Baking

How To Bake Deliciously Festive Gingerbread Cupcakes!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, so it's time to start the Christmas baking! Gingerbread is a warm and cosy flavour. I love having gingerbread over the festive period as it's great after a meal. If you love gingerbread, here's how to make a delicious gingerbread cupcake, perfect for the whole family! This recipe is simple to make, tasty and the whole family will love these cupcakes, especially with a glass of Bailey's!

Gingerbread Cupcakes - a cute gingerbread cupcake with spiced frosting and a polar bear topper

Why Make A Gingerbread Cupcake?

I love Christmas, and baking is something that brings me a lot of joy. I wanted to create a cupcake that is warm and tasty, perfect for with winter months. Christmas is a happy time of year, and I wanted to capture the flavours in a cupcake. I decided to use gingerbread as my Christmas flavour because it brings back a lot of memories. It's also something that the whole family can enjoy. I'd highly recommend serving these at a Christmas party to spread the love.

Related: How to bake delicious Halloween brownies!

Ingredients You'll Need

180g room temperature butter
120g golden caster sugar
60g brown sugar
180g self-raising flour
Two teaspoons mixed spice
One teaspoons cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons ginger
A splash of milk
A drop of caramel extract

How To Bake The Gingerbread Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to fan oven 180C/ 350F/ Gas oven 4 before mixing the ingredients
Cream together the butter and both types of sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. I'd recommend using a hand whisk or kitchen aide instead of a spoon
Sift in half of the flour and mix well. Bit by bit, mix in the rest of the flour until fully combined
Crack in both the eggs, caramel extract and add the splash of milk. Whisk the mix until fully combined
Add the spices into the bowl and mix well. The mixture should be light and fluffy. I like to tilt the bowl slightly while whisking to let in a bit of air and make the cake fluffier. You don't want to put too much air into the mixture
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop one load of the mixture into a cupcake case. It should perfectly fill up 12 muffin cases or one cake tin layer. To make your muffins more special, you could use gingerbread or Christmas themed cases!
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The cakes should come out a golden colour due to the sugar and spices. To check the cakes are cooked, use a cake tester. It should come out clean. If you gently push on the top, the cake should spring back too
Leave the gingerbread muffins in the tray to cool before decorating. You want to make sure they are completely cool before decorating

What You'll Need For The Frosting

One tub cream cheese frosting or vanilla frosting
Gingerbread/Christmas themed sugar toppers
1 teaspoon mixed spice
A splash of caramel extract

250g icing sugar
125g room temperature butter
1 teaspoon mixed spice
A splash of caramel extract
A splash of milk
Gingerbread/Christmas themed sugar toppers

How To Make The Gingerbread Frosting

Spoon a tub of pre-made icing into a mixing bowl and whisk until light and fluffy. Personally, I like to whisk my Betty Crocker icing before use as it makes it fluffier and creamier
Sprinkle in the mixed spice and add a splash of caramel extract
Continue to whisk until well combined and creamy
Spoon into a piping back with a star nozzle. I used a piping tip similar to the Wilton 1B. Piping tip - use a tall glass to hold your piping bag open. It lets you spoon in your frosting deeper to avoid wasting any!
Swirl the frosting onto the top of a cupcake and top with a sugar decoration of your choice!
Enjoy the cupcake with a glass of Bailey's on a cold, festive night!

In a bowl, whisk together the butter and the icing sugar. You'll want to do this bit by bit to avoid the icing sugar going everywhere!
Add in the mixed spice and caramel extract and whisk until well combined. You can add extra mixed spice or ginger to suit your personal preferences
If your icing is quite thick, you can add a splash of milk to make it creamier
Spoon your mixture into a piping back and swirl onto the top of each cooled cupcake
Top with a sugar decoration or mini gingerbread man to finish. You can also decorate with sprinkles or rice paper toppers
Enjoy the cupcake with a glass of Bailey's on a cold, festive night!

Alternatives To Try

Fancy something a little different with your cupcakes? Here are some creative alternatives you can try to make your muffins a little bit fancier! I love experimenting with this recipe, and here are some ways I have found to enhance the flavours a bit better!

Bake your own gingerbread men - If you love gingerbread, you could try to make little gingerbread men to stick on the top of the cakes. I opted for the easy option of decorating mine with pre-made sugar decorations. If you don't have time, you could buy some little gingerbread people from the supermarket!

Add some extra spice - If you like brown sugar cupcakes, you could add more brown sugar and reduce the amount of caster sugar. Make sure you keep the 180g of sugar, but you can alter the taste slightly by changing the quantities of each.

Try other decorations - You could add other sugar decorations instead of gingerbread men. I have seen lots of adorable Christmas toppers come into the shops recently. If you don't want sugar decorations, why not try sprinkles, glace cherries or white chocolate! You could also crush up a gingerbread person and sprinkle that on top.

Change the frosting - I didn't have butter when I originally created the frosting, so I used a Betty Crocker vanilla buttercream. I've included both in the recipe above, but both are gingerbread themed. You could make a white chocolate or vanilla buttercream to top the cupcakes. Both would taste great.

Final Thoughts

This recipe turned out better than I expected. The cupcake was fluffy, and the flavours were warm and comforting. I'd highly recommend you bake this recipe for a Christmas party. It's easy to make and captures the magic of Christmas in each bite. I like the flavour of the frosting, but you can customise it to suit your taste. I think white chocolate or cream cheese frosting would work equally as well. I couldn't find little gingerbread sugar toppers at my local supermarket, but they are about if you didn't want to use a polar bear. There are so many ways to change up the recipe. It's worth trying this festive season! Once made, you can store these cupcakes in an airtight container for up to a week - but I'm sure they won't last that long anyway!

I love cupcakes, and this cupcake hits the spot. It has all the right flavours without being too overwhelming. I love how fluffy and warm the cake came out, perfect with a cup of coffee on a cold afternoon. I thought it looked cute with the polar bear toppers, but you could decorate the cupcakes however you wish. If you bake this recipe, I'd love to see what creations you come up with! Please send me your pictures on Instagram or Twitter.

3 comments

, by Love, Em

Making Money

Social Media Tips To Help Your Small Business Grow!

When you run a small business, quite often, you are the one with ALL the responsibilities. All the jobs to do. With an endless and ever-growing to-do list. At that point, social media will constantly fall to the bottom of that list simply due to the lack of time pressure. So, I wanted to share some social media tips to help your small business. Here are some easy do's and don'ts that will help you run your account in a smarter way rather than you having to work harder!

Social media is a free form of advertising your business, but it requires a lot of time and dedication. Being active on social media can get you seen by a bigger audience. The more people see your products, the more likely you are to get some paying customers! It makes sense that social media becomes part of your marketing strategy rather than an afterthought as something you feel you need to do. Some of the best platforms for small businesses are Instagram, Tiktok and Pinterest. Each of those requires different approaches, time and dedication to grow and make it worthwhile.

Don't Post And Ghost Your Audience

If you are going to post a photo to your grid and take the time to write a caption, then don't just pop it on there and disappear. The magic of social media won't happen without help from you. Make sure you have time after you post to answer any comments made. This creates a mini conversation on it and shows Instagram that your post is of interest. If it recognises the activity, the algorithm will allow it to be seen by more accounts. It also shows good customer service, and people are more likely to purchase if their questions are answered. For example, someone may want to know the size of a product to make sure it will work for them. If you don't answer, they may not make that purchase and will go to a competitor.

Set Time To Work On Social Media

If you want your social media to grow, you need to set time aside for it. Just 15 minutes used productively in the morning will make a difference to your account over time. At this time, try to reply to comments and messages. You could also post new content or photograph things for later on. If you can spare 15 minutes just twice a day, to begin with, it will become a habit and part of your natural work routine. You don't have to spend hours on social media. Just make sure you're keeping up to date with it. I like to turn my notifications off after my time so that I can focus on work. However, make sure your notifications are on for around 30 minutes after you post to your grid. This will help with answering initial first comments, and you'll avoid missing anything important!

Related: How to increase your small biz sales over Christmas!

Avoid Joining Follow Loops

I regularly get asked to participate in follow loops through my DMs, and it's a bit frustrating to have. Let's say the reason your social media drops to the bottom of your to-do list is that you are time short. Follow loops require you to follow each participant and to like all of their posts. It doesn't make sense to waste your precious time going through and like every post from all the participants. These will be empty likes on your account and theirs. They will not magically convert into paying customers. You'll also have a lot of inactive and unengaged followers at the end of the loop. Some may even unfollow you, so you wouldn't be gaining anything. Spending your precious time engaging on other local business accounts because you genuinely like their products or services will get you seen by their audiences. Therefore, this will increase your visibility to a whole host of new potential customers. Makes more sense, right?

Answer As Many Comments As Possible

Now for this, I'm talking to the smaller accounts that obviously do not get hundreds of comments. As you grow, you could answer the main questions and like other comments to save you time. If someone comments on your post and you answer quickly, it doubles the activity on your post. Your potential customer will see that you are interested, approachable and are there to answer their questions. People will always buy from those they feel that they know, like and trust. Engaging with people on your social media starts that journey with potential customers. If you get a few comments and answer them quickly, Instagram will see that particular post as active. It will signal the algorithm to show the post to others, helping your account grow!

Related: Everything you need to know about social media marketing!

Use Your Hashtags Wisely

The whole hashtag issue can be a minefield. How many are best to use, when is the best time to post, what hashtags to use etc. Hashtags are forever changing and can be hard to keep up with. For now, I would advise you to look at the actual hashtags you are using rather than how many. Say, for example, you have a seasonal product for Christmas. If you actually search the #Christmas hashtag, you will see there are over 164 million posts! 164 MILLION. So what are the chances your little post will be seen at all in amongst accounts using it? Instead, try to niche that topic down to a relevant product that you make. For example, #christmasbaubles, you will see it only has around 157 thousand accounts using that hashtag. The number of people searching that particular hashtag goes down, but the chances of your post being seen by people go up. So be smart with your hashtags rather than worry about how many to use.

Post On Your Stories Daily

This is a brilliant way of keeping your account active even if you haven't got a formulated grid post to use. Stories are a much more informal way of engaging on your account. People want to be entertained. Show behind the scenes, memes, things that have gone wrong that day, or products you have going out to customers. Use the stickers, the polls by asking questions such as ' this or that' to gauge what customers prefer. Stories allow customers to see your personality and sense of humour. Being open and showing you're a person helps them to trust you and what you are selling. Stories also allow you to interact with your potential customers, so you know their thoughts, and they can learn more about you.

Related: 6 Easy Ways To Grow You Online Business Fast!

Don't Overthink Your Post

Sometimes the pressure to post can be so much that you feel you have nothing valuable to say or show on your grid. Especially if you do not post regularly. That pressure can actually stop you from posting anything at all because you want it to be so good or just perfect. Stop right there! For your social media to work, you need to post regularly. It doesn't have to be every day. It could be 3 times a week with stories running in between. To make sure the algorithms pick you up, you need to have regular content that people interact with. You could post anything! If you're struggling with ideas, here are over 100 social media ideas to try out! So, with that in mind, let go of perfection. Posting something original will always be better than not posting because you're waiting on it to be perfect.

Follow & Engage With Other Businesses

I don't mean anyone in direct competition to you, but other small businesses in your local area or small businesses you have bought from yourself. You could follow similar accounts, but try to build a good relationship with them, rather than copying ideas. Genuinely commenting on business posts will get your name in front of their followers, who may check out your account. It also may help you to form a support bubble when you need it most. Helping small businesses and giving each other advice is a great way to build relationships and gain followers. Share an offer or giveaway another local business is running will almost guarantee they will share their own stories. Again, this gets your business seen by their audience. If they then pop into your DM's and say thank you, it can start a professional relationship. They may even take the time to return the favour to you too. This sort of engagement is much more beneficial to standard business follow loops with rules and pressure.

I realise these are literally just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media. There are so many things to be doing and so many things to avoid. I definitely think these are enough to get you started on the right path of getting your account to work harder for you without taking up all of your time. Let's face it, time is always of the essence, no matter what we do. What small business tips do you like to use when using social media? I'd love to hear what hacks you've come up with to grow your social media and make it better for your lifestyle!

About the guest writer

This wonderful guest post was written by Tracy from Just Me Being Mrs B! Tracy is a freelance social media manager and writer. Her blog is filled with social media tips, chronic illness stories and parenting. You'll find something to love on her blog, so I'd highly recommend having a browse. You can also find her on Instagram @justmebeingmrsb

3 comments

, by Love, Em

Blogging

How To Turn Your Blog Into A Full-Time Business

Being a full-time blogger is something that a lot of people dream of doing. It’s something I was dreaming about for years before I was able to do it myself. But after a long few years, I was able to go full-time with my blog! Here are some of the tips and tricks I used to actually make a full-time income blogging!

My back-story

My story of becoming a full-time blogger is very different from the typical stories. I was not making a full-time income when I started full-time blogging. I was making less than $100 a month at the time.

And that’s because I lost my job back in 2020, much like many people did when the pandemic began. I knew I had a choice. I hated the 9-5 lifestyle. I could either start a job I would hate, or I could take this golden opportunity I had in front of me and run with it. So, I chose to run with it. And within a few short months of having unlimited time to work on my business, I was able to scale to a full-time income!

Turning your blog into a full-time business is not easy. I genuinely don’t think I would be where I am right now if I didn’t lose my job the way I did. I was not one of those people who could manage both. Now, that’s not to say you should quit your full-time and start only blogging. But it was honestly the only thing that worked for me. If you’re not in the position to do that, try these tips instead.

How to turn your blog into a full-time business

Understand What Full-time Blogging Looks Like For You

The first question you need to ask yourself is, what does full-time blogging mean for me? How much money will you realistically need to quit your job and live comfortably? If you have a worse month than usual with your blog, can you still survive? You should add up all of your bills. How much are you spending a month on the necessities? It may be more than you think. Is there anything that you can cut out that you don’t need? How can you make that number as low as possible?

This way, you have a figure in your head. You need some sort of number that means full-time for you. Everyone is different. What I make may be way too little for your version of full-time blogging. Once you have that number, you can start to plan. Another great tip is to make sure you have a savings account. You really want to try and have 3-6 months of your bills saved up before you plunge into full-time. This will help you if there are any sudden expenses or unexpected issues.

Interested in how I make money? Check out how I made my first $100 blogging here!

Create A Money-Making Strategy

How do you plan to make money blogging? If you have no idea or even just a vague idea, you may be in some trouble. There are so many different avenues to making money online, and you need to get clear on which ones you plan on taking. You could try:

Affiliate marketing
Ads
Sponsorships
Selling your own products
Creating your own services

Come up with 1-2 ways you can start making money. Feel free to brainstorm as many as possible, but then focus on 1-2 to start. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Once you’ve picked out the income sources you want to work with, it’s time to learn. Learn everything you can about those ways to make money. And then start implementing them on your blog. Challenge yourself to write at least one affiliate-focused article a month and then promote it a ton. Learn how to place ads on your site. Start practising your skills that you can later turn into a service. Here is a whole list of ways you can make money with your blog.

Then, break down how much you would like to make from each income stream. You can open yourself back up to all the income streams again if you’d like. Take the number you need to be full-time blogging and decide how much you’d like to make between each income stream. This will almost certainly change. There is something about having the numbers written on paper that makes it seem more attainable and tangible. You may find yourself putting in more work to get there because now you have a goal to smash.

So, for example, let's say you need $1,000 to be full-time. And you have affiliate marketing, services, and paid products as your income streams. You’d break it down like this;

Monthly income:

Affiliate marketing: $400
Services: $400
Paid Products: $200

You can do this for as small of an amount as you want. Say you know your end goal will be $5,000. Breaking that down may be too daunting and unrealistic at first. So, try it with something smaller, maybe $500. Each time you hit a new monetary milestone, do that same exercise again with a higher amount!

Stop Making Free Only Content

One of the best ways to start making money is with affiliate marketing. It is a fast and easy way to get started. I thought I was doing things that would make me money, but it turned out I wasn’t. I was just creating content for free and not giving my audience even an option to buy anything from me. This is fine, in moderation, but if you want to turn your blog into a full-time business, you have to make money somehow.

I went through all the posts I was putting out and marked down each one that had a money-making opportunity in it. I realized ways I could tailor my blog posts to fit in more money-making opportunities. It could include an affiliate link, a paid product I created, or a way to sign up for my Pinterest management services. If you're able to add in little ways to make money throughout all your blog posts, you're likely to make some sales every day!

Related: How to successfully pitch collaborations to brands!

Build Up Your Brand

When you start turning your blog into a business, you need to create a brand that others can relate to and want. Try to make things such as social media uniform so that people can follow your brand. You want to create something that others will recognise straight away. When building up your blogging services, try to offer something unique and special to you. If you're passionate about what you offer, your clients will recognise that. You could also build up a portfolio and use quotes or reviews from other jobs you've done. Showing people what you can offer and how well you've done previously can help you turn your blog into a business. If you're able to create templates and colour schemes for things like emails and invoices, that can further build up your brand! Make sure you know about the legal side to blogging too. You don't want to get caught out! I've got a whole post about the legal side to blogging including tax and ads!

There are so many ways to go full-time with your blog and so many tips that I could share! Know how much you need to be a full-time blogger, then break down a plan to get there. Learn everything you can about the monetization strategies you want to use, and then stop making free-only content! Those were things I wish I had done sooner. I made a lot of those mistakes early on, so learn from me! I hope you found this post helpful! You could also read about the truth of being a full-time blogger if you aren't sure if it was a path you wanted to pursue!

AUTHOR BIO:

Hey! My name is Sarah, a blogger and YouTuber. I blog about productivity, mindset, manifestation, and blogging tips! On my YouTube channel, I mainly cover social media and Pinterest marketing! You can find me at my socials down below!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SarahMarieBlog
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahMarieBlog

7 comments

, by Love, Em

Love, Em

How To Bake Deliciously Festive Gingerbread Cupcakes!

Why Make A Gingerbread Cupcake?

Ingredients You'll Need

How To Bake The Gingerbread Cupcakes

What You'll Need For The Frosting

How To Make The Gingerbread Frosting

Alternatives To Try

Final Thoughts

Social Media Tips To Help Your Small Business Grow!

Don't Post And Ghost Your Audience

Set Time To Work On Social Media

Avoid Joining Follow Loops

Answer As Many Comments As Possible

Use Your Hashtags Wisely

Post On Your Stories Daily

Don't Overthink Your Post

Follow & Engage With Other Businesses

How To Turn Your Blog Into A Full-Time Business

My back-story

How to turn your blog into a full-time business

Understand What Full-time Blogging Looks Like For You

Create A Money-Making Strategy

Stop Making Free Only Content

Build Up Your Brand

About me

Follow Us

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