We're so excited to share a delicious festive baking recipe from professional baker and This Morning chef Juliet Sear! Her gingerbread latte cupcakes make the perfect Christmas treat, no matter what your plans are this year.

These cupcakes are super cute and make lovely table presents or treats for Christmas gatherings. The gingerbread decorations are a nod to the delicious flavour of the cupcakes, but if you want to save time, you can use marzipan cutouts or coloured icing with orange and brown food colouring added instead of baking the biscuits separately!

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What you'll need:

A stand mixer with a paddle attachment (if you don't have this you can use an electric hand whisk, or even a bowl and wooden spoon will work!)

Cupcake tin and cupcake liners (I like using plain white for these but it’s up to you!)

Miniature cookie cutters (mixed sizes look nice, I’ve used gingerbread men, candy canes, trees, and stars)

Bowls

Scales

A rolling pin

A piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle

Ingredients:

For the gingerbread decorations:

125g unsalted butter

100g dark muscovado sugar

90g golden syrup

300g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2-3 tsp ground ginger

3 tbsp soft peak white royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle

For the sponge mix:

120ml Buttermilk If you can’t get hold of buttermilk you can replace this with full fat natural yoghurt

190g self-raising flour

2 tsp. ground ginger

1  tsp. ground cinnamon

½  tsp. baking powder

150g light muscadavo or soft brown sugar

120g soft unsalted butter, diced

2 medium free range eggs

20g black treacle

1 jar of stem ginger in syrup, blitzed - we’ll use 90g of this in the sponge

For the coffee syrup:

Approx 10-15g good quality instant espresso powder (to taste)

70g caster sugar

50 ml boiled water

Shot of brandy or coffee liqueur optional

For the icing:

250g soft unsalted butter

500g unrefined icing sugar, sifted (if you can’t get unrefined you can use regular that’s fine)

125g full fat soft cheese, at room temperature

Edible gold leaf - optional

Method:

Gingerbread-style decorations

This quantity makes about 16 medium-sized cookies, so you could use any leftover dough to make a few larger cookies to go with the cupcakes, as the mini ones we'll be making don’t take much dough! I'd recommend making these in advance and leaving them to dry overnight.

  1. Mix the golden syrup, orange juice, sugar, spices, and vanilla in a pan. Heat, stirring regularly over a medium-low heat until all the sugar is dissolved and everything is combined – don’t let the mixture boil! Add the butter and stir until melted and incorporated into the hot sugar mix.
  2. Add the bicarb and whisk until fluffy and pale. Pour into a mixing bowl. Allow to cool slightly, then add the flour and beat on slow, or mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together and resembles an oily dough – it should be gloopy, pliable, and a little runny, but will harden as it cools and sets.
  3. Using a spatula, tip the dough onto two large pieces of cling film laid out in a cross, one on top of the other. Wrap up to seal, then chill in the fridge for at least two hours or overnight. The dough can be made ahead of time up to this stage and frozen for up to a month. Defrost in the fridge overnight, then leave at room temperature for 1 hr before kneading until pliable.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180°c fan and line a baking sheet or sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough out using a little more flour, and keep the biscuits at a similar thickness of approximately 4-5mm. Cut into mini shapes, place on a tray with some space inbetween, and bake until they're cooked through. They should be darker around the edges and springy to the touch - depending on the size, this will take about 8-12 minutes. Leave to cool completely, then decorate by piping the little white details over the cookies as shown.

Gingerbread latte cupcakes

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional, 160°C fan, or gas mark 4.
  2. Line your cupcake tin with baking cases.
  3. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and spices to combine.
  4. Cream the butter, sugar, treacle, and ginger on medium speed using a stand mixer for a few minutes until pale and fluffy.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time until combined.
  6. Add the flour and buttermilk in increments of three, flour then buttermilk, until all mixed together.
  7. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 mins or until risen, springy, and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the sponges. Leave to cool in the tins, and pierce the sponges all over with the skewer to allow the syrup to soak in later.
  8. While the cakes cool, make the coffee syrup by combining coffee and sugar in a bowl and stirring in boiling water until everything has dissolved.
  9. Drizzle or brush the coffee syrup evenly over all of the cakes, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack if you have one.
  10. For the icing, cream the butter until it's really soft and creamy. Add the icing sugar, a quarter at a time, with the stand mixer on slow. Once the powdered sugar has blended in, turn up the speed to high for a minute to make it very light.
  11. Stir in the cream cheese on slow until combined, then place into your piping bag and pipe swirls of frosting onto the top of each cake. Top with your little biscuits to finish, and add a few flecks of gold to the frosting if using.

These cakes keep for up to 3 days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before eating.