Gingerbread Eggnog cupcakes

My two favorite Christmas flavors are gingerbread and eggnog (not necessarily in that order).  While I was baking gingerbread houses I craved gingerbread and thought what would go better with it than eggnog.  I found this wonderful recipe for Gingerbread eggnog cupcakes. 






I found this recipe through Pinterest which I cannot stress the wonderfulness of this site.  It's so great for finding recipes and ideas and inspirations.  The recipe I found comes from
Sugar Duchess.com.  A great blog for recipes and baking tips.  It's very well written with gorgeous mouth watering photography. 

I used the gingerbread cupcake recipe as is and it turned out wonderfully.  Perfect gingerbread flavor and color, with a slight kick from a hint of cloves.

I did not use the frosting recipe from this site since I have my own buttercream recipe and wanted to see how it tasted infused with eggnog.  It tasted wonderful.  The combination of the slightly spicy sweet cake with the creamy eggy frosting was amazing.  So if you'd like to give it a try here is my Eggnog buttercream recipe.

Eggnog Buttercream


ingredients:

1cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I use Crisco)
4 cups powdered sugar sifted (1 box)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon rum flavoring (optional)
5-6 Tablespoons cold Eggnog (more if you like it creamier)
a pinch of salt

Directions:

With an electric mixer cream the butter and shortening together until smooth and creamy.  Add the nutmeg, salt and rum flavoring and mix thoroughly.  Sift the powdered sugar and add half of this to the butter mixture.  Mix until combined then add 3 Tablespoons of eggnog and beat together.  Make sure you mix until there are no lumps in the frosting.  Next add the rest of the powdered sugar and combine, then add the rest of the eggnog.  Mix well for about 2 minutes, until the frosting is creamy and smooth.  If you want more eggnog flavor you can add a couple more tablespoons of eggnog (I think I did).  If you want less eggnog flavoring but would like the consistency to be fluffier you can add heavy cream.  When finished frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with just a hint of nutmeg for garnish.  Enjoy!

Credits:

Sugar Duchess