baking Cups

 As a Wilton Brand Ambassador and member of the Wilton Sweet Treat Team, I received product and/or compensation for this post by Wilton Cake Decorating. All ideas and opinions are my own and all the products were chosen by me to share with you because I use them and love them and thought you might have fun trying something new and like them too.

 

Gingerbread Mini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Serves 48
Print
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
10 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
10 min
For the cupcakes
  1. 1 3/4 cups all-purposes flour
  2. 1 teaspoon baking powder
  3. 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  4. 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  5. 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  6. 1/4 teaspoon salt
  7. 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  8. 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  9. 1/2 cup molasses
  10. 1 large egg
  11. 1/2 cup water
For the cream cheese frosting
  1. 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
  2. 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  3. 2 teaspoons vanilla or 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the cupcakes
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place mini baking cups into pan.
  2. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, salt and set aside.
  3. Mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg.
  4. Add 1/4 cup of the water to the melted butter mixture, then add half of the dry mixture. Mix and scrape the bowl. Add the remaining water and dry mixture, stirring until thoroughly combined.
  5. Scoop with a mini ice cream scoop or spoon the batter into the baking cups, filling 1/2 to 3/4 full.
  6. Bake 10 minutes for mini cupcakes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into a cupcake. Transfer cupcakes to rack to cool completely before icing.
For the cream cheese frosting
  1. Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla or vanilla and cinnamon, half & half to thin out icing if it's too stiff. Beat until well combined. Decorate cooled cupcakes.
Notes
  1. Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting can be made by adding 1 teaspoon of cinnamon or more if you prefer, to the frosting mixture.
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Sweets To Impress http://www.sweetstoimpress.com/

Spritz Christmas Cookies – Dipped and Delish!

Christmas Spritz Cookies jar-0579

When I was a little girl, about eye level with the table, I remember my mom making spritz cookies for Christmas. They seemed like so much effort for such a small cookie – filling up the copper colored aluminum tube, turning the nob that screwed the plunger down to push the dough through the tube and shaped discs.  Problem was you never knew how much dough was coming out – were you turning the knob too much or too little? … [Read More]

Dressing Up Your Halloween Drinks

Wilton Halloween Mold

“Where can a nice ghoul go to get a drink?”  Right here!  Whether it be alcoholic or not (can’t believe I offered an option) I’ve got a couple easy ideas to make your Halloween drinks fun with a few Wilton Halloween products. I’m not normally a blood n’ guts Halloween enthusiast but I don’t mind a little faux A positive for festive effect especially when it’s sparkly.  It’s just friendlier that way.  I found this over-sized bowl at Kohl’s and… [Read More]

Ghost Petit Fours for A Halloween Party

Wilton Ghost Petite Fours

Boo! Do you believe in Ghost Petit Fours? I do! And if you do too I’ve got a quick and easy tutorial for you that’s perfect for a little treat this Halloween. These little bite-sized treats are literally a piece of cake with a smooth glaze coating and are a perfect baking project for beginning bakers and sweet decorators.  They start with a very cool and versatile Breakfast Bites baking pan by Wilton. Although I immediately thought of the Ghost… [Read More]

18 Mini Reasons You’ll Love This Zucchini-Pumpkin Bread Recipe!

With summer still going strong here in Southern California our garden continues to reward us with a bounty of zucchini. Yay! But I still want to usher in the festive feeling of fall even with our hot temps. By this time of year, I’m ready for earthy colors, and fragrances of warm spice with pumpkin flavors so I came up with an idea to incorporate the best of both seasons for a tasty transition into fall with a Zucchini-Pumpkin Bread… [Read More]

“Totally Cool For School” Dipped Caramel Apples with Cut-Out Fondant Decorations

caramel apples with fondant decorations

Apples and teachers go together like No. 2 pencils and college-rule lined paper or for my years in school, a No. 2 pencil and many, many pink pearl erasers.  I’d even venture to say on every teacher’s desk from kindergarten through eighth grade you’ll find the iconic symbol of their profession in the form of a paper weight given as a token of appreciation. But wouldn’t be nice to start the new school year totally “old school” giving a treat… [Read More]

Groovy 60’s Inspired Tie-Dyed Decorated Daisy Cupcakes

retro 60's cupcakes

Peace, love and Bobby Sherman. It was the golden era of bubblegum music, tie-dyed shirts and bell-bottomed pants. In the late 60’s and early 70’s colorful daisies and happy faces were on everything, at least in my world, from posters and bed spreads to flowery stationery and book covers. Somewhere in my stash of relics from my innocent youth there’s a “Have a happy day” button – the real deal, so groovy and far out, as I hope you’ll think… [Read More]

Fourth of July Red, White & Blue Bunting Cupcakes

Wilton-Color-Right-Red-White-and-Blue-Cupcakes

Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays – the festive atmosphere from parades early in the day to the anticipation of sparkling, booming fireworks late at night.  The entire day is wrapped up in a trio of colors and feelings that resonate from a place of deep love for my country. I love the patriotic bunting and paper lanterns strung across the lights that criss-cross from under the eves of the roof to the big trees in our… [Read More]

Gentleman Jack (Jack Daniels) Cupcakes Recipe

Gentleman jack Cupcakes

Chivalry is not dead. And ladies, we need to invite and welcome it back into our lives again. I think it’s good for all parties involved.  When you think about it, when a stranger opens or holds the door for you, two smiles are exchanged and if you’re feeling particularly friendly the cherry on the top of the obligatory “thank you” might be to say, “That was really nice of you”.  A widened smile will always greet you in return… [Read More]

Wilton Sweet Up 2015 Recap

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege and honor of being invited for an all-expense paid trip to Wilton Cake Decorating’s HQ near Chicago for their annual Sweet Up where new products are launched and trends are discussed. Guests were a mix of bloggers and vloggers. We felt very welcomed indeed! I’m a little late to the recap post party as I caught a bug on the flight home and I’ve been out of creative commission for almost two… [Read More]