Gingerbread Mini Cakes with Sugared Cranberries and Rosemary

Hi my friends. Happy Holidays!!! No matter what holiday you celebrate, I hope it’s a lovely season for you! I’m lucky enough to be able to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas so, as you would imagine, it’s my favorite time of the year.

Sooo…it’s been a really rough couple of months here, and that’s why you haven’t heard from me in a while. As you guys know, I have a crazy new puppy that I am completely in love with, but he is quite a handful. We moved out of the rental condo, then had to go into a hotel for 2 weeks, then were FINALLY able to close on our new home!! After searching for a year and a half, we found a beautiful new build in Jacksonville and truly love our new space!!

I get my very own prop room 🙂 

Just a glimpse into my new home and my crazy little Booker baby 🙂

So, back to doing what I love most…BAKING!! I’m finally able to bake again after digging my way out of boxes for the last month. I am soooo excited to share my newest recipe creation, and these little bites of heaven are the perfect holiday treat!

My husband and I have been furnishing our home with so many pieces from one of our favorite stores, J Turner & Co.. The furniture and home decor is absolutely stunning, and all of the pieces are unique and gorgeous! Recently, I was fortunate enough to do a collaboration with them, and used so many of their home decor pieces in this shoot. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I’m doing an amazing giveaway too, so make sure to check out the post!

My gingerbread mini cakes are topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting, and decorated with homemade sugared cranberries and rosemary!! They will be the perfect centerpiece for your holiday table!!

So, make sure to check out J Turner & Co. in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl, or online and treat yourself to some absolutely beautiful home decor!!

This batter just tastes like the holidays!!

I found the cutest holiday baking cups on Amazon. I like to collect these when I find cute ones!!

The smell of these beauties baking was unreal. It just felt like Christmas in my house..even if it was 89 degrees outside 🙂

I decided to decorate them with sugared cranberries and rosemary sprigs. This is the before picture 🙂

Look how pretty they look after they are dried and ready!!

sooo pretty!

I used different piping techniques for the cream cheese frosting so that each cake looked unique.

Get ready…I am about to post way too many pictures of these because they are so pretty 🙂 I love this cake plate and glass containers from J Turner & Co.

This board was one of my favorite pieces from J Turner & Co.! You just have to check out their store!

This post was so much fun to do!!

My favorite shot!!

How lovely!

I love this cake dome and candle!!!

I used all sorts of different piping tips to create the prettiest borders!

*** These are the kind of paper liners I used for this recipe. I had Christmas ones from last year, but these are the kind you need! Paper Liners ***

Gingerbread Mini Cakes with Sugared Cranberries and Rosemary

Makes: 8 mini cakes Prep time: 30 minutes Bake time : 25 to 27 minutes

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 cup softened, unsalted butter. I use Organic Valley

1 cup Dixie Crystals brown sugar

2 large Organic Valley eggs

3/4 cup water

1 cup molasses

1 teaspoon Nielsen Massey Vanilla

2 and 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream cheese frosting

1 pound Organic Valley cream cheese softened

1 cup Organic Valley unsalted butter, softened

32 ounce bag of Dixie Crystals Confectioners Sugar

2 tablespoons Organic Valley heavy cream

1 teaspoon Nielsen Massey vanilla

pinch of salt

Sugared Cranberries and Rosemary

2 cups Dixie Crystals granulated sugar

1/2 cup water

1, 12 ounce bag fresh cranberries, washed

several fresh rosemary sprigs

Directions

Make the cake

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking sheets and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, blend the softened butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Add in the vanilla, water and molasses and blend well.

Add in the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt and blend until combined. DO NOT over mix the batter, or the cakes will be tough.

Fill your paper liners about 3/4 of the way full.

Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for anywhere from 24 to 27 minutes. The cakes need to be very moist, so be careful not to over bake them!!

Remove the cakes and place them on wire racks to cool. After 20 minutes, place them in the fridge to chill before you frost them.

Make the frosting

In the bowl of your stand mixer, blend together the cream cheese, butter, heavy cream, vanilla and pinch of salt.

Slowly add in the 2 pounds of confectioners sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.

Set aside until the cakes are ready to be frosted.

This recipe makes a lot of frosting because I used a lot to pipe borders around the edges of the cakes. I even had leftovers that I saved for another recipe. It’s so good that you can put it on anything and it will taste delicious 🙂

Frost the cakes when they are completely cool.

Make the sugared cranberries and rosemary

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. DO NOT BOIL. You just want the sugar to be dissolved.

Stir in the cranberries and gently toss them to coat. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cranberries to a wire rack with a baking sheet underneath it.

Gently dip the rosemary sprigs in the sugar syrup and use the slotted spoon again to let the remaining sugar syrup drip off.

Carefully place them on the same wire rack.

Let them dry for an hour, then toss the cranberries in the remaining 1 and 1/2 cups sugar. Gently place the rosemary sprigs into the sugar and toss to coat.

Let sit on the wire rack to completely dry for an hour before you decorate your cakes.

You can refer to my photos for decorating inspiration!!

Store the cakes in the fridge in airtight containers for a few days, if not eaten right away.

You may freeze them for up to two months wrapped in wax paper and foil.

ENJOY and HAPPY AND HEALTHY HOLIDAYS my sweet friends!!

xoxo

 

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