Tender chocolate cupcakes spiced with cinnamon and cloves topped with rich buttercream flavored with eggnog. A perfect treat for the holiday season.

There are many, many reasons why I love this time of year. But holiday baking may just be my favorite part. The cookies, the candy, the whole crazy carb overload— I love it all, both the baking and the eating. The only way I could love it any more would be if holiday calories didn’t count. Wouldn’t that be nice?

But I guess I’ll just have to settle to sharing with family and friends, donning my stretchy pants, and vowing to eat nothing but veggies come the new year. Totally worth it.

We bought our first carton of eggnog over the weekend and after enjoying some on ice with a little bourbon, the baking wheels in my head starting turning, wondering what new thing I could do with it. Then later I started craving a chocolate cupcake, and that’s how these spiced chocolate cupcakes with eggnog buttercream were born.





To make them stand apart from other chocolate cupcakes I’ve baked before, and to make them more fitting for the season, I added some cinnamon and cloves. I love what that little bit of spice did to the cupcakes, how they mingled with the chocolate and go so well with the eggnog buttercream, which is one of my new favorite things. It tastes just like eggnog without being too overpowering. If you’re only a mild eggnog fan, you’ll still love these cupcakes.





baking tip:Baking with coffee I often have readers ask what they can substitute for coffee in my chocolate cake recipes, and I have a hard time answering that question. Coffee is a wonderful addition to chocolate desserts and it actually enhances the chocolate flavor, without really adding any coffee flavor. There really isn’t a good substitute. Substituting with water will take away that boost and using another flavored liquid could alter the flavor entirely. My advice? Stick with the coffee and don’t be afraid to try recipes that include it. If you aren’t a coffee drinker, simply visit your local coffee shop and ask for a cup of plain black coffee.



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