Gingerbread Cupcakes (or muffins) with Cranberry Sauce inside
Tart and sweet leftover cranberry sauce is easy to repurpose by adding them to a tender and soft gingerbread muffin that isn’t too sweet. Pipe some cream cheese frosting on top, and you got yourself a cupcake. Either way, these treats taste like the holidays. And if you don’t have any cranberry sauce leftover, you can still make these muffins/cupcakes plain or stuff them with a different jam you might have on hand like raspberry. They’re pretty fantastic with or without the cranberry sauce.
1cupwhite whole wheat flour150 g (see note below recipe)
2teaspoonbaking powder
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
2teaspoonground ginger
1teaspoonground cinnamon
1/8teaspoonground cloves
1/2teaspoonkosher salt
1cupbuttermilk
3/4cupwhite sugar150 g
3/4cupsdark molasses, not blackstrap255 g (see note below recipe)
1/2cupvegetable oil95 g
1/3cupdark rumor water
2large eggs
1tablespoongrated fresh ginger
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1/4cupchopped crystallized ginger50 g
1/2cupcranberry sauce, homemade or canned(see note below recipe)
Cream Cheese Frosting
8ouncessoftened cream cheese225 g or 1 brick
1/2cupunsalted butter at room temperature115 or 1 stick
3cupspowdered sugar340 g
2teaspoonvanilla extract
1/8teaspoonkosher salt
To finish
1/4cupchopped crystallized ginger50 g
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a standard muffin tin with cooking oil (or place cupcake paper liner in each muffin cup).
Place the buttermilk, sugar, molasses, vegetable oil, dark rum (or water) eggs and fresh ginger in a different bowl. Stir vigorously with a balloon whisk until wet ingredients are well blended.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl. Using a large spatula, fold the dry and wet ingredients together. It’s ok if there are a few pockets of dry ingredients left.
Add the chopped ginger and stir in to distribute.
Fill each muffin cups halfway up. Then spoon a heaping teaspoon of cranberry sauce into each muffin, trying to keep the sauce in the middle of the muffin batter. Divide the remaining batter into the muffin tin covering over the cranberry sauce. The muffin tins will be very full.
Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F. Bake an additional 13-17 minutes, or until the gingerbread cupcakes bounce back when you press on them and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then carefully remove them from the pan with a fork or a butter knife. Let cool on a wire rack completely to room temperature before frosting.
While the cupcakes are baking and cooling make the cream cheese frosting by placing the cream cheese, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix until the cream cheese and butter are creamy and cling to the side of the bowl.
Sift in the powdered sugar (this is important, as powdered sugar clumps) and mix until absorbed. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until incorporated. Place the frosting in the refrigerator to firm up as the cupcakes cool to room temperature.
Once the cupcakes are completely cool, frost the cupcakes and sprinkle a few chopped crystallized ginger pieces on top of the frosting before serving.
Notes
White whole wheat flour is a milder form of whole wheat flour and can be found at well-stocked and specialty grocery stores. If you don’t have white whole wheat flour and don’t feel like going to the store for it, you can use the exact same amount of regular whole wheat flour or regular all-purpose flour. Blackstrap molasses is a particular dark and intense form of molasses that can make this cupcake rather bitter in taste. Look for Dark or Robust molasses, though you can substitute light molasses if that is all you can find. Cranberry sauce can be homemade or canned. If you don’t have cranberry sauce, feel free to substitute another preserve like raspberry jam in its place. Or leave it out. The gingerbread cupcakes will still be great without the cranberry sauce.