Gingerbread cupcakes

When I saw the prompt for Ella’s Friday Carnival was cakes and cookies I knew I had to take part. I love baking and have had an idea for gingerbread cupcakes for a while.

Gingerbread cupcakes

To make 12 cakes I followed  a standard cupcake recipe:

• 125g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• dash of milk
• Gingerbread Drinking Chocolate (from Hotel Chocolate)

Cream the butter and sugar and add the vanilla essence. Beat the eggs and add to the mixture. Fold in the flour and add milk as necessary.

The magic ingredient is flakes of Gingerbread Drinking Chocolate from Hotel Chocolate. I added a liberal handful of flakes to the mixture before dividing it between 12 cases and cooking for 15-20 minutes at 180ºC.

I made a buttercream topping of butter, icing sugar and more Gingerbread Drinking Chocolate which I melted briefly in the microwave to ensure the chocolate flakes melted. When the cakes were baked and cool I then decorated them with the buttercream and a flower topper.

Delicious and a bit different. The Gingerbread Drinking Chocolate is only available over the Christmas period but well worth getting hold of as it also tastes delicious as a hot chocolate drink!

Here are the other recipes in this Cakes and Cookies Carnival:

Nova at Cherished by Me gives us her Cherry, Coconut and Marshmallow Traybake. Kelly at Domestic Goddesque posts her recipe for heart-shaped jammy-dodger-style biscuits in Baking with a heart! Heather at SAHMLovingIt gives us her Scrumptious Beetroot Seed Cake Recipe. Jules at I Need Curtains for the Window in my Head posts her recipe for Almond Macaroons. Helen at Cheeky Wipes gives us her recipe for Coffee Cake. Gemma at HelloitsGemma’s Blog posts her (easiest) Banana Cake (ever). Sian at Pumpkin and Piglet posts her Chocolate Digestive Biscuits. Jax at Making It Up gives us her recipe for gingerbread. Cass at The Diary of a Frugal Family posts her Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies. Clare at Seasider in the City gives us her Mars Bar Cake. Bod for Tea shows us how she makes Iced Animal Biscuits. Maggy at Red Ted Art has a guest post from Maison Cupcake’s Sarah showing us how to make Love Heart Cookies. Rebecca at twobecomefour gives us her recipe for Beck’s Banana Bread. Tiddlyompompom shares the fun she has making cakes with her daughter in Have your cake and eat it.