Dark Chocolate Ginger Cupcakes with a Vanilla Mascarpone Frosting

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: January 6, 2026

Sorry, but I still can’t get enough of the chocolate and ginger combo. I am addicted. I just want to put it in everything. I think they need to make a chocolate ginger cereal. Oooh…that would be really good!

Regretfully, I only got to sample one of these heavenly scented cupcakes before shipping them out to my daughter’s school. I signed up to bake once a month for hot lunch days. Which is good, because if these had stayed in the house, I would have eaten them all myself. Well, maybe I would have to fight my husband for them. He loves ginger too.

I like that the cupcakes were light an airy. I wanted to add a light fluffy frosting like my Cinnamon Mascarpone Frosting, but that would require the cupcakes to stay refrigerated, so it wouldn’t work in this case. I did use mascarpone cheese anyway, but in more of a buttercream style frosting.

I may or may not have squeezed the contents of my pastry bag into my mouth as I savored the creamy mascarpone frosting. I think I will just blame it on the Elf on a Shelf. I have seen him get into all sorts of trouble on Instagram. He made me do it.

These go great with a tall glass of eggnog. Go ahead and make some for your holiday party.

Dark Chocolate Ginger Cupcakes with a Vanilla Mascarpone Frosting

by The Sweet Chick

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert ginger cinnamon cloves molasses Christmas cupcake

Ingredients (30 cupcakes)

For the cupcakes

2 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup boiling water

For the frosting

8 oz. mascarpone cheese
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons eggnog (or milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)

Instructions

For the cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350º F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.

In a stand mixer place eggs, milk, molasses, and oil. Mix on low for about 1 minute.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on low for about 3 minutes until all incorporated.

Stir in boiling water and carefully mix on low until batter is smooth (batter will be thin).

Pour batter into prepared muffin tins using a small ladle, until 3/4 full.

Bake at 350º F for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting

In a stand mixer, cream together the mascarpone and butter until well combined.

Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, stirring in between.

Add eggnog (or milk) and vanilla. Mix on medium until all incorporated and smooth.

Frost cupcakes anyway you like, with a piping bag or a spatula. Feel free to add sprinkles.

Then go ahead and peel one open and take a bite!

(cupcake recipe adapted from Hershey’s Kitchens)

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Roasted Acorn Squash With Chile Vinaigrette

Appetizers

Christiana George

Updated Date:
June 8, 2023

I feel like I’ve fallen out of grace. Your good graces, at least. You see, I’d prepared a whole bunch of posts that I was planning on featuring during my time in California, and then I went and had such a flippin’ busy time that almost three weeks went by with hardly a peep. In fact, just about the only thing I did online was add heavily to my secret wedding board on Pinterest, secret because I don’t want to embarrass myself by unleashing the full extent of my wedding mania on you all.

Speaking of which, how the hell am I going to pull off a wedding this year? Last week, I caught a whiff of what the planning process was going to be like: an uphill battle, against the strictures of the industry, the expectations of parents and future in-laws, my own indecision. Too many ideas (and not only my own) and too short on time and money, that is my plight. Don’t worry, I won’t bombard you with the wedding planning details as the year goes on, but I just need to lean on a figurative shoulder for a moment and take a deep breath.

Alright then.

I made this recipe about a month ago, on one of the rare occasions in which I snapped out of my ‘anything goes during the holiday season’ mentality and decided to try a healthy recipe. Is acorn squash even still in season? (It is.) I guess it’s just as pertinent now as it was then.

Acorn squash has a wonderful heft to it, making it a satisfying substitute for meat, but I find it kind of heavy. I tend to fall for anything with lime juice and chile peppers, and figured that in this case, they would lighten the squash considerably. They did.

I suspect the same vinaigrette would taste great on just about anything. It’s tangy and bright, really perfect this drab time of year when a good kick in the butt is exactly what a person needs. (And I don’t mean intensive cycling classes.)

ROASTED ACORN SQUASH WITH CHILE VINAIGRETTE

Adapted from Gourmet

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 (1 1/2- to 1 3/4-lb) acorn squash
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice, or to taste
3 to 4 tsp finely chopped fresh hot red chile, including seeds
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Halve squash lengthwise, then cut off and discard stem ends. Scoop out seeds and cut squash lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide wedges.

Toss with black pepper, 1 tsp salt, and 2 Tbsp oil in a bowl, then arrange, cut sides down, in 2 large shallow baking pans. Roast squash, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until squash is tender and undersides of wedges are golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes.

While squash roasts, mince garlic and mash to a paste with remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Transfer paste to a small bowl and whisk in lime juice, chile (to taste), cilantro, and remaining 3 Tbsp oil until combined. Transfer squash, browned sides up, to a platter and drizzle with vinaigrette.