Impress at the party with these stunning but easy to make gold and silver gingerbread muffins! They’re perfect for a birthday party, engagement party, Christmas party, baby shower, or any kind of celebration. The salted caramel icing on the top will have you rolling your eyes in pure ecstasy!

They’re easy to make – I promise!

How many times have you bought pretty cupcakes as a gift or to take to a party? How much did you pay for each one?

Muffins or cupcakes with a pretty frosting and decorations tend to be quite expensive to buy. For a long time I assumed that they would be too time consuming and difficult to make. But they aren’t – at least these ones aren’t!

I call these muffins because I originally made them without the swirly caramel buttercream. Incidentally they’re yummy like this too.

If you do choose to make them with the fancy icing, which I highly recommend, you are allowed to call them gingerbread cupcakes if you like!

Ingredients

Apart from the usual suspect muffin or cupcake ingredients (butter, sugar, eggs…), these gingerbread muffins contain golden syrup and black treacle.

I realise these are very British ingredients, but if you live elsewhere you can substitute with another kind of syrup and molasses.

To get that classic gingerbread flavour you also need to add nutmeg and ginger. This recipe includes four teaspoons of ground ginger and lots of chopped candied ginger. I use what’s called ‘non-crystallised ginger’ here in Australia as it contains slightly less sugar, but you can also use ‘crystallised ginger’. Or even ginger in syrup.

What do they taste like?

These gingerbread muffins:

• do taste like gingerbread but the texture is more ‘muffin like’.
• are light and fluffy inside with a fairly firm top.
• are just a little bit sticky and squidgy but they still have the characteristic lightness you expect from a muffin or cupcake.

I only make these for a special occasion. They aren’t the sort of cake you scoff all to yourself at home (although I won’t tell if this is what you’re intending to do!). They are sweet and delicious and perfect for a celebration!

These muffins are especially wonderful at Christmas. I love the gold and silver sparkly effect after you add the gold and silver sprinkles! (affiliate link)

Looking for a simpler, lighter muffin? Try these low sugar Greek yoghurt blueberry muffins instead. They’re our go-to every day muffins and get great reviews from readers. Ella said: “Unbelievably amazing! I’ve finally found the perfect blueberry muffin recipe. So light and fluffy. “

How to make them

These gorgeous looking celebration cupcakes do take a little longer to make than simple muffins, but they are easy. And 100% worth it!

This is what you do:

Step 1: Cream the butter and sugar together well.

Step 2: Lightly beat in the syrups and eggs – 2 whole ones plus 2 egg yolks.

Step 3: Stir in lots of chopped candied ginger.

Step 4 (photos 4 and 5): Mix the spices with the flour and baking powder. Slowly add the dry ingredients and some milk to the wet ingredients.

Step 5: Bake for about 20 minutes.

Step 6: Make the delicious and easy salted caramel frosting on the stove top and decorate as described below. Yum!

How to make the easy salted caramel icing

Step 1: Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.

Step 2: Add milk and brown sugar and let it all bubble away like mad for a minute or two. This is what will give it the gorgeous caramel-y flavour!

Step 3: Add enough icing sugar to make a thick-ish pipe-able icing (see the video to help you know how thick).

Step 4: For a finishing touch that makes all the difference, add salt and vanilla.

Step 5: If possible grab someone to help you scoop the icing into a piping bag with your chosen nozzle attached. If no one else is home, it is possible to do it by yourself but you might make a bit of a mess (the voice of experience speaks).

Step 6: Time to get creative. Confidently pipe in a circle from the outside of the muffin to the centre. Sprinkle with festive sprinkles! (I usually make these ginger cupcakes for Christmas so I like to use gold and silver sprinkles, but any are fine!)

Pro tip: Once you’ve made your icing, it’s best to pipe it onto the muffins immediately while it’s still a bit warm and soft. If it seems too thick to pipe (this happened to me once!) just empty it back out into the saucepan, add a tiny drizzle of milk and heat up briefly until it ‘melts’ again. Pour back into the piping bag and away you go! Add the sprinkles immediately too. I usually press down lightly on any bigger sprinkles so that they don’t roll off as soon as I move the muffins.

Or… keep it super simple

Bear in mind that you definitely don’t HAVE TO pipe the frosting on the top and make your ginger muffins look like fancy cupcakes.

If you’re short on time or you don’t have any piping nozzles you can simply spoon some of the icing on top. Sprinkle on some sparkly sprinkles, and you’re done.

Like so…

Recipe FAQ

I hope you decide to give these little beauties a go. Apart from anything else, they will permeate your home with the most delectable spicy, gingery, caramel-y aroma!

Got leftover golden syrup? Try these really easy Australian Anzac biscuits or these yummy ginger and apple cake slices.

More cakes to impress with

• No one can believe this ooey, gooey 30-minute chocolate cake is healthy! You can serve it plain or turn it into a birthday cake. I once turned it into a digger or ‘construction cake’ like these ones for my son’s birthday and it was wonderful!
• When I want an easy crowd pleasing cake for guests I nearly always choose this Italian apple cake or this 6-ingredient Swedish chocolate cake. Fudgy strawberry brownies are delicious, too!
• If you’re looking for another layer cake, it’s just got to be this Perfect chocolate orange cake. It always steals the show!
• If you have friends or family coming over for morning or afternoon tea and cake, may I suggest either this lemon mascarpone cake or this sticky blueberry lemon curd cake? Both absolutely delicious!

Or have a browse of all my cakes here.

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