Baked. Good.

Are you interested in taking a break from last-minute holiday shopping to do some last-minute holiday baking?

I thought so.

As it appears that the gingerbread chocolate chip cookies were a big hit, I thought we might as well stick with the winning genre. Plus I am really intrigued about this recipe for gingerbread cupcakes, so I want one of you to make them and let me know how it goes.

OK?

I got the recipe from The Rockstar Diaries, and she got the recipe from Emma Chapman, who owns Red Velvet Sweet Shoppe with her sister, Elsie.

Got that?

Good.

Just in case you were too lazy-slash-busy to follow all those links (don't blame you one bit, whatever your reason might be) here is the recipe. And a yummy-looking photo to kick it off!

You'll need:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 TB ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

A pinch of cloves

3/4 cup softened butter (one and a half sticks)

3/4 sugar

1 and 1/2 TB molasses

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

In a bowl, cream together butter and sugar.

Add eggs and vanilla and stir until just combined.

Add all the remaining ingredients and stir until nearly no lumps are left in the batter.

Spoon batter into lined baking cups, 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

Emma (and the recipe) recommends making mini cupcakes, but I say you do whatever you want.

Either way, I think you'll probably want some buttermilk frosting on top, so because Christmas is a time of selfless giving, here's the recipe for that.

You'll need:

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)

1 to 2 TB buttermilk

1 and 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar

A pinch of cinnamon

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and buttermilk together.

Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time (creaming in between) until you reach your desired frosting consistency.

Then stir in your pinch of cinnamon and frost away!

P.S. If you do happen to have some last-minute holiday shopping, you might consider this Martha Stewart cupcake cookbook. For one thing, that's where Emma found this recipe. And for another thing, I have used this very cookbook approximately 1,000 times and never gone wrong. I baked more than 100 cupcakes for my engagement party (that is not actually an exaggeration) and I used all recipes from this book and every single one was delicious. (Also not an exaggeration.)