Gingerbread Cookie Mug Toppers

These Gingerbread Cookie Mug Toppers are the best way to finish off your coffee or hot chocolate! They’re deliciously spiced gingerbread cookies, perfectly designed to sit on the edge of your favorite mug. Give them as gifts, or keep them all to yourself and enjoy throughout the holiday season!

🧾 Ingredients

In addition to staples like flour, baking soda, and butter, here are a few tips about the ingredients you’ll need:

• Spices: This recipe calls for a LOT of different spices: you’ll want ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. For many of us, these are spices we reach for a few times a year, at most. Spices rarely go rancid, but they do lose their flavor and potency over time. Before you begin baking, give them a sniff, and if they smell off or weak, buy a fresh jar. This cookie gets all of its flavor from the spices, so it’s important that the spices are fresh and flavorful!
• Molasses: For this recipe, you want to use unsulphered molasses. Grandma’s Molasses is the most common brand and is often found in the baking aisle of large grocery stores. Blackstrap molasses is more bitter and is not a good substitute in this recipe, unless you know for sure that you love the taste of blackstrap.
• Brown sugar: The recipe calls for light brown sugar, but dark brown sugar is also completely fine to use.

🥄 Equipment

Here’s what you need to make these cute mug huggers! (The following are all affiliate links, and I earn a small commission from your purchase.)

• Cookie cutters: I used the Christmas tree and snowman from this set of 3D cookie cutters. No special cutters? No problem! You can use regular Christmas cookie cutters and cut a notch in the bottom with a sharp knife. 
• Baking sheets: I love this half sheet pan from USA Pan–it’s heavy-duty, sturdy, and fits a ton!
• Parchment paper or Silpat:A half-sheet Silpat is the perfect nonstick cookie solution.
• Piping bags and round tips: I like these disposable piping bags (I wash them and re-use them to reduce waste!) and used a #2 piping tip for the cookies.

📋 Instructions

These cookies are made in 3 parts: making the dough, baking the cookies, and decorating with royal icing (optional but very cute!). You can get full, printable instructions in the recipe card below, but here’s a quick overview of the steps.

Make the Gingerbread Cookie Dough

• Whisk the dry ingredients together and set aside.
• Combine the butter and brown sugar, and mix them together in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add the molasses and mix it in. (Pause here and enjoy the amazing smell.)

Mix in the egg and vanilla. At this point, the mixture might look broken (as in the picture on the right). This is normal! Do not panic.

• Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches, mixing just until combined.
• Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap, and chill for at least three hours. Several days is okay too!

Bake and Decorate the Gingerbread Cookies

Once the dough is chilled and firm, you can get rolling! Roll the dough out on a well-floured surface until it’s about 1/4-inch thick.

• Cut your shapes out with the cookie cutters. If you’re manually making the notches in the bottom, use a real mug to decide how wide to make them, and make sure to leave a little extra room to account for the cookies spreading. 
• Place the cookies on a parchment-covered baking sheet, leaving a few inches between cookies.

• Bake at 350 F for 7-8 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once cool, decorate with royal icing, if desired. Let the icing harden, and serve!

💡 Tips and FAQs

Here are some answers to common questions. If you have a different question, feel free to leave it in the comments below!

Substitutions & Variations

• Spices: You can slightly alter the gingerbread spices without affecting the overall taste. For instance, if you don’t like the taste of cloves, you can omit the cloves spices. You should not omit the ginger or the cinnamon.
• Orange: Adding the zest of an orange deepens the flavor and adds a wonderful citrus undertone. Add the orange zest at the same time you add the vanilla extract.
• Maple: If you like the taste of maple, you can substitute real maple syrup for vanilla extract.

Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions

This dough can be made ahead and frozen for up to 3 months. Wrap each dough disc in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer zip-top bag to prevent freezer burn. When ready to use, thaw in the refrigerator and start at step 6.

Halving the Recipe

There are ways to halve this recipe. You could freeze one of the discs of dough (see above), or cut the recipe in half. When dividing a recipe that uses one egg, the best way to get an accurate measurement of half an egg is to whisk the egg well, then divide the whisked egg in half. 

❤️ More Christmas Desserts You’ll Love

• Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peppermint Affogato
• Oreo Cookie Christmas Ornaments
• Christmas Present Cookie Boxes
• Pull-Apart Cupcake Wreath
• Red Velvet Trifle
• Grinch Cake
• Snow Globe Cupcakes

Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

This is the perfect Christmas cookie! It’s packed with gingerbread flavor, but with a chocolate twist and a big chocolate button in the center.

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Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

These festive Pinwheel Sugar Cookies might be the best Christmas cookie recipe ever! They’re made with a simple sugar cookie dough formed into a beautiful red, white, and green spiral design.

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Don’t miss the step-by-step tutorial showing how to make Gingerbread Cookie Toppers – check out the web story here!

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Gingerbread Cookie Mug Toppers

Author Elizabeth LaBau

5 from 12 votes

These Gingerbread Cookie Mug Toppers are the best way to finish off your coffee or hot chocolate! They’re deliciously spiced gingerbread cookies, perfectly designed to sit on the edge of your favorite mug.

Prep1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Cook8 minutes mins

Chilling Time3 hours hrs

Total4 hours hrs 28 minutes mins

Yields60 cookies

Ingredients

1x2x3x

US StandardMetric

For the Gingerbread Cookies:

• ▢ 13.5 oz all-purpose flour, (3 cups)
• ▢ 1 tsp baking soda
• ▢ 1 TBSP ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 TBSP ground ginger
• ▢ 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• ▢ ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ▢ ¼ tsp ground allspice
• ▢ 6 oz unsalted butter, (¾ cup or 12 tbsp), softened to room temperature
• ▢ 3.75 oz light brown sugar, (½ cup packed)
• ▢ 5.75 oz unsulphured molasses, (1/2 cup), measure ounces by weight, not volume
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Royal Icing:

• ▢ 8 oz powdered sugar, (2 cups), sifted
• ▢ 1.5 TBSP meringue powder
• ▢ 3-4 TBSP water

Instructions 

To Make the Gingerbread Cookies:

• In a medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and spices to combine and set aside.
• Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed, about 2 minutes, until creamy. Add molasses and continue to beat on medium speed until the mix is a uniform brown color, 30-60 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• Add egg, vanilla extract, and mix on a medium-low until combined. Mixture will be wet.
• Move the mixer to a slower speed and add the dry ingredients in 3 batches, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Mix until just combined. You’ll know it’s combined when you no longer see streaks of flour.
• Divide dough in half and form two discs of the dough using your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least three hours, preferably overnight and up to 3 days.
• Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper to set aside.
• Roll dough out to about ¼ inch thickness on a floured surface and cut using 3D cookie cutter shapes. Place on a baking sheet ½ inch apart.
• Bake for 7-8 minutes, one baking sheet at a time, on the middle rack. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, you can decorate them with royal icing (optional).
• Place on the edge of your favorite mug and enjoy with a cup of coffee!

To Make the Royal Icing:

• Add confectioners sugar and meringue powder to a medium mixing bowl. Whisk together and add in 1 tbsp of water at a time.
• Whisk until the mixture has the following consistency: When you lift the whisk up, the icing will hold a ribbon, meaning it is firm enough to hold the shape of a drizzle falling from your whisk and slowly disappear back into the mixture.
• If you begin to pipe your icing and find that the mixture is too firm, add 1 tbsp of water to your mixture at a time. If it’s too runny, add ¼ cup of confectioners sugar to the mixture until you reach the desired thickness.

Measuring Tips

Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.

Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?

Learn More

Nutrition

Calories: 75kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 23mg | Potassium: 54mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 75IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Snap a pic and hashtag it #SugarHero. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @elabau.

What You'll Need

3D Christmas Cookie CuttersBuy nowUnsulphured MolassesBuy nowSilpat Non-Stick Silicone MatBuy nowParchment PaperBuy nowBaking SheetsBuy nowSmall Round Piping Tip – #2Buy now12-Inch Piping BagsBuy now