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Home » Baking & Desserts » Icing » Gingerbread Buttercream

24 November 2017

Gingerbread Buttercream

27.1K shares

If you’re a fan of gingerbread men then you’ll love this delicious, smooth gingerbread buttercream, flavoured with ginger and black treacle.

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If you're a fan of gingerbread men then you'll love this delicious, smooth gingerbread buttercream, flavoured with ginger and black treacle.I love gingerbread biscuits at Christmas (well all year round really, but they just feel “right” at Christmas), so when it came to thinking up a flavour for day 3 of my festive buttercream week I decided that it had to be gingerbread.

I’ve experimented with ginger buttercream before but never managed to get the flavour quite rich enough to really bring all the memories of gingerbread biscuits when eating it. I ended up pouring over gingerbread biscuit recipes thinking about what gives them their distinctive flavour and thinking about whether I could somehow shoehorn that into a smooth buttercream.

After much experimentation, I discovered that the secret to making a buttercream that tastes just like gingerbread was to add lots of ground ginger (obviously) and also a little black treacle. I’m traditional and stick to just ginger but I know some people prefer to add other spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg to their biscuits, so feel free to switch some of the ginger for these in the recipe if you prefer.

I’ve served this gingerbread buttercream on some of my vanilla cupcakes and they’re topped with some cute gingerbread man sprinkles that I found in Hobbycraft.

If you're a fan of gingerbread men then you'll love this delicious, smooth gingerbread buttercream, flavoured with ginger and black treacle.

What You’ll Need

Before you start, make sure you have all of the equipment needed.

NOTE – These are affiliate links which means that if you purchase from Amazon after clicking on one the product links below I may earn a small commission. All of the products linked are ones I use in my kitchen.

  • Weighing Scales
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Knife – to cut the butter
  • Electric Mixer (or a bowl and hand mixer or wooden spoon)
  • Sieve
  • Piping Bags – if you’re planning on piping the cupcakes
  • Piping Nozzle – To pipe the cupcakes as shown in the pictures you’ll need a JEM 1B nozzle.

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gingerbread buttercream-2

Gingerbread Buttercream

If you’re a fan of gingerbread men then you’ll love this delicious, smooth gingerbread buttercream, flavoured with ginger and black treacle.
5 from 2 votes
Print Rate Save Go to Collections
Active Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
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INGREDIENTS

Metric - US Cups/Ounces
  • 225 g butter - soft at room temperature
  • 450 g icing sugar
  • 4 tbsp black treacle
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • A little milk

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Cut the butter (225g) into cubes and beat in an electric mixer on a low speed until soft.
  • Add the icing sugar (450g) and beat until fully combined – I prefer to add the sugar a couple of spoonfuls at a time as this minimises the amount of sugar that flies out all over the kitchen.
  • Add the black treacle (4 tbsp) a tbsp at a time and beat until fully combined.
  • Add the ground ginger (1 tbsp) and again beat until fully combined.
  • Check the consistency of your buttercream, if it seems a little too firm to pipe then add a little milk (no more than a tsp at a time) until you have the required consistency.
  • Your buttercream is now ready to use.

NOTES

Makes enough for 12 cupcakes or to over and fill a 20cm layer cake.
Take a look at my mix-and-match cupcake index to find lots of different flavour cupcake sponges to serve this on, as well as lots of other buttercream recipe inspiration.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a comment and rating at the bottom of the page to let others know what you thought.
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NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 306kcal | Carbohydrates: 41.2g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 15.4g | Saturated Fat: 9.8g | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 40.8g

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.


Keyword: Frosting, Icing

If you're a fan of gingerbread men then you'll love this delicious, smooth gingerbread buttercream, flavoured with ginger and black treacle.

Free From/Suitable For…The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.

  • Suitable for Vegetarians
  • Gluten-Free
  • Egg-Free
  • Tree Nut-Free
  • Peanut-Free
  • Sesame-Free
  • Soya-Free
  • Lupin-Free

If you're a fan of gingerbread men then you'll love this delicious, smooth gingerbread buttercream, flavoured with ginger and black treacle.

27.1K shares

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Trish says

    April 04, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    5 stars
    Absolutely delightful!! Thanks so much for sharing this gorgeous buttercream recipe which will go great on top of cupcakes 🙂

    Reply
  2. Lily coverdale says

    November 16, 2019 at 12:26 pm

    5 stars
    Charlotte, this recipe is magical! I used the icing on my Halloween persimmon and ginger cake, and it was brilliant.

    Reply
  3. Ellen says

    July 17, 2019 at 9:07 pm

    What cupcake vase would you put this buttercream on? X

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      July 18, 2019 at 1:40 pm

      Whatever you fancy really. It goes particularly well with coffee or chocolate.

  4. Shelly says

    May 25, 2019 at 2:16 pm

    Where a buttercream recipe calls for butter, what do you use please? Salted or unsalted butter? Im looking to make your gingerbread buttercream recipe.

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      May 30, 2019 at 6:30 pm

      I always use unsalted.

  5. Janice says

    December 17, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    Can you break the ingredients into cups other than grams please

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      December 17, 2018 at 5:49 pm

      Done 🙂

      Just click the big green button just above the recipe and you’ll see the ingredients listed in cups and ounces.

      If there are any other recipes you’d like to see cups measures for then please let me know. I’m slowly working my way through them, but I’ll prioritise ones I’ve got requests for. You might also find my grams to cups calculator useful. You simply enter the measurement you have and what you want to convert it to and it’ll work out the conversion for you for many popular ingredients (if there’s an ingredient missing let me know and I’ll try my best to add it).

  6. Ramona says

    November 14, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    have you made a lot of gluten free cupcakes? have you tested it on people with gluten free allergies? I want to try to start making gluten free cupcakes so my grandson can enjoy them but I’m so hesitant because his reactions are so severe
    can you give me any tips or suggestion? I would appreciate any help greatly! 🙂

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      November 21, 2018 at 9:52 am

      I haven’t, but I know several fantastic bloggers who do. Either they or their children have allergies or intolerance which mean they take ensuring there are no allergens sneaking in very seriously. If you take a look at my Halloween Meringues recipe there’s a list of the bloggers in there (the links go to their Halloween recipes so have a click around). No all of them are specifically gluten-free, but many are and they’re also very helpful if you have any questions. The Free From Fairy (who’s on that list) also sells her own brand of gluten-free flour which gets fantastic reviews compared to the brands available in the supermarkets.

  7. Chicara says

    December 03, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    What piping tip do you use for these amazing swirls….love your technique 🙂

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      December 03, 2017 at 3:20 pm

      It’s a JEM1B

  8. Sandy says

    November 30, 2017 at 12:15 pm

    Sorry but what is black treacle?

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      November 30, 2017 at 1:55 pm

      It’s molasses. I used this one https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/257090354

  9. Kate - gluten free alchemist says

    November 26, 2017 at 10:19 pm

    Gingerbread buttercream? I’m in!! x

    Reply

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