Can you believe that Christmas is in a little over a week? I know, it kind of crept up on me too. With all of the shopping, decorating and preparing for the big day time has kind of slipped away and until recently I had not done any Christmas baking. Pretty shocking huh? Well since I could not let the Christmas season pass me by without at least a little baking, I dropped everything else I was doing last Sunday, hunkered down in the kitchen and created these scrumptious little devils. With all of the flavors of one of the Christmas staples and a little maple frosting on top, these cupcakes would make a great addition to your Christmas celebrations.

I will have to say that coming up with the frosting for this recipe was a bit of a challenge for me. Since most people associate eggnog with rum, I thought a rum frosting would be perfect. But alas, I didn’t have any. And it was raining. And I was in my pajamas. And I didn’t feel like driving around town looking for a liquor store that is open on Sundays, so I had to make do with what we had. Which happened to be cream cheese and a little maple syrup. Thus, maple cream cheese frosting was born and it was so good we didn’t even miss the rum.

Makes 12

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon iodized salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup eggnog
• Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (see recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pan and set aside.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, using a hand held mixer cream together oil and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
4. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the bowl. Mix until combined. Beat in eggnog. Gradually add in remaining flour, beat just until combined.
5. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full with cupcake mixture. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs on it
6. Allow to cool for a few minutes in the cupcake pan. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Frost with maple cream cheese frosting.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

You will need:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Using a hand held mixer on medium speed cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Beat in maple syrup.
3. Gradually add in powdered sugar and beat until it becomes a thick spreadable mixture.

If these don’t fill your appetite for eggnog and you’re looking for another way to enjoy the seasonal favorite, check out this Eggnog French Toast that I shared last year. That’s right, eggnog for breakfast.

Enjoy!