Christmas Cupcakes!
Tis the season to be camp as Christmas! And these cupcakes won’t disappoint – especially as I have never been known to stop when something is “enough” and have two pots of festive sparkles itching to be used in the cupboard! So, I present to you gingerbread cupcakes with lemon Swiss meringue buttercream holly wreaths topped, of course, with sweet ickle Frosties 
Aren’t they sweet? And really not that tricky to make at all. First you need to bake some gingerbread cupcakes that will make your home smell so good and seasonally welcoming, you’ll have passers by knocking down the door to find our what goodies you’re making!
Perfecto – just what I wanted, all the flavour of gingerbread but not so sickly sticky sweet that you don’t mind slathering with buttercream. Normally, I’d bite your arm off for a sticky wodge of gingerbread, so don’t disown me! These are definitely more “cake” than the traditional stuff which I usually make and is far more beautifully blogged about on my lovely friend Carrie’s stunning blog. So, that giant slab of butter behind the cupcakes is called into service for some Swiss meringue buttercream…
Smooth as a baby’s bottom – well, almost! I added somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of lemon and lime curd (homemade daaahling, of course!) to Annie Rigg’s Christmas Cupcakes book instead of vanilla as I reckon ginger and lemon is pretty much a marriage made in heaven. I did this also because the one lemon I had left had gone manky over night (urgh!) so I had to improvise and I’m so glad I did cos it really worked! Next comes the decorating bit – all you need is a small star nozzle and the ability to make (or buy) a piping bag. Oh, and some more vibrant food colourings than I have!
Aw I’m sooo pleased with these lil guys – and you know why? Because it’s utilising a very simple technique to an effect, greater than the sum of its parts, if you know what I mean?! The trickiest bit was piping those bows with a corner snipped off a small piping bag – it comes out fast when the diameter of the cut is so small and therefore you hve to “just go for it” when you start piping, cos this is frosting that aint waitin’ for no man! I kinda think the wibbly lines are quite charming anyway, as Dorie says – “it should look more than homemade, it should look hand-made, as that’s what it is”. Cannae argue with logic like that! Especially not from my pastry doyenne Dorie Greenspan (BIG LOVE to Dorie!)
So do you want the recipe so you can make your own holly wreath and bow bestowed cupcakes? The snowmen are optional, if you *must* have a tasteful Christmas! 
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttecream Recipe
(P.S. Don’t go looking in Annie’s bok for these recipes altogether – the buttercream and cupcake recipes appear at different points in the book, as does the wreath idea – I just merged my favourite ideas into one cupcake!)
Those cupcakes look lovely. You must be so proud of them. They look so professional.
Thanks Ele, yes I’m proud of them – sonetimes simplicity is so the way to go. The doctors at uni devoured the lot within 5 minutes of me placing them on a plate so they must have been yummy too
Beautiful Jodie!! So, so Christmassy- love ‘em lots!
Aw, there’s my lil Christmas fairy – Anna! You’d love this book – it was only £4 from The Book People and I think it’s cheaper from The Works
they are sweet and adorable…..and am sury they are yummy too! Very Christmassy and cheery…you certainly came up with some very lovely cupcakes!
These look lovely. I may have to steal the idea at some point, now that I will have time to bake again!
Thanks Terri! But I did nick the ideas, so can’t take all the credit!
Exactly Riikka! Imagine a Primrose Bakery cupcake under all that frosting mmmm!