These Gingerbread Cupcakes with Pumpkin Frosting are the perfect fall holiday dessert recipe.
Here you’ll find the most delicious gingerbread cupcakes. Gingerbread is an amazing holiday appropriate flavor, and it’s most welcome as soon as fall arrives and into the winter months too! Gingerbread is a lovely pairing with pumpkin (just like my Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle). So Gingerbread Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting are a good match!
How to make Gingerbread Cupcakes:
Mix up your gingerbread cupcake batter. You’ll need molasses and plenty of warm fall spices for this (ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. Those are the magic ingredients that make gingerbread so good. Divide the batter evenly between cupcake papers in a muffin tin. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The cupcakes won’t rise much at all– flat tops. And if they happen to sink in the middle, don’t worry because you will be slathering them with frosting.
A creamy pumpkin cream cheese frosting tops these gingerbread cupcakes. Use regular white cupcake papers, or choose cute, fall-themed papers instead.
Troubleshooting frosting prep:
If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. Sometimes pumpkin purée can have too much liquid in it and make the frosting a little thin. So how it turns out depends on how watery your pumpkin purée is. Too thin… add more powdered sugar. Too thick… add more pumpkin purée. Get it to a consistency that you’re happy with. It’s fine for piping, but you can also just spread the frosting on top.
Bake these for a fun fall gathering. They’re delicious cupcakes. Enjoy!
If you’re looking for more fall cupcake recipes, you might also enjoy my Maple Cupcakes or these Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. These Candy Corn Cupcakes are also super cute.
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Pumpkin Frosting
Ingredients
GINGERBREAD CUPCAKES:
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup hot milk
PUMPKIN FROSTING:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¼ cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3½ cups powdered sugar (more, if you prefer to pipe on the frosting instead of spreading)
Instructions
PREPARE THE CUPCAKES:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. Spray the cupcake liners lightly with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugar. Add the molasses and the egg and egg yolk.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves and salt. In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the hot milk. Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the hot milk mixture. Pour the batter evenly into the cupcake papers.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly springy to the touch. Allow to cool a few minutes in the pan and remove to a rack to cool.
PREPARE THE FROSTING:
- In a large bowl, use an electric hand mixer to combine the frosting ingredients. Spread onto cooled cupcakes, or pipe on with a piping bag and a tip.
Notes
- *To make things even easier, purchase a boxed gingerbread mix, prepare the cupcakes and frost w/ the homemade pumpkin frosting (these cupcakes will be better than the boxed mix though!)
- *If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add more pumpkin puree.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looking forward to trying these recipes
I didnt use the gingerbread cupcake base. I made a chocolate cupcake, and used this frosting for the top and everyone LOVED it! I added more sugar so I could pipe it, and just snipped the end off a plastic bag so I could get a more rounded piping. It looked awesome. Thanks!
Adorable Lori! I bet they are delectable!