These delicious sticky gingerbread cupcakes are made with ground ginger, chopped stem ginger and brushed with ginger syrup so they’re packed full of flavour and perfectly moist. The ideal treat for any gingerbread lovers.
When I was little I remember we almost always had a roast dinner for Sunday lunch and then a little buffet of sandwiches and cake for tea in the evening. One of my favourite cakes at teatime was Jamaican Ginger Cake. I decided it was about time I made my own version of this delicious cake to share with you.
These sticky gingerbread cupcakes get their gingeriness three ways to make sure they’re packed full of flavour.
- First I use plenty of ground ginger. Quite a few other recipes I’ve seen add other spices such as cinnamon to the ginger, but I’m a ginger purist and I prefer just ginger (I was the same with my gingerbread biscuits too).
- Secondly I’ve finely chopped up balls of stem ginger which means you get little bursts of ginger running through the cake. It’s important that these are chopped finely other wise they can be a little hard and tend to sink to the bottom of the cake. It’s also a good idea to coat the chopped stem ginger with a little flour before adding them to the cake mix. This helps keep it all evenly distributed throughout the cake as it cooks.
- Finally the cakes are brushed with the syrup from the stem ginger twice. Once straight after baking, allowing the syrup to soak into the sponge while it’s still hot. Then again once the cakes have cooled, giving your cupcakes a lovely sticky top.
Quite a few recipes for ginger cake that I’ve seen use milk as the main liquid. In my recipe I’ve opted for buttermilk as in testing I found that this gave the cakes a moister, softer texture. The cakes made with milk were still delicious but were a little firmer and springier in texture. If you can’t get hold of buttermilk then the recipe does also work with milk or natural yogurt, but I’d recommend having a go at the buttermilk version at some point, you won’t regret it!
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Sticky Gingerbread Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
- 110 g butter - either use salted butter or if you're using unsalted butter add ⅛tsp salt with the dry ingredients
- 110 g golden syrup
- 110 g black treacle
- 150 ml buttermilk - you can also use natural yogurt or milk
- 4 balls stem ginger - + a little of the syrup from the stem ginger
- 220 g plain flour - + 1 tsp to mix with the stem ginger
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 40 g soft light brown sugar
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 1 large egg
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat your over to 160°C/140°C fan. Line a muffin tin with 16 cupcake cases.
- Put the butter (110g), golden syrup (110g) and black treacle (110g) into a sauce pan and heat gently until the butter has melted. Mix to combine the ingredients.
- Add the buttermilk (150ml) to the pan and set aside to cool.
- Finely chop the stem ginger (4 balls). Add 1 tsp plain flour and mix to coat the ginger in the flour (this will help stop the ginger from sinking to the bottom of the cake while baking).
- Put the plain flour (220g), bicarbonate of soda (1tsp), soft light brown sugar (40g) and ground ginger (4tsp) into a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the buttermilk mixture and egg (1 large) and mix until combined. Finally fold in the chopped stem ginger.
- Evenly divide the mixture between the 16 cupcake cases.
- Bake for c. 20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- As soon as you've removed them from the oven while they're still hot, stab each cupcake a few times with a skewer and then brush the tops of the cupcakes with some of the syrup from the stem ginger.
- Put the cupcakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once the cupcakes have cooled brush them a second time with the stem ginger syrup to get the tops really sticky.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
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.
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
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Lupin-Free
Pin these Sticky Gingerbread Cupcakes to make later…
Helen says
I made these today after having great success with the lemon drizzle cupcakes. I wasn’t disappointed, they’re soft, fluffy and gooey all at the same time. I only used 2 teaspoons of ground ginger instead of 4 and don’t think they lack flavour so will probably do the same again. Thank you Charlotte, I can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
Janet Kaiser says
Super recipe, thanks. I added chopped candied orange peel for a bit of extra “bite”. Served them with rhubarb & ginger compot with custard as a pudding. They went down a treat.
Andy says
This might be very wrong to many people, but, if you were going to frost these, what flavour frosting would you use?
Charlotte Oates says
Absolutely nothing wrong with frosting a cupcake! I have a gingerbread frosting that is perfect. Biscoff buttercream also works really well with the gingerbread flavours or you could keep it really simple and contrasting with my cream cheese frosting.
Anne childe says
Just made these today,absolutely fantastic Anne
Eileen McIlhatton says
Can you use crystallised ginger instead of stem ginger thanks
Charlotte Oates says
You can although you’d likely find that the texture is a little different so it might not have quite the same end result.
Janice says
Hi, I love your recipes and they are always my go to for making cakes. Do you have a full cake version of this recipe yet please??
Charlotte Oates says
Unfortunately I don’t yet but it is on the list!
Jenny says
Can you use this recipe to make it into a cake by baking it in a tin? How long would you cook it for?
Thank you!
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t tested this as a full-sized cake, so I’m not sure – sorry.
Emily says
I have the same question! I find it really hard to find good ginger cake recipes and I love Charlotte’s recipes so I’d love it if there was a conversion of these to a full size! I need to make a ginger celebratory cake…
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t got the conversion of this recipe to a full-size cake quite right yet. I am working on it though.
Elaine Forsey says
Amazing!! Just love this recipe- everyone love these