Tastes Like Christmas
Isn’t it weird how some food make you think of a certain time of year. No matter what the weather is like, that taste takes you back to some other time and memory.
That is what happened with hubby and I ate these cupcakes. They taste like Christmas. We both said it after the first bite. I was somewhat surprised because the cookbook has a gingerbread cupcake recipe in it and I thought that would taste like Christmas and these wouldn’t, but they do. They are very good though!
Spice Cupcakes – 5 WW PTS with frosting (from Crazy about Cupcakes) makes 12
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour – I use King Arthurs White Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat over to 350F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
In a small bowl combine the molasses and boiling water. Set aside.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the egg to the creamed mixture. Beat well.
In a separate bowl combine the remaining ingredients.
Beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, alternating with the molasses mixture. Beat well after each addition.
Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.
Cream Cheese Frosting (cheat version)
Mix 8 oz cream cheese with a tub of store-bought vanilla frosting.
Nutritional Information (please double check with your ingredients and serving sizes – I use this recipe calculator)
Cupcake: 142.7 Calories, 4.6g Fat, 28.1 mg Cholesterol, 213 mg Sodium, 209.4 mg Potassium, 22.8 g Carbs, 1.6 g Dietary Fiber, 12.3 g Sugar, 2.4 g Protein
WW POINTS = 3
Frosting: 67.2 Calories, 3.1g Fat, 3.3 mg Cholesterol, 56.9 mg Sodium, 4.4 mg Potassium, 9.1 g Carbs, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 8.5 g Sugar, 0.7 g Protein
WW POINTS = 2
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Thank you so much for this idea and the tutorial! I made a purple ombré cake this weekend and it was a big hit for my daughter’s 4the birthday party!! I used your raspberry curd recipe and basic vanilla buttercream and it was so yummy! Next time I make it I will splurge on better food coloring because the colors were pretty muted.
I also made it a little easier on myself by going darkest on top to light-that way when I frosted I started at the bottom with the lightest frosting and then made the frosting darker for the next layer… Helped me so that I’d didn’t have too many bowls of frosting an piping bags going.
How far in advance do you think is okay to frost it? I’m making the cake for a baby shower Saturday evening, but we have another event during the day. Do you think Friday would be okay to frost it? I just don’t want the frosting to get hard! Thanks!!!
What color purple did you use and how much for each color?
beantownbaker — January 3rd, 2013 @ 10:16 am
I didn’t actually pay attention, I just added purple until I liked the colors. Sorry I can’t be more helpful…
The links for the cake and icing are no longer available. Is there any way to get them?
beantownbaker — January 3rd, 2013 @ 10:16 am
It looks like some of my links died with my redesign. I will try to get this fixed today.
Thanks for the superb idea! I’ve never tried piping flowers, thinking it would be too complicated. Your video laid those fears to rest – I was so thrilled with the results of the purple rose cake I tried last night, and I used your curd recipe to make an orange marmalade curd filling – so delish I sneak the leftovers with a spoon!! Thank you!!
beantownbaker — January 22nd, 2013 @ 7:42 am
So glad to hear that the video was helpful for you! Roses are definitely easier than most people would assume.
Orange marmalade curd sounds amazing!!
I made a cake inspired by this one for a bridal shower a few weeks ago! I wanted to try the passionfruit curd but I couldn’t find the fruit puree at my grocery store 🙁 I’ll keep looking in other stores!
beantownbaker — March 9th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm
Bummer. It is a somewhat item to find in the store…
I’m totally inspired by this cake. It’s so beautiful! I want to make it later this week for my birthday! I was thinking of filling it with Apricot Jam though… Do you think I could try to make a curd from the jam, rather than the fruit puree you used? Or would it be fine to simply fill it with the jam?? I appreciate your opinion on this!! Thanks 🙂
beantownbaker — March 18th, 2013 @ 10:59 am
I’m not sure that making the curd from jam would work. I think I’d just use the jam as-is. Let me know how it turns out for you!
I made this cake on the weekend for my daughter’s birthday in pink ombre. Not only did it look amazing, it was seriously the yummiest cake I’ve ever tasted. Your instructions were spot on and so easy to follow. The measurements were exact and it all came together beautifully! Thank you so much for sharing.
PS I couldn’t get the passionfruit puree either but used lemon curd, which worked wonderfully.
beantownbaker — April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:46 am
So glad you enjoyed the cake and the instructions were helpful for you! Happy birthday to your daughter 🙂
Hi,
I plan on making this for my daughter’s baptism in June – just a quick question – do you think white roses would have worked on the top of the cake?
Thanks!
Anna
beantownbaker — April 25th, 2013 @ 7:44 am
Definitely! You could do it in all white or any gradient of colors you want. Let me know how it goes.
Hi,
I wanted to do this cake idea in a ‘1’ shape cake tin for my daughters first birthday. Do you think it would be too difficult? Also, do you reduce the cooking time by a quarter if you are doing 4 layers? Thanks in advance!
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:06 pm
Sorry for not responding sooner, I didn’t see this comment until now…
I’ve never baked this cake in a shaped cake tin. Are there instructions for baking times with the tin? If you already made this, how did it turn out?
Jen, spectacular. Thanks for joining the cake extravaganza. Cheers
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:04 pm
Thanks!
Hii … I really falling in love with your purple ombre cake, wanna make it for my birthday but I am little bit confuse with the baking time, if we use 9inch baking pan, how long we need to bake it and in what temperature? Thank you
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 7:00 am
If you follow the link for the White Cupcakes in the recipe, it says to bake the cake layers for 23-25 minutes at 350.
Hi! I made this cake this weekend for my daughter’s baptism – it turned out pretty good! It didn’t look quite as good as yours….but it wasn’t too shabby! Did it in shades of purple too as my daughter’s name is ‘Violet’! THANKS for the inspiration! Would post a picture but there doesn’t seem to be that option here.
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 7:23 am
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! There is no way to post a picture on here, but I’d love to see it! Feel free to post it on my Facebook page!
May I ask what tip you used to pipe these roses?
beantownbaker — August 25th, 2013 @ 6:32 pm
I use a large star tip. I’m not at home right now to get the exact number of it… Also, I made a video about how to pipe a rose here
I made an ombre cake (pink and purple) twice by using your white chocolate buttercream recipe. I cut the powdered sugar to three cups instead of five since most desserts are just too sweet. I used a different white cake recipe and instead of the passion fruit curd, I used a Swiss meringue buttercream as a replacement. I get rave reviews from the decoration (nice tip) and surprisingly, so easy to make the rosettes. It’s true, best to invest in a cake decorating turn table. Thank you for posting this recipe and doing a DIY video, really helped!
beantownbaker — August 28th, 2013 @ 7:27 am
Thanks so much for the note. Glad to hear the video helped. The rose covered cake is such a statement that really isn’t very difficult to execute.
Thanks so much for using the Rose technique that I created and originally shared on my blog in 2011. Please do feel free to reference my blog when talking about the Rose Cake. http://iambaker.net/rose-cake-tutorial/
I am sure you can understand why I would ask that, as I know you would want to be credited if someone took an idea of yours and blogged about it. Thanks!
Which tip did you use to make this cake?
Hi,
I’m thinking to make this cake for my niece’s birthday but I’m wondering if there’s possible to decorate from the top to bottom.
I hate the thought wasting icing if I have to make three different shades from the start. If I could start from the top with white (or the ligthtest) and gradually add more colour for the next row.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Ant.
beantownbaker — April 18th, 2014 @ 10:41 am
I think that would work just fine. Great idea to frost it from the top down. I’ll definitely do that next time.
What tip do you use to make the roses?
After making the curd, when do you use it when assembling the cake?
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:22 pm
The curd goes between the layers of cake.
This cake looks absolutely perfect! I’ve been looking for some really cute cakes for ages and I think I’ve definitely found one 😉
Love
what could I use as a replacement for te gyro puree? I’m having trouble finding it where I live.
Thanks!
What brand did you use for the coloring ?
For the Goya puree, I found a can (looks like a soda can) passion fruit “cocktail” , is that what the recipe is calling for ? or is it in the frozen section and passion fruit concentrate by Goya? I want to follow this recipe exactly.
Hi, thank you so much for the wonderful recipe and inspiration, i made a purple ombre cake following your recipe for my daughter’s birthday party. Only change was that i filled it with lemon curd, everybody loved the cake. Thank you for the detailed recipe and instructions!..:)
I made this for my daughter’s 2nd birthday and it not only looked great, but tasted great too! Your recipes were so easy to follow (white cake, coloring the layers, making the rosettes). It was my first attempt at a layered cake and doing any sort of decoration and I received lots of compliments! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Looking forward to making this cake for my daughter’s birthday. I’m starting off today with the curd as per your suggestion to split the work. Can you please clarify if the fruit pulp needs to be defrosted prior to using it and if the curd goes into the fridge right after making (still hot)? I’m just starting to get into the world of baking and these may be obvious answers but they are unknowns for me. Thank you.