GINGERBREAD CUPCAKE w/ LINGONBERRY-CURD

Both my two exams are done and went well so I’m relived to finally be able to say that I’m officially on christmas-break!  Since my university are international (we’re probably 50/50 Swedish and the rest is from all around world) we start our school-year early to be able to have a long christmas-break so everyone can go home over christmas, meaning that I’ll not start next term until the 18th January.

Next week I’ll be going to a get-together and they asked me to bake something “christmassy”. After a lot of thinking I came up with this recipe, a sweet and spicy gingerbread cupcake with a tangy lingonberry-curd and a sweet and smooth white chocolate frosting. Also a great way to get use of all of those lingonberries I picked this summer taking up space in my freezer. Really hope you will like this recipe, I completely fell in love with it.

Ingredients;
Cupcakes;
100 g butter, room tempered  
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1,2 cups plain flour
0,5 cups buttermilk
1,5 tbs ground cinnamon
0,5 tbs ground ginger
0,5 tbs ground clove
1 tsp bicarbonate 

Lingonberry-curd;
225 g lingonberry
0,5 cups sugar
50 g butter
2 egg yolks 

Frosting;
200 g good quality white chocolate
200 g creme cheese (the full fat version)
Icing sugar (if needed)

+ toppings and sprinkles of choice 

How to make this?
Cupcakes;
Preheat the oven to 215 degrees and place 12 cupcake-cases onto a baking tray. Beat the egg and sugar until its white and fluffy, then add in the butter and the buttermilk, whisking until all is combined.

Mix the flour, spices and bicarbonate and sieve it into the egg-mixture, gently folding it in to avoid knocking too much air out. Then fill your cupcake-cases to 2/3, bake for about 15 min. To test if they are done, put a toothpick in the middle, if it comes out clean they are perfectly done. Allow to cool on a rack.

Lingonberry-curd; 
Mix the lingonberries with the sugar and set aside for 10 min, then put them into a pan on medium heat. Let it start to simmer and then press them with a spoon to make them release all of their juices. Take of the heat and sieve it into a ban marie to get rid go the skins. Put the butter into the lingonberry-juice and when its all melted, whisk in the egg yolks and continue wishing until it thickens. Take it of the heat, put a clingflim on it (if you make it touch the curd, you will avoid the horrible skin) and let it cold down in the fridge. 

Frosting;
Melt the white chocolate in a ban marie or a microwave (be carful so it doesn’t burn). Start whisking the creme cheese and when the chocolate have slightly cooled down, pour it down into the creme cheese and whisk a bit more. Sometimes you need to add some icing sugar to get the right texture, but it varies from time to time. 

Assemble;
With a apple-corer, take out the middle of the cupcake. Fill the hole with lingonberry-curd, then pipe your frosting on top and finish it off with some sprinkles or other toppings of your choice.