Gingerbread Cupcakes w/Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting

Do you think it's too late in the season for a gingerbread cupcake.  I think not.!  We have to get our gingerbread fix with cupcakes since I didn't make any gingerbread cookies this year.  This is a wonderful, easy and moist recipe with a hint of orange in the cake.  The cream cheese frosting also follows thru with the citrus and spice.  Again, great in the mini size and always a favorite at Christmas time.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 t. cinnamon
3/4 t. ginger
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup mild flavored molasses
1/2 cup water
zest of one orange.  (ADD HALF of the zest to the gingerbread and the OTHER HALF to the frosting).

In a medium bowl whisk flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, and baking soda and set a side.

Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add egg, molasses and orange zest and beat for 1 min.

Alternately add the flour mixture and the water beating on low after each addition. Make sure it is all creamed together nicely but do not over mix.

Bake on 350  for REG. SIZE CUPCAKES for 20 min.  Makes 12.    MINI SIZE CUPCAKES bake for 12 min.  Makes 24.


Citrus Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheeese
1/4 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 good pinch cinnamon
zest of half an orange

Beat cream cheese and  butter until creamy.

Add half of powdered sugar and and cream together.

Add vanilla, orange zest and cinnamon and cream together.

Add second half of powdered sugar and cream well.

SugarRush Recipes

Rum & Eggnog Cake

Toasting the holidays isn't the only way to enjoy eggnog.  You also can savor it in these elegant miniature cakes.  Because they keep well, you can serve some now and freeze the rest to serve drop-in guests.  Bundt cakes look beautiful on the table.  Usually dense and packed with flavor, they're also the height of simplicity. This recipe makes about two and a half dozen mini bundts (I have the 3 inch size, twelve to a pan) or one 10 inch bundt cake.

 

Rum and Eggnog Bundt Cake

1 1/2 cups butter (room temperature)

3 eggs (room temperature)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup diced mixed candied fruits

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups eggnog

1/4 cup orange juice (if you use fresh juice you can zest the orange for extra flavor)

1 teaspoon rum extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray pans.

In a bowl, whisk together the 2 1/4 cups flour, the baking powder, and nutmeg; set aside.  In another bowl, toss together candied fruits, raisins, pecans and the 2 tablespoons flour; set aside.

In mixer bowl beat butter for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition.

Alternately add flour mixture and eggnog to butter mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition.  (Do not overbeat) 

Add rum extract to orange juice and add to flour and eggnog mixture just until blended.

Fold in fruit mixture.

Bake at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes for mini bundts.  For large bundt, bake for about 55 minutes.

Turn out cakes when semi cool.  When totally cool glaze with rum eggnog glaze.

Rum and Eggnog Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons eggnog

1 tablespoon light colored corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon rum extract

Mix together until smooth and glaze cooled cake.  Garnish optional.

Sugar Cookies

I found a great snowflake cookie cutter and just had to throw in the sugar cookie for Christmas Cookie Week.  I decided you have to be very patient to make decorated cookies and I am not the most patient person so this was a bit of a challenge for me.  I have learned two things that are important when you make sugar cookies, and that is to never roll the dough out to thin and under baking is best if you want a soft cookie.  I do love how the icing makes itself pretty if you just wait a minute for it to smooth itself out.  This icing also gets hard when it dries so you can stack the cookies.  This is a new recipe I tried from Taste and Tell and I really liked it.

Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs and mix well.  Add milk and vanilla and blend.
Add the salt, baking powder, vanilla and flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is soft, but not sticky.

*The wonderful thing about this dough is that it doesn't have to be refrigerated first.  I did use a little flour when I rolled it out and it made all the difference in the world because my dough was still a little sticky.

Roll out (1/4 inch thick) and cut into shapes.  Bake for 8 minutes at 375 degrees. (yep, 8 min. worked for me even though they looked not quite done, they are done.) If you bake them to long they will end up getting hard.  Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving them to cooling rack.

Decorating Icing

2 3/4 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vegetable shortening

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients well.  If you want your icing thinner just add one teaspoon of water at a time until desired consistency.  

 

Pfeffernusse Cookies

This is a traditional German Christmas cookie which features molasses and honey with a variety of spices.  For me personally it just isn't Christmas without them.  I eagerly wait for them to come into the store this time of year.  I have never made them before and decided this was the year for me to make my own.  It is a little more time consuming with the chilling of the dough and rolling of the dough into acorn size balls but definitely worth it.  This recipe makes a lot and when I say that I mean over 100 so if you don't want that many cut the recipe in half.  I also deviated from the recipe and used butter instead of margarine and also rolled the cooled cookies into the powdered sugar instead of just dusting them.  This cookie is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Yum all the way says me and my German heritage.  This recipe is from Allrecipes.

Pfeffernusse Cookies

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)

2 eggs

4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons anise extract

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon black pepper (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for rolling in or dusting of cookies after they are baked.

Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening and butter in a saucepan over medium heat;  cook and stir until creamy.  Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.  Whisk in the eggs and anise extract.

Combine the flour, sugars, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper, and salt in a large bowl or mixer bowl.  Add the molasses mixture to the flour mixture and thoroughly combine. 

Cover with handi wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roll the dough into acorn-sized balls.  Arrange on baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart.

Bake in preheated oven 10-12 minutes.  Move to a rack to cool.  Roll in powdered sugar.

Death By Chocolate Cookies

If you are a chocolate lover this cookie is for you.  It's a soft chocolate cookie with chocolate chips inside and a white chocolate chip drizzle on the outside.  I've also made this cookie with the white chocolate chips on the inside as well as nuts.  There are many options to this basic chocolate cookie recipe.  You can also use a smaller scoop size and make a chocolate crinkle cookie.  They are the ones that are rolled in powdered sugar before you bake them and then they crack on the top when baked.  It's a great cookie for any time of the year.  

Death By Chocolate

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup baking cocoa

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips ( for drizzling after baked or add to mixture if you don't want to drizzle and want them inside the cookie)

Cream butter and sugar. 

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. 

Beat in vanilla.

Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in separate bowl then gradually add to creamed mixture. 

Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop on to baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Makes about 30 good size cookies

Cool cookies and drizzle with melted white chocolate chips.

Pecan Crescents

How can a cookie with such few ingredients taste so good.  This is a family favorite and has been in the family for many years.  In fact when I saw there was a date on the recipe that I hadn't noticed before I had to smile to myself.  It was 1971.  I think it came out of a Family Circle magazine.  They used to put a little booklet in the magazine every holiday season of cookie recipes.   

 In this recipe you can use pecans or walnuts.  Since a few people in our family are allergic to walnuts I always use pecans.  This is a light cookie but at the same time very rich.  You should store these is an air tight container.  They are good keepers but poor shippers.

Pecan Crescents

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioners sugar (not granulated)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoons salt

1 cup finely chopped pecans

1 3/4 cups flour

Cream butter.

Add confectioners sugar, the vanilla and salt and beat until light.

Mix in flour and nuts until well blended.

I use my smallest cookie scoop and put a scoop in the palm of my hand and roll it until  it is the size of my little finger only slightly fatter.  When I lay it on the ungreased cookie sheet I form it into a crescent.

Bake at 300 degrees  (yes, 300 degrees)  for 20 min.  When you take them out of the oven let them cool a little before you move them to a cooling rack as they are a fragile cookie when warm.  I put a cookie sheet under the cooling rack and then dust them with confectioners sugar while still warm.  Let sit until completely cool.

Mincemeat Cookies

Cookies and more cookies, it's that time of year.  I'm actually hoping for bad weather tomorrow so I can get a lot of baking done.  If not I think I'll go shopping.  O.K.  I tried to think of another name for these cookies because when you mention mincemeat a lot of people turn their noses up.  I came away with nothing.  I would liken the flavor of these to a raisin filled cookie (yum) which many people love.  They are soft with a little bit of a crunch on the edge.  I got a little carried away with the vanilla in the glaze if your wondering why it looks so beige.  This cookie is simple to make and surely warrants being called a Christmas cookie.

Mincemeat Cookies

1/2 cup butter (softened)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

3/4 cup mincemeat (I use None Such classic original mincemeat in a jar, but any brand will be fine)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix butter and sugar together then add egg and mix.  Whisk flour, soda and salt together and mix into butter mixture.  Add mincemeat and vanilla and mix until combined.  Drop by teaspoonful or small scoop on to baking sheet lined with parchment. 

Bake 350 for about 12 min.

adapted from Cooks.com

Vanilla Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 T. butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons milk

Mix all ingredients together until smooth and the consistency you want.  Drizzle or spoon on cookies.