Blogmas Day 7 | Gingerbread Muffins

 Today I thought I would share these muffins which I am crazy about.  They are lightly spiced with ginger and cinnamon, and have a really familiar flavour which I think is due to the addition of black treacle.  I have topped them off with a brown sugar cinnamon buttercream and let me tell you, it's the perfect combination!  Oh, and they make your whole house smells amazing too.

This recipe makes 8-10 muffins

You'll need:

50g light brown sugar

80g vegetable oil

80g milk

100g black treacle

1 egg

220g plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsb ground cinnamon

pinch salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

And for the buttercream:

250g softened butter

500g icing sugar

60g soft brown sugar

2-3 drops vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius.  In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, milk, treacle and egg.  I used a whisk which worked well to combine the treacle with the rest of the mixture.  Add in the spices, salt, and then the baking powder, bicarb and flour.  Mix until just combined.  Lumps are your friend where muffins as concerned, as you wan to keep the light texture and over-mixing can result in a chewy muffin.  I used an ice cream scoop to fill some muffin cases which I had placed in a muffin pan.  Pop them in the oven for around 20 minutes, but as all ovens vary, keep a toothpick on hand to test your muffins.  As soon as the pick comes out clean, whip them out of the oven.  

You'll need to cool them completely before staring on the buttercream.  I used my stand mixer to combine all the buttercream ingredients and whisked until light and fluffy.  You could be all fancy and pipe the frosting onto the muffins, but I simply used a palette knife and smoothed the icing on in a semi-haphazard fashion.

I used perhaps the cutest little gingerbread men toppers that I got in Hobbycraft, I mean, just look at them!  I love their little smiley faces..

These muffins are perfect with a cuppa or, if you like living on the edge, serve warm with custard or ice-cream.  You won't regret giving these a try!