Iron Cupcake: Earth CRANBERRY!

This is my first month as an Iron Cupcake: Earth Challenge Baker. I only discovered this group a few days ago, and was accepted on Saturday evening. My cupcake has to be submitted today, so that left about one hour to come up with an idea, one hour to shop, and a few hours before and after church yesterday to do all the baking. It's like really being on Iron Chef! Craziness!
The challenge for November is cranberry. Gingerbread was the obvious cake base to me. After that it was a little harder. I'm not really the most creative baker; I steal most of my recipes and ideas from Martha Stewart. But no cheating this time, these cupcakes were going to be all me. Thus was born the Cranberry Gingerbread Cupcake with White Chocolate Buttercream.
The point of all of this is to convince you to vote for me!!! over at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. Voting begins Sunday, November 30. You can check out the other entries here. The winner of this month's challenge wins prizes from these fabulous people:

Lollipop Workshop
Cookie Sunshine
Lots of Sprinkles (cupcake earrings)
CakeSpy
Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery and Cupcakery Supply
Head Chefs by Fiesta Products
Hello Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
Cupcake Courier
Taste of Home books
1-800-flowers

Cranberry Gingerbread Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream

Make 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes

1 ½ c flour

¼ t baking soda

¼ t salt

1 ½ T ginger

1 ½ T cinnamon

¼ c molasses

1 c water

6 T butter

6 T sugar

2 eggs

Cranberry sauce

1 Whisk water and molasses; set aside.

2 Beat butter and sugar; add eggs.

3 Mix dry ingredients. Add flour mixture in thirds alternately with molasses mixture to egg mixture.

4 Spoon batter into cupcake cups. Drop ½ teaspoon cranberry sauce into each cup and loosely swirl with a toothpick. Bake in 350 °F for 15-18 min.

Cranberry Sauce

6 oz fresh or frozen cranberries

½ c water

½ c sugar

In a saucepan dissolve the sugar in the water over medium heat, about 3 minutes. Add the cranberries, let cook another 10 minutes until all the cranberries pop. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

White Chocolate Buttercream

½ c butter

½ c shortening

½ c melted white chocolate

4 c powdered sugar

~ 3 T milk

In a standing mixer, beat butter and shortening until light, about 4 min. Add white chocolate and mix until combined. Add powdered sugar slowly. Add milk until desired consistency is reached.