KDRose.com - Wanderlust, Grounded
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipe Index
  • Links

New Year's Cupcakes

1/9/2012

8 Comments

 
Oh hello, 2012.  How are you?

I was telling a group of my students what I did for New Year’s.  Namely, I did nothing, or at least nothing particularly exciting. I tried to explain to them that I usually do just that; it’s kind of my New Year’s tradition and I like it just fine.  In any case, there’s always something interesting to watch on New Year’s Eve; one year it was a marathon of Kathy Griffin stand up, this year it was a pretty compelling Coldplay concert.  But seriously, Chris Martin is pretty amazing on stage.  I wanted to go before (and have either been too poor or living in, well, France) and now I really want to see them live.  But I digress…

New Year’s is all about the resolutions, apparently, and I should probably post some soup made entirely of vegetables and air (if you’re really looking for something, this one is a classic and my favorite for good ol’ fashioned clean livin’), but instead I’m going to give you this one:  gingerbread cupcakes with Meyer Lemon cream cheese frosting.  Because for the New Year I was home, had a new oven, a producing lemon tree and less than two weeks to make something fun and new.  I was tasked with making a “non chocolate” dessert and this one fit the bill.  It was good.  Gingerbread-y but not too dense, the lemon cream cheese frosting is a perfect match to the ginger.  And I love the bits of lemon zest peeking through the creamy frosting. 

Just delightful.
Picture
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Gourmet and Epicurious)

Yield: Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon baking soda


8 ounce cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon thinly sliced crystallized ginger

Preparation

Into a bowl sift together the flour, the ground ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves, the allspice, and the salt. In another bowl cream 1/2 stick of the butter, add the granulated sugar, and beat the mixture until it is fluffy. Beat in the molasses and the egg, beating until the mixture is smooth. In a measuring cup combine the baking soda with 1/2 cup boiling water and stir the mixture to dissolve the baking soda. Stir the mixture into the molasses mixture (the mixture will appear curdled) and stir the molasses mixture into the flour mixture, stirring to combine the ingredients well. Line twelve 1/2-cup muffin tins with paper liners and spoon the batter into the liners, filling them halfway. Bake the cupcakes in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. (The cupcakes will be flat or slightly indented on top.) Transfer the cupcakes to a rack and let them cool.

In a bowl cream together the cream cheese, and the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, add the confectioners' sugar and the vanilla, and beat the mixture until it is fluffy and smooth. Beat in the zest and the lemon juice and chill the frosting for 30 minutes. Spread the frosting on the cupcakes and top each cupcake with some of the crystallized ginger.
Pin It
8 Comments
Teresa
1/9/2012 12:45:50 am

Love the WW soup which is what you need to eat in January if you are going to start out the year with cupcakes. I thought that this flavor combination was for a more sophisticated palette. They were not for a box cake, can of frosting kind of person.

Reply
Slenderella
1/9/2012 07:27:07 am

WHAT?? I am a box cake and the entire can of frosting person AND I thought the combo of ginger and lemon sounded exquisite :-D

Reply
TMR
1/9/2012 12:26:21 pm

You just thought that you were a box cake kind of person.

Kelly link
1/9/2012 01:27:33 am

Those look so yummy. I bet the lemon and gingerbread is a perfect match. Any suggestions for another cake flavor that would be as yummy? My household doesn't appreciate gingerbread, including myself, kinda. (the shame!)

Reply
Katie link
1/10/2012 06:21:53 pm

Kelly, the gingerbread/lemon combination was pretty fly and I even had a 'non gingerbread' person say that they loved the cupcakes. But if I were to change it, I'd probably do something more traditional like a lemon cake base. Just about any "plain" or vanilla cake can be changed to lemon by replacing the vanilla with lemon juice and zest. Martha Stewart also has a yellow cake recipe that is really soft: http://www.marthastewart.com/342396/yellow-butter-cake. Also, I've always wanted to find a lemon and rosemary scented cupcake that was more of a "traditional" cupcake texture than anything I've found (namely, made with cornmeal), but no luck yet! *kick*

Reply
Wendy
1/9/2012 07:17:43 am

They look good! Love soup in the winter. Warms my belly :)

Reply
Karen V. link
1/17/2012 04:27:31 am

The thought of that combo makes my mouth water! The flecks of yellow in the frosting look so pretty. Maybe, for my birthday in May I will do the yellow cake version. Thanks for sharing! (And Happy New Year!)

Reply
Liz
1/25/2012 07:03:25 am

Where did you go... you disappeared!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Katie

    Baker. Traveler. Writer.

    Archives

    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    March 2017
    November 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    August 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    October 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.