Christmas cupcakes

Here in Jönköping it is a beautiful winter's day. There aren't many things more beautiful than the sun shining on a winter wonderland!


Today we're getting out all of our Christmas decor and we're going to get our little home ready for Christmas. Christmas is such a great time of year here in Sweden as it is so beautiful and cosy and cold…The wonderful thing with spending Christmas in Sweden is that it is usually a white one...but there are times when I really miss being in South Africa during this time of year. It's so funny seeing people running around in Santa outfits and sweating from the heat, spending the afternoon at the beach or lounging around the pool! But this year will be a white Christmas for me again. So I will light my candles and bake my pepparkakor (gingerbread men) and enjoy every minute of this lovely season!



This week-end the whole of Sweden is celebrating the first advent, so I made some yummy Christmassy cupcakes to enjoy with some Glögg, a warm, spicy drink that most Swedes love. I don't love it as much...but at least I can enjoy the cupcakes ;-) !
To see this recipe in Swedish, click here.

Cinnamon Cupcakes:
3½ dl flour * (just under 1½ cups flour)
½ tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
125g butter or marg
2 dl sugar (just over ¾ cup)
2 eggs, room temperature
1 dl sour cream (just under ½ cup)
50 ml milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until white.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla essence.
5. Mix in half of the dry ingredients, then the sour cream and milk, and finally mix in the rest of the dry ingredients.
6. Fill the cupcake liners ¾ fill. A tip: Pour the batter into a piping bag with a 1 cm hole and “pipe” the batter into the liners…a very easy, mess free way of making cupcakes!
7. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes in the middle of the oven, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool.

Cream Cheese frosting:
It’s important that all the ingredients for the frosting are at room temperature before you mix them. This helps to give you a smooth frosting that looks and tastes yummy.

100g cream cheese
50 g butter
3-4 dl icing sugar (about 1½ cup)

1. Beat the cheese and butter together until very smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar, 1 dl at a time until you get your desired consistency. The more icing sugar you have, the firmer the frosting will be…and the sweeter the icing will be.
3. Pipe onto the cooled off cupcakes. I used the same bag (washed) that I used for the batter to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
4. Mix 1 tsp cinnamon with 1 tsp sugar and sprinkle over the cupcakes.

Happy baking!

*1 dl=100 ml, so 3½ dl = 350 ml flour etc…