Gingerbread Cupcakes

Christmas. The pandemic Christmas. The one that will go in the book, not because it was perfect but because it was proof.

The twenty-two dinners happened. Three days of cooking — same marathon as Thanksgiving but bigger, because Christmas deserves ham AND turkey, which means two proteins, which means twice the work, which means I am a fool and I love it. Denise came Tuesday and chopped vegetables for four hours. Monique made rolls — Deacon Harris's recipe, which she's better at than I expected and worse at than Deacon Harris, but the effort was genuine and the rolls were edible. Robert showed up Christmas Eve morning and helped me load the car — twenty-two aluminum pans, sealed, labeled, each one containing ham, turkey, dressing, greens, mac and cheese, sweet potato pie, and a dinner roll. A complete Christmas in a pan.

Kayla drove again. Twenty-two stops. Twenty-two porches. Mrs. Crawford was waiting at the door again — this time she was dressed up, wearing lipstick, a necklace, her good shoes. She said, "I dressed for you." I said, "Mrs. Crawford, you dressed for Christmas." She said, "Same thing." I left her dinner and a jar of Pearl hot sauce and she held the jar up to the light and said, "Pearl? Who's Pearl?" I said, "My great-grandmother. The sauce is her pepper." Mrs. Crawford looked at me and said, "You carry your people in everything, don't you?" I said, "Yes, ma'am. Everything."

Family Christmas was small — porch visits, FaceTime, Amara on the screen waving and saying "GAH-GAH MISS YOU" which is a sentence I will hear in my dreams for the rest of my life. I ate Christmas dinner at the table. Earl's plate was set. The ham was perfect. The house was quiet. But the twenty-two pans were delivered, and twenty-two people ate Christmas dinner because a family of Hendersons said: not alone. Not this year. Not any year.

Now go on and feed somebody.

Twenty-two pans of ham and turkey and dressing got delivered that Christmas, and I’d do it again without a second thought — but if I’m being honest, what I kept thinking about on the drive home was dessert. The sweet potato pie held its own, but there’s something about gingerbread that smells like a hug from the inside out, and after a year like that one, after Mrs. Crawford said “you carry your people in everything,” I needed a recipe that carried that same warmth. These gingerbread cupcakes are the thing I would have set on every one of those twenty-two porches if I’d had an extra hour — all that deep molasses spice topped with cool cream cheese frosting, the kind of sweet that says I was thinking about you without a single word.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of cinnamon, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed, beat the softened butter and brown sugar together for 2–3 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add molasses and eggs. Beat in the molasses until fully incorporated, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Alternate wet and dry. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour). Mix just until no dry streaks remain — do not overmix.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared liners, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 18–21 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar, then increase speed and beat until fluffy. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Frost and finish. Spread or pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the completely cooled cupcakes. Dust lightly with a pinch of cinnamon before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Gingerbread Cupcakes — Something Sweet to Leave on Every Porch