To me there is no flavor and aroma that says Christmas more than gingerbread baking. It’s so welcoming with it’s warm fragrant spices of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
It’s another baking memory I have growing up. My mom would make gingerbread for a Sunday dinner from a boxed mix along with an envelope of Dream Whip. Try not to judge. It was the 60’s and boxed mixes, cans and frozen vegetable medleys meant your mom was the modern, groovy mom and your house was the one your friends wanted to be asked to stay for dinner. Nevertheless, I find myself smiling over the batter made from scratch as the mixer spins round twirling this scent throughout my kitchen. You’ll find the recipe at the end of the post that I used to make these mini gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
Since I finally finished decorating my tree today, and I’ve still got to head out and take care of last minute shopping, my baking time is tight but I’ve got some really cute Royal Icing Decorations made by Wilton that I used to decorate my mini gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for a company party and I knew from the crazy response from the Halloween royal icing decorations on my Instagram and Facebook pages and when my photo was featured on Wilton’s Instagram page (over 6200 “likes”) that you were crazy about them too!
If you’re thinking these decorations are like fragile home-made royal decorations, they’re not. They’re thicker and very sturdy and they come well packaged.
This holiday season Wilton offered 4 different designs:
The Vintage Holly and Snowflake have a shimmer, pearlized effect. Very pretty.
How adorable are these stockings that come with an edible ink marker so you can personalize a cupcake or cookie? Another idea is to place a personalized icing stocking on a big fluff of whipped cream in a cup of hot cocoa. How cute would that be for a kids’ party or to warm up with a hot toddy after an evening of caroling? Fa-la-la-la-la-love it!
After I gave a swirl of icing to a cupcake using a plain open 1/2″ round decorating tip, I placed the royal icing decoration on top and added a few Wilton white nonpareils to resemble tiny snowballs before the icing set so they would stick to the surface.
For a wintry presentation, I placed the cupcakes on a silver tray and sprinkled the white nonpareils and Wilton’s chunky White Sugar Crystal between the cupcakes and around the rim for a frosty, icy effect. The white sugar crystal are like chunky little cubes of rock candy.
Festive, Merry & Fast! In other words, perfect!
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year! See you in 2016, my friends!
Wilton products used in this post: (Many of these products can be found locally where Wilton products are sold)
Royal Icing Decorations-
Stocking Icing Decoration with Edible Ink Marker
Christmas Tree Icing Decoration
Snowflake Icing Decoration
Vintage Holly Icing Decoration
Perfect Results Mini Muffin Pan
White Nonpareils Sprinkles
White Sugar Crystals
Gold Foil Mini Baking Cups
Candy Cane Mini Baking Cups
As a Wilton Brand Ambassador and member of the Wilton Sweet Treat Team, I received product and/or compensation for this post by Wilton Cake Decorating. All ideas and opinions are my own and all the products were chosen by me to share with you because I use them and love them and thought you might have fun trying something new and like them too.
- 1 3/4 cups all-purposes flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup water
- 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla or 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350F. Place mini baking cups into pan.
- Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, salt and set aside.
- Mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg.
- Add 1/4 cup of the water to the melted butter mixture, then add half of the dry mixture. Mix and scrape the bowl. Add the remaining water and dry mixture, stirring until thoroughly combined.
- Scoop with a mini ice cream scoop or spoon the batter into the baking cups, filling 1/2 to 3/4 full.
- Bake 10 minutes for mini cupcakes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into a cupcake. Transfer cupcakes to rack to cool completely before icing.
- Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla or vanilla and cinnamon, half & half to thin out icing if it's too stiff. Beat until well combined. Decorate cooled cupcakes.
- Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting can be made by adding 1 teaspoon of cinnamon or more if you prefer, to the frosting mixture.
