Ginger Cinnamon Cupcakes

It is week 2 of Whipped. This week's ingredients I had to choose from were ginger, strawberries and ham. HAM!!? Really?! Ham is the odd man out this week. I just couldn't figure out any way to incorporate it into a recipe! I came to my Mom's house this week to use her kitchen since we are still inbetween homes. Long story...maybe i'll explain it all later, it's a big crazy mess! Anyway, my Mom helped me this week. I love my Mom. She is the best. We've been talking all week about opening a cupcake shop. It really seems like it could work out, in a few years once I save up some money to be able to find a space to open one! It would be an absolute dream come true to open a cupcake bakery! We've even been brainstorming some name ideas...There are some pretty good ones. Let's hope it really happens. :)

Back to Whipped. We decided to go with the ginger and strawberries and make a ginger cinnamon cupcake with strawberry filling and homemade cream cheese frosting. Let me just say...YUM! They turned out awesome! I'd never really used ginger before and I had overexaggerated how spicy I thought it would be. It turned out to be a lot more mild in the cake than I thought. The recipe I used didn't call for cinnamon so we added some because it just seemed to be missing something. I got the idea for the strawberry filling from a magazine I was reading where they made strawberry shortcake cupcakes, they cut the tops of the cupcakes off and filled them with strawberrys and whipped cream. We played with it for a while and finally decided to just cut holes in the cupcakes instead of cutting the tops off to add the strawberry filling then just piped the cream cheese frosting on top and viola!, beautiful ginger cinnamon cupcakes!

Ginger Cinnamon Cupcakes with Strawberry filling and Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger, optional

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Prepare cupcake pan with liners

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, ginger, baking powder and salt. Stir in candied ginger, if using.

In a large bowl or mixer, beat together sugar and butter until combined and smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then, add flour mix and milk, alternating between the two.

Spoon batter into prepared liners. Bake for 23 to 28 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool completely then chill for about 30-45 minutes. Once chilled, cut holes out of the middle of the cupcakes only about halfway through each cake. Fill each cake with the strawberry filling (recipe below) and then pipe the frosting (recipe below) over the top of each cupcake then use the rest of the strawberries as garnish.

Strawberry Filling

8-10 strawberries

2 tbsp. sugar

Cut strawberries into very small pieces and stir in sugar.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients and mix well until smooth. Makes a lot of frosting, so you'll definitely have enough for all the cupcakes.

My husband loved these cupcakes! He is loving this challenge since he gets yummy treats every single week! He is in heaven. Here's my sweetie...

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