Let the Christmas baking begin!

And just like that we are almost in December, the weather is absolutely freezing, the days are short, Christmas lights are on and I am so ready for Christmas!

I am very excited about all the little Christmas recipes that I will be posting in the coming weeks, so what better way to start it off with some lovely gingerbread cupcakes with dark chocolate finished with a salted caramel icing.

What I love about these is that you get the perfect balance between the chocolate, the ginger and the salted caramel, the more you eat them , the nicer they get!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Chocolate gingerbread cupcakes with salted caramel icing

Ingredients (makes 12-14 cupcakes):

For the cupcakes:

• 120 ml of vegetable oil
• 200 gr of brown sugar
• 4 tbsp of molasses
• 120 ml of warm milk
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
• 157 gr of greek yoghurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 200 gr of flour
• 60 gr of cocoa powder
• 2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg
• 100 gr of dark chocolate chips

For the icing:

• 200 gr of butter at room temperature
• 50 gr of icing sugar
• 60 ml of salted caramel
• 2 tbsp of double cream

Process:

1. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees celsius.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, ground ginger, ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the oil with the brown sugar. Once mixed, add the molasses.
4. Add in the warm milk and mix again, if the molasses are hard, the milk should help dissolve them.
5. Next, fold in the greek yoghurt and the vanilla.
6. Beat the eggs separately and then add them to the mix.
7. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix until combined.
8. Last, add in the dark chocolate chips.
9. Fill up 2/3 of the cupcakes cases with the cupcake batter and cook for approximately 25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
10. Once they are ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool down completely before icing them.
11. Once the cupcakes are cold, move onto the icing. In a large bowl, start by beating the butter and icing sugar, then add in the double cream and finally the salted caramel. Taste the icing before using it to make sure it is to your taste. I didn’t use a lot of icing sugar because the salted caramel is quite sweet, but if you have a sweeter tooth than I do, feel free to add more icing sugar or more caramel!
12. Pipe the icing over the cupcakes and enjoy!