Holiday cupcakes
I made Gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and mint Oreo cupcakes. The original plan for the Oreo cupcakes was to make this recipe (hubby’s favorite) except to use the Trader Joe’s candy cane Joe Joe’s. The day of the party, the weather was nasty and I didn’t want to walk all the way to Trader Joes. So instead, I made the recipe (linked above) and added 2 tsp of peppermint extract to both the batter and the frosting.
Gingerbread Cupcakes (from Crazy about Cupcakes)
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2/3 cup light molasses
2 tsp lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour – I use King Arthurs White Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup sour cream
Preheat over to 375F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
In a large bowl cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the egg, molasses, and lemon zest to the creamed mixture. Beat well.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
Add portions of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternating with portions of the sour cream, until they are completely integrated, about 30 seconds.
Fill the cupcake liners one-half to 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.
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. 
This looks like such a perfect gift! Are those your homemade marshmallows I spy in the mug?
Of course they are! I seriously can’t justify buying marshmallows anymore. They’re just so easy and SO good homemade. I even whipped up a batch to put on our twice baked sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving.
I really wanted to do this this year for gifts but time escaped me. Looks great!
Soooo here’s the deal- A Boston Food Diary is going to look A LOT like Beantown Baker next week as I steal your recipes 🙂 Looks great Jen!
Why have I never thought about doing this? It looks so easy and it definitely would give me an excuse to make some homemade marshmallows!
That looks like an amazing gift! Making a homemade hot cocoa would definetly save money. Thanks for the recipe(:
Ghirardelli cocoa is very good and your homemade hot cocoa mix …too!!! May you have a special merry Christmas!!!Hugs, Flavia
I have never thought of making my own cocoa mix OR marshmallows. I feel a winter project coming on. Looks delicious!
I have had this bookmarked to make to some gifts for a couple of my girlfriends. So awesome and easy to make!
-Amanda
Loads of thanks to you. I can make everyone happy this Christmas. This recipe is even easy to follow.
Yum! What a great holiday gift idea!