December is here! The month of Christmas… the time of the year that we bake the most! I too had a lot of fun the previous years, baking some of my favorite Xmas desserts; Non-Alcoholic Christmas Cake, Alcoholic Christmas Cake, and Gingerbread Cookies. Although I do bake quite often, over the years I’ve started to grow a liking towards spicy flavors and took that as my inspiration for this Christmas. So here you go, a cupcake recipe from my pantry but with a twist of spicy gingerbread cookie flavors.

As I said before, these cupcakes are so different from the regular ones because they are spiced. The addition of ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice gives it an aromatic flavor which reminds you of Christmas and the holidays. When you pull them out of the oven, your whole house literally starts to fill with the warmth and aroma of these spices, it’s pure bliss… I’m short of words to describe how good that feels!!

And to take the flavors of this beautiful dessert to another level, I have topped them up with Cream Cheese Frosting… a match made in heaven! A combo which keeps you craving for more…

Now if you want to impress your guests with some fun-filled theme-based presentation, top the frosted cupcakes with cute little gingerbread man icing decorations and Christmas sprinkles. The ones I’ve used were bought from Michael’s but you can also find them at Amazon here.

If you are in search for a good Gingerbread Cookies recipe, check out my Gingerbread Cookies post, it is a winner recipe and a definite crowd pleaser!

Merry Christmas & Happy Baking…!

Follow me on Instagram, try out the recipes and tag #pepperdelightblog to all your pictures of Pepper Delight recipes you prepare. Rate us if you love it!

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Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Kick off this year’s Christmas Party and Impress your Holiday Guests with these Spicy Tender Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cupcake, gingerbread, gingerbread cupcakes

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 16 cupcakes

Author Akhila

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 1½ cup flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp allspice
• ½ cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 egg (at room temperature)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup milk (at room temperature)

For the cream cheese frosting

• 1 block (8oz) cream cheese (softened)
• ½ cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Gingerbread man icing decorations (optional)
• Christmas sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

For the cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
• Prepare dry ingredients by sifting flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg and allspice in a large bowl. Keep aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add brown sugar and beat until combined.
• Add the egg and beat, followed by adding molasses.
• Add the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with milk and beat until they combine well and the batter turns out smooth. The consistency of the batter is thick.
• Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them a little over half way full.
• Bake in the oven for 22-24 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow it to cool completely before frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting

• In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla extract, beat until smooth.
• Transfer the frosting to a piping bag and decorate the cupcakes as desired.
• You may store any leftover frosting in the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature before using it again.
• Decorate with gingerbread man and Christmas sprinkles as desired (optional).

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Hello December n Happy Holidays…!! It’s been a month since I’ve blogged as I had to take a short break from all of social media due to some personal commitments, and boy have I been tempted so badly to post some delicious Christmas recipes. But better late than never & here I am… A refreshed me with a new addition to my taste buds. Guess what? I’ve started liking COOKIES!!!

It’s cookies everywhere; aisles of cookies in your grocery store, in every party, magazines, social media… wherever I go. I’ve been wanting to try them forever, but somehow, I never got around it and found my own excuses to skip, maybe coz I’m neither a cookie nor a biscuit fan. And that’s why you wouldn’t find any cookie / biscuit recipes in my blog either. Oh, by the way, unlike it being called “cookies” here, in India it is referred to as “biscuits”. And that’s totally different from the dish “biscuits” here in the US.

Ever since I started blogging, I’ve been watching how as the holiday season arrives its an explosion of cookie recipes all over social media; Christmas cookies, Gingerbread man and what not. And there I am, wondering how they all taste? Honestly, as I was reading through the ingredients of some of them I was surprised to know that gingerbread cookies had spices in it, and in spite it being one of the kids’ favorite…!!  All my fancying came to an end when I got a chance to taste them a few weeks back… I loved it!!! In fact, I was surprised that I just liked it on the first bite!

So, with no more doubting n full of excitement, here I am with my gingerbread cookie recipe! There are many things I loved about this bake; starting with the simplicity, ease, & fun… to the ingredients, aroma, flavors and texture of the baked goodies. The different spices used in this recipe reminds me of my favorite Christmas Fruit Cake or Plum Cake, very similar. And while its baking, your whole kitchen smells sooo good, it’s like a spiced room freshener! For this recipe, I have used a simple sugar icing, but you can also go with a royal icing or any buttery icing of your choice. Another fun aspect is the excitement of your kids and how you can engage them. I’m sure they would love to extent their tiny helping hands to make their favorite cookie man/animal shapes.

Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas n Happy Holidays…!

Follow me on Instagram, try out the recipes and tag #pepperdelightblog to all your pictures of Pepper Delight recipes you prepare. Rate us if you love it!

Recipe partially adapted from here.

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Gingerbread Cookies

Festive Season is here & its time for some Fun Baking! Crunchy, Sweet n Spiced Gingerbread Cookies with the Flavors of Ginger, Cinnamon and All Spice… The Perfect Holiday Treat…!!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword Christmas cookies, cookies, gingerbread cookies, gingerbread man

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Chilling Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 45 cookies

Author Akhila

Ingredients

For the gingerbread cookies

• 3¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp allspice
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup 1½ stick unsalted butter (softened)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg (at room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup molasses

For the icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Instructions

For the gingerbread cookies

• In a large bowl, prepare the dry ingredients by sifting flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Keep aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add brown sugar, beat until combined. Beat in the egg, followed by adding vanilla extract and molasses.
• Slowly add prepared dry ingredients, beat on a low speed until well combined. The dough should be thick.
• Divide the dough into two equal parts and transfer to a plastic wrap. Using your hands, shape it into a ball and tightly wrap in two plastic wraps. Refrigerate the dough for 1-2 hours or overnight.
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before working on it.
• Preheat oven to 350-degree F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and keep aside.
• Dust your work surface and rolling pin generously with flour. Roll the dough until its 1/8 inch thick. If its sticky, dust the dough with more flour and roll.
• Use your cookie cutters to cut out the dough as desired and carefully transfer them to the baking sheet. Place them with an inch’s gap in-between.
• Re-roll the leftover dough and repeat step 8; cutting and transfer to the baking sheet.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges brown; mine took 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once the cookies have cooled, decorate with simple icing or sprinkles. Allow the icing to cool and set. The cookies can be stored in an air tight container for up to one week.

For the icing

• In a large bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk until smooth. You can add more sugar if its runny or add more milk if its too thick.
• Fill the icing in a piping bag or squeeze bottle and draw/decorate your cookies as desired. Allow it to set at room temperature for 2-3 hours.

Notes

1. Chilled cookie dough is easy to work with as it is firm and doesn’t stick to your rolling pin/surface. I recommend leaving the other half in the refrigerator till you are done with the first batch.
2. Being winter, your butter might not easily soften to room temperature and may still be lumpy while beating with the other ingredients. The hair dryer method is my goto trick to solve this problem, refer the Notes section under the recipe of my Matcha Cake recipe post for details.

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