Chocolate gingerbread cupcakes are chocolately, warmly spiced cupcakes topped with thick orange chocolate ganache. They’re the perfect cozy recipe for the holidays!
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These cupcakes combine chocolate with the festive flavor of gingerbread! There’s even a hint of winter citrus thanks to a little orange zest. They’re topped with luscious chocolate orange ganache.
Chocolate gingerbread cupcakes are the perfect shareable dessert for the holidays. This recipe is adapted from my chocolate gingerbread cake recipe.
I originally created this recipe with whipped cream as the topping. I updated it to chocolate ganache.
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Why This Recipe Works
- You’ll love the luscious 3 ingredient orange chocolate ganache!
- These cupcakes are super chocolately just like my carrot chocolate cake! It’s made with cocoa powder and chopped chocolate and chocolate ganache!
- They’re super easy to make and made with pantry friendly ingredients.
- Everyone will love the combination of gingerbread and molasses. They have the perfect balance of chocolate and warm spices.
Ingredients
Below are useful notes about some of the ingredients needed to make these cupcakes.
- Molasses: Molasses is the syrupy byproduct of the sugar making process. It has a strikingly dark color and standout smell and taste.
- Cocoa powder: Use natural unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch processed cocoa powder.
- Cake flour (optional): Cake flour gives this cake its soft, light texture. If you don’t have cake flour, you can swap in all purpose flour.
- Orange zest: Orange adds a hint of fresh, fruity flavor to the batter and ganache. It’s delicious with chocolate and gingerbread. You’ll just need the zest of one medium orange.
- Sour cream: Sour cream adds extra moisture. Use full fat, room temperature sour cream.
- Milk: Use full fat, room temperature milk.
- Cocoa powder- Use unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Semi-sweet chocolate: This cake uses chocolate in the batter and in the ganache. Use bars of semi-sweet chocolate from the baking aisle.
- Spices: The combination of ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cardamom gives this cake its warm gingerbread flavor. For more spice filled treats, try my apple fritter bread and chai bars.
- Heavy cream: Use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream for the chocolate ganache.
Substitutions & Variations
- Swap in buttermilk for the whole milk and sour cream.
- Use all-purpose flour in place of cake flour. You can also make a DIY cake flour substitute at home.
- Chocolate chips can be used in place of chopped chocolate, but I recommend chopped chocolate if possible. It melts better than chocolate chips.
- Instead of ganache, top with whipped cream.
Instructions
Step 1: (See photo 1 above). Whisk to combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
Step 2: (See photo 2 above). Mix the butter and sugars with an electric mixer til light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Step 3: (See photo 3 above). Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the molasses til incorporated.
Step 4: (See photo 4 above). Mix in the dry ingredients and milk and sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate.
Step 5: (See photo 5 above).Evenly distribute the batter between 18 cupcake liners. Fill 2/3 of the way full (use about 1/4 cup batter per cupcake). Bake at 350 F for 16-20 minutes.
Step 6: (See photo 6 above).Enjoy as is or allow to cool then top with chocolate ganache.
Expert Tips
- Use a microplane to grate the orange part of the peel. Do not grate the white pith part of the peel.
- Be careful not to overmix the batter.
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Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes
- 1 ¾ cups (218.75 g) all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (2 teaspoons) baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon (¾ teaspoon) salt
- 2½ teaspoons (2½ teaspoons) ginger
- 2 teaspoons (2 teaspoons) cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon (¼ teaspoon) nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon (¼ teaspoon) allspice or substitute one of the other spices listed
- ½ cup (43 g) cocoa powder natural unsweetened or Dutch processed
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ tablespoons (6 g) dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) orange zest
- 3 large (3 large) large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup (118.29 ml) whole milk
- ¼ cup (57.5 g) sour cream
- ⅓ cup (78.86 ml) molasses
- 1½ ounces (42.52 g) semi-sweet chocolate chopped, optional
Chocolate Ganache
- 4 ounces (113.4 g) semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- 6 tablespoons (88.72 ml) heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon (½ teaspoon) orange zest optional or vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉.
- In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, stir to combine the sour cream and milk. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars and orange zest on medium speed til light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Mix in the molasses til incorporated.
- Alternatively add the dry ingredients and milk and sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips. Avoid overmixing.
- Fill greased or paper lined muffin tins ½ to ⅔ full and bake 17-20 minutes. Use about 1/4 cup of batter or less per cupcake. Let cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Top with a dollop of whipped cream or chocolate ganache.
Chocolate Ganache
- Bring a medium saucepan with water to a simmer. Chop the chocolate and add it to a medium heat safe bowl with the cream and orange zest (if using). Set the bowl over the saucepan. Make sure not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Stir until chocolate has melted.
- Remove from heat and allow ganache to cool slightly at room temperature until ganache has thickened slightly, about 20 minutes. Pour/spread over the cooled cupcakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that nutritional values are created by an online calculator and should only be used as an estimate.
Shannon
This was a good recipe! Very tasty and not too sweet. I ended up topping it with cream cheese icing and orange zest, which was very good.
My cupcakes did turn out denser than expected, and I needed to make them a lot longer than expected to get a cake tester to come out clean. I am working with a new convection oven, but I did a few different batches and messed around with the temp and cook time and still felt like I had to bake longer than instructed. I also used blackstrap molasses because that’s what I had on hand, and thought that could have contributed to the denseness and baking time.
Overall a very good recipe, and perfect for winter!
Barbara Briggs Ward
Love this recipe!
Natalie
Thanks! Lots to love about it! 🙂