Michelle's Lemon Ginger Cupcakes

I did it! I fulfilled the requirements of the project by making some cupcakes with ginger in them. Yay! And they were both yummy, as those I shared them with can attest to, and pretty (or so you can decide for yourself).


I must confess that I was inspired by the Holiday Gingerbread Loaf at Starbucks. It combined ginger and lemon in a delicious way, and it quelled my fear of ginger baking. I didn't expect to find a recipe for this, though, so I planned to make it up myself. Except I don't make cupcakes very often, and I don't really know how much of what goes into them! So I ended up looking at a number of different cupcake recipes (mostly basic or white, and a few lemon) and comparing their ingredients. I even made a chart, with the ingredients down the side and the recipe across the top, and the amounts of each item in the intersections. This helped me to get a feel for the field of cupcake baking and decide what I was going to put in my own cupcakes. I could also decide how big of a batch to make.

So here's what I came up with:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 cup ginger ale
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon

As for steps, I creamed the butter and the sugar and added the eggs, then I mixed in the little bits of stuff, and then I added the flour and the wet ingredients. I baked them at 375 for about 18 minutes.

Comments on some choices I made: Justin suggested that it would be cool to use ginger ale in these cupcakes, and I agreed that it would be fun. (I was no longer fond of the idea while walking home from the grocery store with two liters of it as well as everything else I got, though). I found a recipe for cupcakes that included 7up, so there was a precedent! I talked the idea over with my Mom as well, though, and she pointed out that pop cupcakes might not bake up the same as cupcakes made with the typical milk. Milk has milk solids and proteins, and pop would have a lot more sugar.
I also came across a cupcake recipe that used sour cream for its liquid, and I thought that if I used both, the sour cream could make up for what was missing in the ginger ale. Most recipes had about a cup of milk, one called for two cups of sour cream and one called for three quarters of a cup of 7up, so I figured that half a cup of each was a good compromise. I also exchanged the suggested baking powder for baking soda, since I had acid to activate it.
To be honest, these cupcakes turned out a little weird. They still tasted good, and once I iced them you couldn't tell, but the recipe needs to be adjusted somehow. After I put them in the oven, bubbles popped through the top of the cupcakes for quite a long time - beyond the time when they should have been set up enough to retain their air. Eventually they stopped "boiling" and rose up nicely, but when I took them out of the oven they fell. The cooling cupcakes had sad wrinkly tops. They need more structure that allows them to set up better. Maybe it would be better to just use milk and baking powder?

I made icing out of cream cheese, icing sugar, grated ginger, lemon rind, and lemon juice. It took a lot of icing sugar to stiffen up the cream cheese; that always surprises me when I make icing. I put in lots of "flavorers" so the icing really added a lot to the cupcakes. I had a chance to use my icing bags to swirl the icing around the tops (finally, the reason why I bought them!), and I topped them with small pieces of candied ginger for prettiness.

Despite my criticisms, these taste really good. The recipe made about 18 cupcakes, and I took many of them to work to share, so I'm finishing up the last one tonight. I have tons of icing left, so maybe I'll make another batch (perhaps with some improvements)!