These Eggnog Gingerbread Cupcakes marry together two of my favourite Christmas flavours! Homemade eggnog is added to a rich gingerbread cake batter to make sweet, spicy and delicious festive cupcakes!
Well hello there, how are you? How is your Christmas preparation going? Mine is not going well. I’ve barely bought a present and haven’t even looked at writing a Christmas card. I’m struggling a little to feel festive this year. I think I’m just exhausted after a long, often tiring, busy, stressful year.
We were back and forth to Essex, doing the final push to get the house done last month. We kept finding more stuff they’d broken, so my dad had to go up there again to help us. Also, my husband has had a bad shoulder for months, so he tried to do things, then couldn’t because of the pain.
It’s a good job I enjoy driving, because I’ve spent 60+ hours in the car over the last month or so! My body is definitely not happy with me. I’ve been needing regular visits to my Osteopath and Physio to help with the tension and pain from doing things I probably shouldn’t have been doing!
My husband had a steroid injection in his shoulder a few weeks ago, so hopefully it will work well and he might have some pain free days. He got told he has stage one of frozen shoulder, so he realllly needs to keep moving it. Even though it’s agony, he has strict exercises he has to do. He now sees my physio and osteopath as well as they’re amazing.
In other news, I had to have a liver scan as it’s not working properly. The lady scanning actually did my pancreas, kidneys and gallbladder as well. She said it would be about a week for her report. However, the next day I noticed a missed call from the Doctor. I tried ringing back, but couldn’t get through. It’s only down the road, so when I was out elsewhere, I decided to drop in on my way past.
The receptionist went to speak to the Doctor, who then said he’d squeeze me in then and there. So, I was like “SH*T!” as it seemed urgent.
So my liver isn’t bad, but isn’t great either. There seems to be a genetic reason why it isn’t working correctly, which we have to investigate. It’s not diet related, he said it would happen if I ate cleaner than clean or ate takeaways every day. Obviously me being active and eating well won’t be a bad thing, but this could be a myriad of things. I also have to have a yearly test to check for liver failure. He said think of it like a factory; things go in, but in my liver things are getting stuck or lost and not coming out right.
At least we’ve found it and can monitor it, but it’s another part of my body that’s failing me. Luckily all my other organs look fine. Anyway, Eggnog Gingerbread Cupcakes is why you’re here…
HOW DO YOU MAKE THESE EGGNOG GINGERBREAD CUPCAKES?
Rich, spiced gingerbread married together with creamy, sweet Eggnog. It’s a winning combination. You can use homemade or store bought Eggnog. I have both a traditional and dairy free version on my blog. We don’t get Eggnog easily in the UK, so I had to learn to make my own! For this recipe, I used my dairy free Eggnog recipe.
I started by making a pretty standard gingerbread cupcake recipe. I wanted these cupcakes to be as close to gingerbread as possible, so I used some dark brown sugar and black treacle. I’ve made Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes in the past and they were more standard cupcake with added ground ginger, than full on gingerbread.
If you can’t find black treacle, use dark unsulphured molasses. I used black treacle in this recipe. I also used a mixture of dark brown and light brown sugar, this is because I didn’t want the gingerbread part of this recipe to totally overpower the Eggnog.
This is a fairly standard cake mixture, so I started by beating unsalted butter, light and dark brown sugar together. I added 2 eggs, 1tsp of vanilla extract and then mixed again.
Flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice need adding next. I added the black treacle at this stage as well. While mixing the dry ingredients into the wet, I slowly add the Eggnog and mix until I have a smooth batter with no lumps.
I managed to get 3tbsp of batter into each of my cupcake cases. Gingerbread tends not to rise as much as a traditional cupcake, normally I would add 2tbsp of batter per case.
After baking and cooling, I made some Eggnog buttercream to compliment the spicy cake. I added a little nutmeg to the frosting, since that is how you would serve Eggnog ordinarily. Adding a gingerbread man to the top of each Eggnog Gingerbread Cupcake was the finishing touch I was after.
I love how these cupcakes turned out, they’re the perfect mix between spicy and sweet and have really got me feeling festive. I might not have written any cards, or bought any presents, but I’m slowly getting there with feeling Christmassy!
Enjoy these cupcakes? Then you might like these recipes too!
Eggnog Gingerbread Cupcakes
Ingredients
- FOR THE CUPCAKES:
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups (280g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 2 tbsp black treacle/dark unsulphured molasses
- 2/3 cup + 1tbsp (175ml) eggnog*
- FOR THE FROSTING:
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 cups (480g) icing/powdered sugar
- Pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp eggnog
- Extra nutmeg and festive sprinkles to garnish, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with liners.
- Place the butter and sugars into a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, around 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
- Add in the vanilla and eggs, scraping down the sides as necessary. Mix on medium speed until well incorporated and smooth.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Mix on low until the mixture starts to come together, then add the black treacle. Mix until just incorporated, then add the eggnog. Now turn the speed up to high and beat until everything is smooth and well combined.
- Divide the batter between your liners, I placed 3tbsp of batter in each cupcake case. This batter doesn't rise as much as my normal cupcakes, it's not meant to, the texture is still perfect, it just means you can put a bit more batter in your liners without fear of it overflowing!
- Place in the oven for 18-22 mins, until risen and an inserted skewer into the centre comes out clean. You won't really be able to tell if they're golden because of the colour of the batter.
- Transfer to a wire rack as soon as possible to cool completely.
- Once cool, make the frosting. Place butter, icing sugar, salt and nutmeg into a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on low until the sugar starts to mix with the butter. This will avoid an icing sugar dust cloud! Once there are no lumps of icing sugar, add in 1tbsp eggnog and mix on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. Add in the 2nd tbsp of eggnog and repeat.
- At this stage you will need to pick up a bit of the frosting on a spoon/spatula and check the consistency. You want it to stay on the spoon/spatula but creamy enough to pipe. If your mixture is too stiff, add in the final tbsp of eggnog. I needed all 3tbsp of eggnog in my frosting.
- Continue to beat, turning the mixer to high and mix for 3-4 minutes, or until the mixture pales and takes on a whipped, light as air consistency.
- Attach an open star nozzle to a piping bag. Half fill the piping bag, then pipe a swirl onto each cupcake. You can also spoon on frosting, you probably won't use all of the frosting if you spoon it on.
- Sprinkle each cupcake with a little nutmeg and some festive sprinkles, if you would like to.
- Eggnog Gingerbread Cupcakes will keep in an airtight container, in the fridge, for 5 days. Best served at room temperature.
Notes
