Ginger-Spice Cupcakes

Remember Geri Halliwell, Ginger Spice from Spice Girls? I googled her to see what she was up to these days. Apparently she has recently written a series of children's books.

It has been so long since I made these that I have forgotten a lot of what was going on at that time. I made these right before I left for Utah, with the idea that I would freeze them, pack them in my suitcase, and take them the to the family party the night that I arrived in Salt Lake.

There are two recipes for ginger cupcakes in this book. The other one is more like gingerbread. This one calls for fresh, grated gingerroot, which gives it quite a kick.

A tip for this recipe: I used my food processor to grate the gingerroot. It did not go as well as when I grated zucchini, but it was infinitely better than the time I grated all the carrots.

It also calls for molasses, which I hate the smell of by itself, but seems to do wonders in the recipes that call for it. For some reason, the jar specifies that this is blackstrap molasses. I don't know what that means, but I find it kind of scary.
While going through my photo files, I discovered I took no pictures of the cupcakes before I froze them. Also, I took no photos of the cupcakes when I pulled them out of my suitcase and they were smashed (my mom made fun of me because I put them in Ziploc Bags to transfer them cross-country. I didn't have enough room for anything with more structure than that, so I guess I should have seen it coming). Before the family party, we stopped at Grandma Oka's house, where I managed to salvage a few cupcakes that looked okay, and cover them with fresh whipped cream and a dusting of ground ginger.

So, here is a link to the recipe, as well as a picture, which, let's be really clear, looks nothing like what mine looked like, even at their best. But the truth is, I don't make them so that I can enjoy them. I usually do enjoy them, but I make them for other people. And, truth be told, the person I most want to please when I bake is my mother. She has very sensitive taste buds, and can taste stale food where most people can't. And she likes desserts. I have earmarked several recipes especially for her, and this was one of them. She loved it. We ended up with lots of leftovers after the party (it's one of those things where everyone brings way too much food and eats way too little, so I wasn't too offended).

I thought I would also include a picture of my second bridal bouquet. I don't love it, but I made it entirely out of inexpensive artificial flowers, which is a story for another time.