Christmas Cupcakes Recipe Gingerbread Eggnog Peppermint And More
Written by jheelum basu | October 1, 2024
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With the gleeful holiday carols, cold winter nights, aesthetic decorations, hearty greetings, and cakes, the air turns festive around Christmas. It spreads joy and love as friends and families come together. And, nothing captures the magic of the festive season like those homemade, pretty cupcakes shared with loved ones. From Gingerbread and Eggnog to Peppermint Mocha and Grinch, the cute little cupcakes bring colors and flavors to the Christmas dessert buffet like nothing else.
The sacred holiday carries an immense religious significance for Christians across the world as it celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ. However, with its universal jolly good appeal, Christmas celebrations have transcended the religious barrier over the centuries. Today, whether a Christian or not, everyone takes part in the joy ride. And, baking cakes following the
Christmas cupcake recipes is at the very core of the celebrations.
This year, let the guests have a truly ‘merry’ Christmas with these flavorful cupcakes. Let the
Christmas cupcake recipes take over and make the dessert board the star of the party with a variety of mouthwatering Christmassy delights.
Christmas Cupcakes: The Modern Celebrations
While the rich plum cake or plum porridge traditionally symbolizes Christmas delights, the dessert platter has evolved a lot over time. The traditional Christmas cake came from the medieval dish of meat and dried fruits called plum porridge. It was given a sweet, fruity, and festive makeover to create the plum cake in the 16th century, with the addition of flour, eggs, and butter
. Next, with a series of modifications during the Victorian Era, the fruit cakes became popular. And today, with their scrumptious taste and delightful decorations, cupcakes add a lot of joy to the festive spirit of Christmas. Here’s a list of the most popular
Christmas cupcake recipes to try out this year.
Gingerbread Cupcakes
These classic Christmas cupcakes feature a rich and spicy festive flavor. Made from molasses and a blend of fall-themed spices like cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, these little delights carry the essence of Christmas. They add more to the festive feeling with their Christmas-themed decorations on top, alongside cream cheese frosting. Here’s a quick recipe to make these cupcakes.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup unsulphured molasses
- ⅓ cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For Frosting
- 1 cup softened cream cheese
- ½ cup softened unsalted butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Step-by-step Guide
Prepare the cupcakes
Step 1:
Start by preheating the oven to 180°C. Prepare a muffin tin either with paper liners or by greasing butter on its bottom and sides. Keep it aside.
Step 2:
Take a mixing bowl and whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, cloves, and salt.
Step 3:
In a separate mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using an electric hand mixer. No, add the other wet ingredients like egg, molasses, and vanilla extract. Combine them thoroughly.
Step 4:
Now, combine all the dry and wet ingredients and mix them on low speed until just combined. Avoid overmixing as it often forms gluten, which leads to a dry cupcake.
Step 5:
Take the muffin tin and divide the batter equally among the lined muffin cups. Bake them for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Step 6:
Meanwhile, prepare the cream frosting by combining softened cream cheese, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Beat the ingredients together until creamy and fluffy.
Step 7:
Once out of the oven, allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan completely, and then only transfer them to a wire rack before frosting.
Step 8:
Using a piping bag, add the buttercream frosting on top. Don’t forget to add a gingerbread cookie on top. One may also add an edible Christmas tree or a snowman on top of the cupcakes and serve.
2. Eggnog Cupcake
While Eggnog is a traditional Christmas drink, these cupcakes are a baked version of the same flavor. These cupcakes combine the traditional Christmas flavors with new-age cupcakes. The recipe features a spiced cupcake base often topped with creamy eggnog or cream cheese frosting. Some recipes often add alcohol to it as well. A typical Eggnog cupcake baking method includes creaming butter and sugar before adding eggs and vanilla. Then the wet ingredients are mixed with dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and spices) and eggnog alternately. Once the batter is ready, it is baked at 180°C for 20 minutes. Besides the base cupcake, the fr
osting also features the flavor of eggnog along with cream cheese. Some recipes also infuse rum in the frosting for added flavor. Any kind of edible Christmas decorations can be added on top.
3. Peppermint Mocha Cupcake
This variation of the Christmas cupcakes combines the taste of peppermint with the decadence of chocolate. This recipe features a chocolate base cupcake with peppermint-flavored cream cheese frosting. While the basic ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, baking soda, and vanilla extract) remain the same, this recipe includes rich chocolate, instant coffee, and peppermint extract.
Here, the moist chocolate cake includes hot instant espresso for that signature flavor. Once the baking is done at 180°C and the cupcakes have adjusted to the room temperature, they are topped with creamy peppermint or peppermint vanilla buttercream frosting. For garnishing, one may use some chocolate drizzle and crushed candy canes or peppermint candies.
To create the winter wonderland look, one may sprinkle some icing sugar on top.
4. Spiced Apple Cider Cupcake
A combination of fall spices like cinnamon and nutmeg with apple cider brings in a quintessential festive flavor during Christmas. While the base cupcake carries the rich, spicy flavor, the topping is often just a simple buttercream frosting. Besides the basic ingredients like flour, butter, sugar, baking soda, and vanilla extract, the apple cider and fall spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves) are the highlights of the recipe. Often, ingredients like apple butter, applesauce, and caramel fillings are also used in the cake batter to further enhance the apple flavor. Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled down, they are topped with buttercream frosting. For garnishing, freshly sliced apples are used for some added flavor.
5. Grinch Cupcake
A Grinch cupcake is a quintessential Christmas delight. The theme of the cake is based on the fictional character, ‘The Grinch’ from Dr. Seuss's 1957 book, ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’. The cake features a bright green frosting and a small red heart decoration to symbolize both the character and the Christmas spirit.
Here, the base cupcake can be either vanilla or red velvet. The cupcake batter contains all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar, unsalted butter, eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and, of course, food colors. The vibrant colors of the cupcake are created by using food coloring. While the green color defines the main character, the red colored heart shape is placed upon the green frosting. Sometimes, yellow food colors are also used to mimic the Grinch's skin. The colors are used in buttercream frosting as well.
Conclusion:
When it comes to cupcakes, one can always say the more the merrier. And, when it is the Christmas season, does anyone really feel the festive vibe without some of these Christmassy cupcakes? This year, make the celebrations even more joyous and colorful with these