Gingerbread Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Icing

These gingerbread cupcakes are getting me into the festive mood with the little gingerbread men and candy cane toppers, as well as some gingerbread men sprinkles. I recently made Nigella's classic gingerbread recipe but these will be a popular variation with the addition of a gorgeous, creamy salted caramel buttercream.

If you want to make a delicious frosting for any of your bakes then this caramel frosting is a good un! It's a regular buttercream with homemade caramel beaten in. It's got a lovely flavour and is great for kids without the salt or big kids with the salt! :-)



The cute cupcake cases and toppers are from Cake Craft World, as are the gingerbread men sprinkles. Alternatively you often see gingerbread cupcakes topped with a little gingerbread man biscuit. If you'd like to make your own gingerbread men, you can find a recipe here. They look really cute with a little royal icing decoration.

I'm entering these into our monthly baking challenge - Calendar Cakes. This month it's hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and we host alternately. The theme is 'Go Crackers for Christmas'. If you'd like to enter you can find the details over at Dolly Bakes.

Ingredients

140g unsalted butter
200g golden caster sugar
60g black treacle
60g golden syrup
2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks
300g plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
240 ml warm milk

Salted Caramel Buttercream

125g white caster sugar
80 ml double cream
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste...I found this to be very salty)
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g salted butter
200g icing sugar

Pre heat the oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5 and place the cases into the holes of a muffin tin. This recipe will make about 15 cupcakes.

Start by creaming together the butter and sugar together in a bowl, it should be light and fluffy and become paler. Then add the treacle, syrup, eggs and yolds adn combine thoroughly.

In a separate bowl sift together the plain flour, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Add half the flour mixtue and half the warm milk to the butter and sugar mixutre. Combine well before adding the remaining flour and milk and mixing again.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for around 20 to 25 minutes. The cakes should be risen and lightly firm to the touch. Cool on a wire rack out of the tin.

To make the frosting, first you must make the caramel. Heat the caster sugar along with 4 tablespoons of water. The sugar should dissolve but don't stir it, otherwise it could crystalise, you can however swirl it. When the sugar is dissolved, turn up the heat. The caramel should bubble and will thicken and turn a light amber colour after about 5 or so minutes. Take the caramel off the heat and immediately stir in the cream, sugar and vanilla extract but do take care as it may sputter. Leave to cool completely.

Mix the icing sugar and softened butter together for at least 4-5 minutes. Then add the caramel and beat it in. This frosting is then ready to be piped on top of the cooled cupcakes. Make sure you only put soft caramel into the frosting, if there are any set or crystalised parts they will block up the piping nozzle.

* Adapted from the BBC GoodFood Website

Nigella's Sticky Gingerbread

With the start of December, it's now officially the Christmas season...so bring on the Christmas baking! I'm so excited to have finally made this Sticky Gingerbread...I've only been waiting a year! I just couldn't resist the little deer and the spruce trees...the perfect festive touch.



This is also a recipe from Nigella's Christmas book, so it's ideal to get the ball rolling for this month's Forever Nigella which I'm thrilled to be hosting.

This gingerbread is full of gorgeous flavours including fresh and ground ginger, cinnamon, ground gloves, black treacle and golden syrup. Not only does it taste delicious but it will also fill your house with the wonderful aroma of Christmas.

This is a really easy recipe, all you need to do is melt all the ingredients listed above in a saucepan, along with some dark muscovado sugar and some butter. Once it's all melted together, milk, eggs and some bicarb of soda dissolved in warm water is added and the whole thing bubbles up a little. This mixture is then poured into a bowl containing flour which all gets mixed together...et voila!

It's a very runny batter but that just adds to the lovely sticky nature of this bake. It's soft and light when baked and all the spices come through a treat! Nigella also suggests a frosting of 175g icing sugar, a tablespoon of lemon juice and one of warm water if you're going to make this for a bake sale or some such thing...although she prefers the simplicity of the un-iced version.

If you're making any festive Nigella recipes this month then do enter them into Forever Nigella #21. As mentioned I'm hosting this month but the home of Forever Nigella is at Maison Cupcake. We'd love to see your creations both sweet and savoury!

Ingredients

250g butter
200g golden syrup
200g black treacle
125g dark muscovado
2 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp bicarb of soda, dissolved in 30 mls warm water (2 tbsp of water)
250ml full fat milk
2 eggs, beaten
300g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas 3 and prepare a 20 x 30cm baking tray by lining it with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a large bowl ready for later.

Next melt the following in a medium sized saucepan: butter, sugar, golden syrup, black treacle, cinnamon, cloves and the fresh and ground ginger. When this mixture has melted take it off the heat and add the milk, bicarb of soda with water and the beaten eggs.

These wet ingredients can then be poured on to the flour and the whole mixture should then be beaten until well combined. I ended up with quite a few pockets of flour which I had to beat out. The mixture will be extremely runny but don't fear this is how it is supposed to be. Pour it into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes. Mine only took 45 minutes, you don't want to overbake otherwise the gingerbread may lose it's stickiness.

When ready, remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack to cool. This recipe will cut into about 20 squares and will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight tin. You can also freeze it for  up to 3 months should you so wish.

* Adapted from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson