Gingerbread Cupcakes

My husband asked me the other day to make some cupcakes for the pre-holiday work meeting he was having this weekend, and I just felt the burning need to make something spicy and adorable to usher in my favorite time of year.
I first saw this recipe on How to Eat a Cupcake back in the early days of my food blog stalking. Cassie made adorable little graham cracker houses to go on top of her cupcakes, but I decided to use up some free gingerbread cookie box mix I got awhile back. The mix was by Stonewall Kitchen, and it was just so so. I'll stick to making my own from now on. The one I tasted was a little dry from over baking, but other than that they were pretty darn tasty.

Gingerbread Cupcakes
from Crazy About Cupcakes

1/2c butter
1/4c dark brown sugar
1/4c granulated sugar
1 egg, room temp
2/3c light molasses (I only had dark, worked fine)
2tsp lemon zest
2 1/2c all purpose flour
1 1/2tsp baking soda
1tsp cinnamon
1 1/4tsp ginger
1/2tsp cloves
1c sour cream, room temp

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars until light and very fluffy, 3-5 minutes on medium high. Beat in egg until fluffy. Beat in molasses and zest. Scrape down bowl and beat at least thirty seconds more.
Sift dry ingredients. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, then add half of the sour cream. Repeat, finishing with the last third of the dry. Scrape bowl and beat for another ten seconds.
Bake 15-20 minutes. Makes 20-24

Cream Cheese Frosting
(this is my own tossed together recipe)

8 oz cream cheese
4Tb butter
2 cups powdered sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
dash vanilla
pinch ginger

Cream cheese and butter until light. Add other ingredients and mix on medium low until smooth.

Gingerbread men frosted with powdered sugar and milk frosting. Aren't they adorably small?