Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes with a tangy mascarpone frosting are a festive dessert for the holidays. Gingerbread cookies can be crunchy and dry, but these Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes are moist, soft, and flavorful.
You may have read our last post about Christmas bread pudding (or if you haven’t, go read it now!), but knowing our family, one scrumptious dessert during our celebrations doesn’t cut it.
So on Christmas Eve, Molly and I each made a batch of cupcakes. I made chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, she made chocolate gingerbread cupcakes with mascarpone frosting.
We decided to make two different types of cupcakes for various reasons: we have a large family, so we needed a lot of cupcakes, we each wanted to make our own, and, honestly, who doesn’t love more than one cupcake? Like, seriously?
So there’s not much to say about these cupcakes: they were both delicious in their own ways. If you are going to make these (which I highly suggest) you should eat them separately because if you eat them both right after each other, the first one steals the show and the other doesn’t seem as good. But if you switch the order with a clean palette, it’s the opposite. So eat them separately for guaranteed enjoyment.
If you want a more distinctive flavor, I recommend the Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes, because the chocolate gingerbread combo is unique (but delicious, this isn’t one of those time where you say, “It’s… unique…” as in, it’s disgusting. These are good. I pinky promise) and a festive flavor.
The chocolate peppermint ones, now they’re delicious too. The combination of chocolate and peppermint is nothing super special – but it’s a pretty well-tested classic, and these were definitely a good example of the combo. You may notice that the frosting of these cupcakes is red and white. (if you didn’t notice this… either get glasses or pay attention to your surroundings more). That is due to this fancy-ish frosting technique that you too can do. The directions are included in the original recipe; it’s actually pretty simple!
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PinIngredients
Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 cup dark molasses
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk or cream
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Mascarpone Frosting
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- ½ cup mascarpone cheese, softened
- 1/6 cup cream cheese, softened
- Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- 1/3 teaspoon lemon or orange zest, finely grated, optional
Instructions
Make the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Spray a 9-inch bundt pan with nonstick spray. Dust with cocoa powder and tap out excess. Set aside.
- Over medium-low heat, melt together the oil, molasses, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan until all of the brown sugar has dissolved. Transfer to a large bowl and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Whisk the eggs and milk into the molasses mixture after it has cooled (to avoid heating and scrambling the eggs). Set aside.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg into a medium bowl. Gently fold the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until just combined. There will be lumps remaining. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes until cake is pulling away from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
Make the frosting:
- In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and confectioners’ sugar at medium speed until smooth.
- Add the mascarpone and cream cheese and beat until combined well, about 3 minutes.
- Add the vanilla seeds and if using, citrus zest, and beat until seeds are evenly distributed.