Gingerbread Cupcakes & Eggnog Buttercream

For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 F and fill a 12-count cupcake tin with paper liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and then beat in the water and molasses.

In a separate bowl combine your dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices. Add your dry mixture into the wet mixture and beat on medium until combined about 2 minutes.

Fill cupcakes liner 2/3 full of batter and bake for 20-25 minutes (mine took 22 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack completely.

For the eggnog buttercream:
In a medium saucepan, whisk 1 cup of eggnog with 5 tablespoons flour. Then heat over medium until the mixture starts to bubble, whisking constantly. Continue to stir until the mixture starts to thicken. It will soon thicken to the consistency of cake batter. After about 7 minutes of whisking remove the mixture from the heat and add your extract. Transfer the mixture to a heat proof bowl and let the mixture cool completely to room temperature. (I let it sit for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to release the heat.)

In the bowl of your stand mixer cream together the butter and sugar on medium high for 3 minutes. By then the mixture should be light and fluffy and white in color. You want the sugar to be completely incorporated in the butter.

Make sure that your milk/flour mixture is completely cooled and add it to the butter and sugar. (You don’t want the milk/flour mix to be warm or it could melt the butter). Beat all ingredients together for 1 minute on high speed, scraping down the side of the bowl halfway through, until smooth and blended. The frosting should be light and fluffy like whipped cream.

Pipe or spread onto the top of your cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!

Recipes were adapted from Taste of Home Gingerbread cupcakes and Can you Stay for Dinner? The Best Whipped Frosting.