Gingerbread Mini Cupcakes

Happy Halloween!!

My first year in U.S, I had no candies in the house when someone came trick or treating. I didn't know about Halloween. We ended up giving granola bars to every kid who came.When I went shopping for candies this year, I saw the pumpkin sprinkles. Of course I had to buy it. And since I bought them, I had to use it for Halloween. I sent these mini cupcakes to my husband's work and that is the end of the story and the reason for this post. Do read the notes to know the changes I felt should be made.

Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour - 2 1/4 cups
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Ground Ginger - 2 tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Ground Cloves - 1/2 tsp
Ground Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
Ground allspice - 1/4 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup
Molasses - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Egg - 1 large
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the mini muffin pan with liners. I prefer to spray the liners to make sure no crumb gets stuck when peeled. But it is just me. You do not have to do it. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients. Beat to incorporate. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and just mix till incorporated.  Pour the batter to paper cups filling almost full and bake for 13 - 15 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 The source of the recipe had a cinnamon glaze but since I wanted to use the sprinkles, I frosted with buttercream frosting which, I converted into cinnamon buttercream and piped swirls. I did this because I had frosting from a cake project I did this weekend. You could frost with cream cheese frosting.

 Notes:
I used oil instead of melted and cooled butter. You could use butter as in the original recipe - 1/2 cup or 1 stick. I reduced the spices a bit particularly nutmeg and allspice. I kept the ginger the same, but the ginger smell was very strong. I would suggest using half the amount of ginger. However those who ate it, liked it a lot.

Enjoy!!