Gingerbread Men Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing Recipe
My kids love that one of our family traditions during the Festive Season is to get together in the kitchen and bake. I have a bit of a thing for Christmas cookbooks and love sitting down and finding new recipes to try and adapt. These Gingerbread Men Cupcakes are a medley of a recipe in my grandmother’s notes from Christmas Gingerbread fairy cakes, our favourite cinnamon buttercream frosting that we used for our apple pie topped spiced cupcakes in the autumn and the kids favourite Gingerbread recipe but using mini gingerbread men cookie cutters not the large ones that we have. So combined it makes these cute Gingerbread Men Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting perfect for special Christmas treat to enjoy with the kids.
Gingerbread Cupcakes
I have two gingerbread cupcake recipes that I use – one that is a sticky gingerbread more like the Jamaican Gingerbread Cake that we love and is dark and rich looking like it is made with dark chocolate instead of Gingerbread.
The other is this lighter flavoured Gingerbread Cake which is more like the traditional Gingerbread Man Recipe.
As a family, we love both. But to avoid confusion we call this lighter version a Cupcake and the other a Muffin!
Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting for Gingerbread Cupcakes
Cinnamon is a perfect flavour to accompany the gingerbread and you can easily adjust the flavour by using a little less cinnamon in the recipe or more depending on your taste.
They made the perfect addition to our lightly spice cupcakes back in the autumn when we topped them with apple pie filling and the kids loved the flavour unlike when I make plain buttercream which my son especially can find too rich.
Get the recipe for the cinnamon buttercream here -> makeup one batch to use on these cupcakes.
Kid-Friendly Gingerbread Man Recipe
My kids favourite part of making these cupcakes together is that they get to make the Gingerbread men.
We tried for years to find a recipe that would work for Gingerbread men and then in the same year discovered 2. One that produces a more solid gingerbread which I use when lots of detail is required on the cookies like the Gingerbread Snowflakes that you will find a picture and link to at the bottom of this recipe and the other a kid-friendly take on the classic Gingerbread Man recipe that my kids with help lighting our stove can make themselves.
This time we used the Kid-Friendly Gingerbread Man Recipe and made as many mini gingerbread men and women as we could to add to the cupcakes as a topper.
Recipe for Gingerbread Cupcakes
As I said these Gingerbread Cupcakes are lightly flavoured and more like the traditional Gingerbread Men than a Gingerbread Cake Recipe.
Don’t forget to scroll below to find more Cupcake and Gingerbread Recipes to make.
Gingerbread Men Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Icing
Ingredients
- 212 g plain flour
- 198 g light brown sugar
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- 180 g unsalted butter softened
- 1 egg white
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ C black treacle
- ¼ C sour cream
- ½ C full fat milk
- 1 batch Cinnamon Frosting See above for the recipe link
- Mini Gingerbread Men See above for the recipe link
- Edible Glitter Optional
- Christmas Sprinkles Optional
- Small Edible Balls Optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C degrees and line a muffin tin with some cupcake cases.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir all the dry ingredients together.
- Using a stand mixer, beat together the butter, egg, egg white, vanilla, black treacle, sour cream and full-fat milk until combined.
- Gradually add in a large heaped spoon of the dry ingredients until it's fully combined.
- Fill cupcake liners about half way.
- Bake the cupcakes for 18 to 22 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely before icing.
- Scoop buttercream icing into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
- Ice the cooled cupcakes with a large swirl and sprinkle with some Christmas sprinkles or edible glitter and balls.
- Place a Mini Gingerbread man into the side of the cupcake.
- Enjoy!
More Christmas Recipes to Make with the Kids
Easy Slow Cooker Fudge, simple to make and the kids will love to give this to neighbours and teachers as an edible Christmas Gift.
Make these simple Rudolph and Reindeer Oreo Treats with the kids they will love creating the chocolate antlers and tasting the chocolate as you dip in the cookies.
Make these simple Snowball Cookies using a boxed cake-mix really easy to make with kids and they will love eating them afterwards.
More Gingerbread Recipes to Bake and Cook
Pretty and Delicious Gingerbread Snowflakes ideal for Christmas Cookie Exchanges.
Gingerbread and White Chocolate Fudge in the Slow Cooker – a Simple Christmas Treat that is perfect for Edible Gifts.
Our Gingerbread Recipe for Kids to cook – this kid-friendly recipe has lighter flavours than our snowflake recipe and the one we used to make the mini gingerbread men for these cupcakes.
Why not Pin these Christmas Cupcakes to Make Again Next Year
I can’t wait to try this! Does it freeze well?
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
This looks so good! What a fun Christmas treat to make with kids!
Hi ,sorry I’m a bit confused, is it one whole egg, and one white so 2 eggs??
It is 1 whole egg and 1 egg white so yes 2 eggs in total.
Hi!! I’m from Mexico and i don’t know what is the Black treackle, is it a kind of sugar? Or it is any kind of spice?? Thanks for helping to me.
Hola, so I think in Mexico black treacle is called melaza it’s a liquid sugar that is very thick and sweet. It has a slightly licorice taste and is dark black/brown. I hope that helps.
Thanks a lot!! I found it already. Now i can bake the cupcakes.