Gingerbread Cupcakes Recipe

We've found ourselves in lockdown for the second time this year which means I'm furloughed and off work AGAIN! Although this sucks, it does give me plenty of time to start my festive bakes and cakes seeing as I'm stuck at home again, so I thought I'd kick things off with an absolute classic, the gingerbread cupcake! These taste so festive, there's just something about that gingerbread flavour that makes me feel all cosy and Christmas-y, I've finished them off with a yummy batch of vanilla buttercream and some cute little gingerbread biscuits and I think they look so cute! 

Gingerbread Christmas Light Cupcakes Recipe

Hey beaut's!

Finally I've found some time to do one of my favourite things....festive baking! I love baking at Christmas time, you can include all those yummy spices within your recipes and have fun with decorations, and lets face it - we all love naughty treats at this time of the year don't we! Today I decided to whip up a batch of yummy gingerbread cupcakes with some simple vanilla buttercream, but what makes these fun is how cute the Christmas light decoration is, I saw this idea on Pinterest so I just had to give it a go for myself and I actually loved going to town whilst decorating these! 

What You Will Need For The Cupcakes

75g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar 125ml black treacle 1 large egg 1 large egg yolk 175g self-raising flour 1tbsp cocoa powder 2tsp ground ginger 1tsp ground cinnamon 1/2tsp ground allspice 1/2tsp ground nutmeg 1/4tsp salt 3/4 tbsp milk

What You Will Need For The Buttercream
200g unsalted butter
450g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
A splash of milk
M&M's and melted chocolate for decorating

How To - Cupcakes
* Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 /180 and line a muffin tin with your cupcake cases.
* In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth then add in the treacle and eggs and mix again until well combined!
* Once the wet ingredients are well mixed add in all of your dry ingredients and mix again, you'll find the mixture goes quite thick so you'll need to add in some milk a tablespoon at a time until you get a nice whippy cupcake batter consistency, mine took around 4 tablespoons of milk.
*Once your mixture is completely smooth pop a heaped tablespoon of the cupcake batter into each cupcake case and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes or until the top of the cupcakes are springy to the touch, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

How To - Buttercream
* In a large bowl, beat the butter until it becomes super whippy, then start adding the icing sugar slowly to avoid the dreaded icing sugar cloud and mix until combined. As usual if the buttercream is too stiff then pop in some milk until you get your desired constancy. 
* Pipe the icing on top of the cupcakes and then go to town on the 'Cristmas Light' effect decoration, I melted some milk chocolate and popped it into a piping bag and created little swirly lines around my cupcakes to act as the Christmas light cable, I then stuck M&Ms vertically into the side of the cupcakes onto my little make-shift cable. 

And there you have it, 12 super yummy and super festive cupcakes that are really fun to make, I feel like kids would love the decorating process of these too. You could also use other things to act as the cables like those gummy strawberry laces or you could colour some buttercream black and pipe that on with a tiny round pipping nozzle, what ever you find easiest really!

Will you be doing any baking over the festivities beaut's? What will you be making? I'd love to know!

The £3 Gingerbread Candle You NEED!

Hey beaut's!

It's no secret that I'm a crazy candle lady, my house is pretty much lit up with candles 24/7 during the Autumn/Winter months. Last year I got pretty addicted to the Gingerbread Candle from Home Bargains but it sold out pretty rapidly and I never got the chance to stock up, but to my surprise they have bought it back out this year so I wanted to shout it from the roof tops so that any of you gingerbread lovers out there can stock up like I did he he! 

Now I did review this candle last year but just in case you missed it I thought I'd do a little updated version! This yummy Gingerbread Candle costs a teeny tiny £2.99, what a bargain hey, it's in a heavy glass jar and is the same size as the large Yankee Candles so it's seriously good value considering the Yankees are about £24.00 now! When you open the lid your met with the most amazing, strong 'gingerbread men baking in the oven' scent, my goodness its smells incredible but the real test with such an affordable candle is the scent throw, will it only be good for one burn, will it even smell at all??? Well the answer is yes it does, the scent throw is great and it's super recognisable throughout my entire house every single time I burn it, if you like sweet, warming, spicy scents your going to love this and trust me your going to be craving gingerbread so badly each time you burn this!

I love this candle so much that this year I made sure I stocked up and bought four large jars, yup that's right - four he he! If you haven't tried this beauty yet then get yourself to Home Bargains and grab one to try quickly as I think they will sell out fast again this year, they even have smaller jars for 59p and reed de-fusers too.

Have you tried this candle yet beaut's? What did you think? I'd love to know!

Home Made Gingerbread Men

Hey girlie's!!!

I'm back with a different type of post for you all today, a baking post!!! 

Its that time of year again when I fall in love with baking all over again, in the summer I'm a garden girl and in the winter I'm a baking girl he he. I love making my very own gingerbread men, not only do they taste and look great but they make your house smell amazing and get me right into the festive spirit!!

The Ingredients You Will Need Are....

♥ 350g Plain Flour

♥ 125g Butter

♥ 175g Light Soft Brown Sugar

♥ 1 tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda

♥ 2 tsp Ground Ginger

♥ 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

♥ 1 Egg

♥ 4 tbsp Golden Syrup

For decorating your gingerbread men you will need...

♥ Writing Icing

♥ Smarties.. However you can really go to town with the decorating and use whatever you wish such as jelly tots, m&m's, sprinkles, mini marshmallows and you can even melt some chocolate to dunk their legs in, the choice is yours.

Firstly your going to want to sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl or food processor. Then add in your butter, I sometimes pop my butter into the microwave to soften, just make sure you don't melt the butter you only want to soften, then blend or stir the dry ingredients and the butter all together until it all looks like fine breadcrumbs. Personally I find the best most easiest way is by using my hand held mixer, it's quick and easy and makes less washing up at the end. Once you have what looks like breadcrumbs your going to want to just stir in your soft light brown sugar.

Next your going to want to add in your egg and golden syrup to the breadcrumb looking mixture, whizz it all together until its starts to clump together and looks slightly dough like, then tip all the mixture out and briefly knead it until it looks smooth, don't worry if your mixture still looks slightly like breadcrumbs as it should all come together once you briefly knead it. 

Your then going to want to pop your gingerbread dough in the fridge to chill for around 20 minutes or so just so it can bind together abit more, making it alot easier to roll out later on, I find wrapping the dough in cling film tightly works best.

At this stage its best to preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line your baking trays with greaseproof paper so everything is ready for when you take your dough out of the fridge, I always end up eating some of the decorations at this point he he, smarties are my weakness.

Once you take your dough out of the fridge simply roll it out on a floured surface and using your cutters, cut out your desired shapes, remember if your making some of these for Christmas tree decorations then you'll need to make a small hole at the top so you can pop some ribbon through to hang them, I find a piping nozzle works best for that. Place your gingerbread men on the baking tray's and bake for around 12-15 minutes, or until they all look lightly golden brown. Once you take them out of the oven wait for your gingerbread men to cool completely before you start decorating them as you don't want any of the icing to run or melt.

And there you have it, tasty gingerbread men. 

I hope you enjoyed a different type of post today girlie's, I'm seriously in the festive spirit already so just had to share these tasty treats ha ha.

Whats your favourite treat to bake through the festive season??? I'd love to know.