These Gingerbread and Caramel Muffins are the perfect festive treat. A gingerbread muffin with a hidden caramel centre and topped with caramel buttercream!
Muffins are one of my favourite things to bake and I have shared so many different flavours, like my Malteser Muffins, Millionaire and Toffee Apple Muffins so of course, I had to share a festive muffin recipe.
These muffins are super quick and easy to make, which is perfect if you are busy, especially at this time of year, and they are super easy to decorate too.
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Gingerbread and Caramel Muffins
To make these muffins, you need to split the wet and dry ingredients into two separate bowls. For this recipe you need to use a flavourless oil, I used vegetable oil, but you could use sunflower oil too.
I use oil in my muffin recipes rather than butter as I find it gives a lighter and non-greasy muffin. Mix together with the milk, eggs, vanilla extract and black treacle and leave to one side.
Black treacle is super sticky so if you struggle to get it off the spoon and into your bakes, lightly coat your spoon in oil first. This way the treacle will slide right off.
In a separate bowl add the dry ingredients. I used dark brown sugar in this recipe to give the recipe a lovely and deep flavour, dark sugar when mixed with the black treacle is a marriage made in heaven.
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Mix all the dry ingredients together until they are evenly distributed before adding the wet ingredients to the dry and mixing again.
As I said above, making muffins is super quick and easy and you only need to mix these until the ingredients are all completely combined and smooth.
Split half the mixture between your muffin cases. I use an ice cream scoop as it just helps ensure that each case has the same amount of batter in it.
Add a spoonful of caramel to the centre of each muffin before covering it with the remaining mixture.
The caramel must be a thick caramel, like Carnations. I wouldn’t recommend using a thin runny caramel as it won’t sit on top of the batter it will just end up incorporated and you won’t get the caramel centre.
Baking the Muffins
You will know the muffins are ready when they are golden brown in colour. Like with cupcakes and cakes, you can gently press down on the top of the muffin and if it springs back to its original position then it is ready.
I wouldn’t recommend using a cake tester as you will hit the caramel in the centre and the tester won’t come out clean.
Leave the muffins to cool slightly before decorating. Of course, you don’t need to decorate them with caramel buttercream which is totally optional. If you want to eat them warm remember and let them cool slightly after taking them out of the oven before trying them.
Caramel Buttercream
I love decorating the top of my muffins with some buttercream, but it is completely optional. I mix the butter, icing sugar and caramel together until thick and creamy.
Again, for the buttercream, you need to use thick caramel-like carnations. You also need to use unsalted butter. The type that comes wrapped in a block, normally of around 250g and wrapped in foil. If you use anything else, it won’t be thick enough and will just splodge everywhere.
I piped the buttercream onto the top of the muffins using a 1M Piping Tip, but you can decorate however you fancy.
Alternatives
You could add some chocolate chips to this recipe. Why not try white chocolate chips?
You could also add in some crushed ginger biscuits.
Equipment
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Gingerbread and Caramel Muffins
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread and Caramel Muffins
- 150 ml Vegetable Oil
- 175 ml Whole Milk
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 100 g Black Treacle
- 250 g Self-Raising Flour
- 175 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 150-200 g Caramel
For the Buttercream
- 150 g Unsalted Butter
- 300 g Icing Sugar
- 50 g Caramel
Instructions
To Make the Gingerbread and Caramel Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan. Line a muffin tray with your muffin liners and leave them to one side.
- Add the oil, whole milk, eggs, vanilla and black treacle to a large bowl or jug and whisk until they are all combined. Leave to one side.
- In a separate bowl add the flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until fully combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until the mixture is smooth and combined.
- Split half the mixture between your muffin liners. Add a spoonful of caramel to the centre.
- Split the remaining half of the mixture between your muffin liners. Ensure that the caramel is compeltley covered by the mixture.
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Once they have baked leave them to cool in the muffin tray for 15-20 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool fully.
To Make the Buttercream
- Add the butter, sugar and caramel to a large bowl and mix together until it becomes thick and creamy.
- If the mixture is still too thick add in 1tbsp of milk and beat again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency.
- Add the buttercream to your piping bag and pipe it onto the top of your cooled muffins.
Notes
- These muffins will last for 3+ days in an airtight container.
