Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcake!

This past weekend I was away so had to postpone my cupcake making adventure. However; I did manage to squeeze in one recipe before the weekend. I made this on Thursday night - just in time to bring a little Friday treat into work. The flavour today is Chocolate Gingerbread. I had most of the ingredients at home, except for cocoa powder (need more) and raisins.

What was initially a trip to the grocery store to buy two items, because a trip to buy extra snacks :) I can't help it when a sale is on. I bought some crispy mini's and chocolates. Just enough to give me a little boost in the afternoon. I started making the cupcake really late (around 10pm) which is why I only had enough time to make one.

There were a lot of spices involved: cinnamon, all spice, ground ginger, salt, baking soda, tons....it smelled good though! This is the mixture pre-chocolate:

This is the batter after the cocoa powder. Notice how dark it is! And I still have to put raisins and chocolate chips. From previous recipes, I'm still hesitant about putting the full amount of chocolate chips in my cupcakes, they always seem too much. I prefer less. It's already chocolatey enough, why do you need more chocolate chips?

I made a simple buttercream icing today. But to kick it up a notch, I decided to add some food colouring and sprinkes. Turquoise goes perfect with brown so here it is. (p.s. I love my new mixing bowls, it doesn't stain! and doesn't stick!)

The finished product and the finished product with icing and decorations. This one gets extra points for being pretty ;)

This is an interesting flavour to me. I'd never thought to put Chocolate and gingerbread together. I'm still skeptical.