Marmalade spice cupcakes with whipped cream filling

What happens when you start making gingerbread cupcakes before realizing that you don't have enough molasses or maple syrup, but still want a nice vehicle for all that whipping cream leftover from making clotted cream. The marmalade chunks and crystallized ginger chunks are really nice together!

1/2 c canola
1/4 c dark molasses
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c dark corn syrup
1/4 c orange marmalade
1/4 c rice milk
1 egg
1.75 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
3 t ginger
1 t allspice
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
~8 cubes crystallized ginger, minced

1.5 c whipping cream (or less, I didn't use it all)
2 T powdered sugar
20 drops John's blood orange bitters

Preheat the oven to 350F and line the pan for 12 cupcakes. Whisk together the wet ingredients (canola through egg) until the marmalade is all broken up. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour through cloves) in a 2-c pyrex, then stir into the wet ingredients until just mixed. Stir in the crystallized ginger. Scoop into the cupcake pan; two heaping spoonfuls per cupcake worked about right. Bake for 20 minutes until a tester comes out clean, transfer to a cooling rack, and cool thoroughly.

When you're ready for the assembly stage, whip the cream until it holds soft peaks. Whip in the sugar and bitters until it holds firm peaks, but don't over-whip. I did two kinds of topping/filling, both using the whipped cream in a pastry bag with a medium circular tip. Some of the cupcakes I made into whoopie-pie-like sandwiches by removing the cupcake liner, slicing the cupcake in half horizontally, piping a big pile of whipped cream on the bottom half, and gently replacing the top half. The rest of the cupcakes I filled by sticking the tip deep into the cupcake, squishing in whipped cream until the top of the cupcake started to bulge, then pulling out the tip and piping a swirl of whipped cream on top. They kept well in tupperwares for the sunny half-hour walk to work and for a couple hours in the fridge thereafter.