Frosted Gingerbread Mini Muffins | Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind

Just because you’re Paleo doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the flavors of Christmas past. I plan on bringing you the three flavors of Christmas this year, Gingerbread, Eggnog, and Peppermint Chocolate, gorgeously gift wrapped in Paleo! It was either that or the actual three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Your pick Scrooge. But technically I don’t know your past, or future, only your present because you’re reading this. And who wants to eat a ghost anyway? Wait what? Just go with it.

You guys…IT’S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS TIME! Group hug first and then we’re putting on the Michael Bublé Christmas Album and making these Paleo Frosted Gingerbread Mini Muffins to get into the spirit. Christmas time is my FAVORITE time of year. I just absolutely love decorating the house and the Christmas tree and baking Christmas treats and watching Christmas movies. I think the colors red and green look atrocious together, but I let it slide for the Christmas season.

Okay so before I get ahead of myself, how was your Thanksgiving?! In my excitedness I totally forgot to ask. I don’t think excitedness is even a word, but whatever. Mine went great! I ate way too much though and I even followed all of my 10 Dirty Secrets to Survive a Clean Thanksgiving. I got up, ran 5 miles, cooked the remaining dishes that I planned on making, wore jeans, drank wine, but not too much, and then came straight home stuffed to the brim, threw on sweats and passed out at like 8:30pm. I did keep my Thanksgiving meal entirely Paleo, which was actually surprisingly easy to do this year and not to mention insanely delicious. The entire package of gluten-free cookie dough I ate yesterday and the Moscow Mules I drank, however, were not. You win some, you lose some. Back on the wagon today. I hate the wagon. It’s no fun. I thought wagons were supposed to be fun. You know like hayrides and stuff. Just a bunch of sober healthy eaters in my wagon. Sigh. But we’re all chatty and energetic and in really good moods because we feel so AWESOME when we’re on the wagon! Yay for the wagon! (See. I told you.) (I’m having a conversation with myself aren’t I?) (I hate when that happens.) You know what I don’t hate? These Paleo Gingerbread Mini Muffins.

Paleo Frosted Gingerbread Mini Muffins
*Makes 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup fine blanched almond flour (Honeyville brand)
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 tablespoon arrowroot flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon pink himalayan salt
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
1/3 cup grass-fed butter, softened
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
1 teaspoon water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line or grease a mini muffin pan or standard size and set aside.

2. In a medium sized bowl combine the almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Use a fork to stir together, set aside.

3. In a large bowl combine the eggs and coconut sugar. Whisk until they become frothy with air bubbles. Then mix in the butter, molasses, and water. Continue to whisk until combined.

4. Sift in the dry flour and spices mixture into the wet egg mixture. Stir until combined. Use a cookie scoop to transfer the batter into the lined muffin pan. Cook for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let completely cool before frosting.

Vanilla Frosting
Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk, full fat, refrigerated overnight
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon coconut butter
1 teaspoon raw honey

Directions:
1. Place a can of full fat coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. Scrape the thickened cream off the top into a bowl or tall cup.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together using an immersion blender, hand mixer or stand mixer.

3. Transfer frosting to a piping bag with desired tip or a Ziploc bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle the frosting back and forth. Place finished muffins in the refrigerator for 10 minutes so the frosting can set then enjoy!

Notes:
You could sub the butter for coconut oil or ghee. I would probably try ghee first because the butter flavor definitely adds to the gingerbread flavor. I find ghee to be much stronger in flavor than regular butter so I would probably only use 1/4 cup instead of 1/3 cup. However, when using coconut oil still use the 1/3 cup.

So are you guys excited to be visited by the remaining ghosts of Christmas flavors past?! I sure am. Yay Christmas! Oh I also forgot to tell you that Brad and I will be taking a quick trip to San Francisco again for my company Christmas party! It’s going to be so insane. I love my job. I can’t even wait. So hopefully I will have some fun stories for you that involve alcohol and eggnog french macarons from the delicious place I made Brad walk like 4 miles to get to because I was too cheap to take a cab. He still brings that up to this day. He also swears it was 9 miles. Uphill both ways. Such a dramatica.

December 2, 2013 | 21 Comments

21 Comments on Frosted Gingerbread Mini Muffins

This Sydney Life
December 3, 2013 at 3:58 pm (10 years ago)

Yum Scrum!
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- Vanessa Barajas
  December 3, 2013 at 7:42 pm (10 years ago)
  
  TSL, heard about the tooth ache, it must be because you’re so sweet! Hope you feel better soon!!!
  Reply
  - This Sydney Life
    December 4, 2013 at 2:06 pm (10 years ago)
    
    Cheers Possum. On the mend!
barb
December 8, 2013 at 9:05 am (10 years ago)

YUM. I just read a post about how cage free eggs are not really humane at all. Always buy pastured eggs to make sure the chickens actually can move around. Check it out at http://empoweredsustenance.com/mislabeled-foods/
Reply
Nicole Blanco
December 13, 2013 at 5:37 am (10 years ago)

I see grass-fed butter and palm shortening used interchangeably. Could the same be done in this recipe, or is the grass-fed butter absolutely necessary?
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- Vanessa Barajas
  December 13, 2013 at 9:56 am (10 years ago)
  
  You could definitely use palm shortening in place of grass-fed butter in this recipe. I prefer the grass-fed butter just because I think it adds to the gingerbread flavor, but that’s just me. Let me know how it comes out.
  Reply
  - Nicole Blanco
    December 15, 2013 at 2:59 pm (10 years ago)
    
    They are incredible! I actually have butter flavored palm shortening, so I don’t think there was much difference. I truly am impressed at how “cake-like” they are. Bravo!
Wendy
September 13, 2014 at 12:09 pm (9 years ago)

Just made these so wanted to leave some feedback for others while it’s fresh in my mind. First, they taste great. Good combination of spices. I decided to make regular cupcake size. The batter only made 10 cupcakes at half full. Good thing I didn’t fill them any fuller because they overflowed but didn’t rise. I used the Bob’s Red Mill Almond flour because that’s what I had on hand. Typically I’ll only use that for breading (for just this reason). Followed the recipe exactly but next time will use Honeywell’s Extra Fine AF. Didn’t make the frosting this time because they flopped but they are still yummy without it.
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- Vanessa Barajas
  September 16, 2014 at 11:39 am (9 years ago)
  
  Hi Wendy, I’m thinking that maybe the batter was too heavy to make the larger cupcakes rise, more baking soda and a baking powder replacement is probably needed. The mini ones came out great, bummer that it doesn’t work for large. I will update the recipe. Sorry you didn’t have a better experience!
  Reply
  - Angela
    December 5, 2015 at 5:51 am (8 years ago)
    
    I made the mini ones but the same thing happened to mine too. I read it could be due to too much baking soda??? The inside had giant ‘holes’ and didn’t really have enough structure I think. Does it need to have a reduction in baking soda or maybe have a little baking powder? Was wondering if you have ever made these where this happened. It’s like the batter overflowed onto the pan but the top middle of the cupcake was slightly sunken. So I don’t know if it was because there was too little or too much baking soda.
  - Vanessa Barajas
    December 5, 2015 at 12:48 pm (8 years ago)
    
    Hmm that’s so weird, I have no idea what it could be! I haven’t had any issues, so I’m not sure. You could try adding 1/4 tsp. of cream of tartar which would work together with the baking soda in the same way baking powder does. It could very well be too much baking soda, maybe try 1/4 tsp. instead of 1/2?
CookItSlim.com
November 25, 2014 at 7:55 pm (9 years ago)

You take such beautiful pictures and your recipes are right up my ally! 🙂
Reply
- Vanessa Barajas
  November 26, 2014 at 8:39 am (9 years ago)
  
  Thank you so much!
  Reply
Angela
December 4, 2015 at 10:26 am (8 years ago)

I do eat dairy, so would the frosting taste better using butter in place of the coconut oil and coconut butter and heavy cream in place of the coconut milk? If so, would the measurements stay the same as listed?
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- Vanessa Barajas
  December 4, 2015 at 12:04 pm (8 years ago)
  
  YES! It would taste so much better! Haha, love that you do dairy! Do you like eggnog? I have a great eggnog cream cheese frosting recipe that would be insane on these. And just on cupcakes in general. If you don’t like eggnog, then you could sub the eggnog with heavy cream or half and half. 🙂 Let me know and I can send it to you. It’s in my cookbook too if you have that!
  Reply
  - Angela
    December 5, 2015 at 5:58 am (8 years ago)
    
    OMG!!! YES YES!!!! Please give me the eggnog frosting recipe!!!!!!!! I LOVE EGGNOG! I was actually trying to decide yesterday if I was going to make this recipe or the eggnog pie but the cupcakes were quicker to make so went with this one but I do plan to make the eggnog pie in the near future. I was asking because it seems like the recipes I’ve made that I just go ahead and use dairy in place of the coconut usually taste a bit better. Plus, I am the only one who eats this way so I have to make sure my food turns out tasting as non-paleo-ish as possible so everyone else will eat it 🙂 I love me some dairy!!!!!! Oh, and actually nevermind on sending me the recipe, I do have your cookbook so I will look for it in there. I left another comment above regarding how these turned out for me so I won’t repeat the post, but they were still wonderful.
  - Vanessa Barajas
    December 5, 2015 at 12:53 pm (8 years ago)
    
    Dairy is always going to taste better, period. Ha! This makes me excited for you! I try to stay away from dairy because I get really bad seasonal allergy symptoms and I end up having to take Claritin and nose spray like it’s going out of style, but, lets be real, I eat it way more than I should! 😉 You HAVE to make the eggnog pie. It’s in the book too. It’s SO good!!! I’m obsessed with eggnog. 🙂
Katelyn
November 4, 2016 at 12:09 pm (7 years ago)

Just came out of the oven! Delicious! Better lighter texture than a lot of other gluten free recipes. Made 6 regular sized muffins out of the recipe and will definitely double it the next time we make them! I made them without icing (makes me feel slightly better about eating them for breakfast. LOL) and they were plenty sweet. Great flavors.
Reply
- Vanessa Barajas
  November 4, 2016 at 1:09 pm (7 years ago)
  
  Hi Katelyn! I’m so happy to hear you liked them! Thanks for sharing the full-size muffin yield as well, that’s super helpful! Happy baking!
  Reply
Angela
December 6, 2015 at 8:25 am (8 years ago)

Yes I have seasonal allergies but I really don’t know if it is related to dairy but I love dairy so much, I don’t care–yes that’s bad but dairy is my weakness. I have been thinking about that eggnog frosting and I am so excited to try it. I’m going to try to make those gingerbread cupcakes again and first I will try to reduce the baking soda by half and see what that does, then if a problem, maybe I’ll try adding some cream of tarter—I WILL MAKE THESE WORK BECAUSE THEY ARE DELICIOUS!!!!
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