Recipe Twenty Nine: Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Cupcakes are everywhere; their popularity has grown hugely in the last few years and until last night I hadn't been sucked in.

It all started at breakfast with Miss C & Mrs D.

Happily chatting away Mrs D bought out her pre-breakfast purchase: Cupcake cups. Gorgeous, pink, stripy cups. And that did it. I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

I had promised my Mum a chai spiced birthday cake for her birthday this year...that was in January.

Better late and in cupcake form than never I guess!

Hi Mum! I hope there is at least one cupcake left for you when you finally make it home tonight!

This recipe is adapted from "Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes" by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Chai Spiced Cupcakes:

2/3 of a cup of Milk

2 Chai Tea Bags (not chai latte powder)

1 Breakfast Tea Bag

2 Whole Eggs

1 Egg Yolk

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1 1/3 cups of Plain Flour

1 cup of Caster Sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons of Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of Ground Cardamon

Pinch of Salt

110gms of Butter.

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line your cupcake pan or layout your cup-cake cups.

In a small saucepan bring you milk to just before boiling point. Remove from heat and add your chai teabags. After 3 minutes add your breakfast tea and let this steep for a further 2 minutes. Remove the teabags from the milk and squeeze out any excess liquid. Let this cool until its tepid.

In a medium bowl combine your eggs, egg yolk, vanilla and 1/3 of your chai milk.

Whisk together.

In another bowl place your flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamon and a pinch of salt. lightly whisk these together. Add your butter and rest of the chai milk and using an electric beater, beat until light and fluffy.

To this batter add the egg mixture in three parts, beating to combine between each addition.

Divided your mixture between yours pans/cups. Do not fill more than 2/3rds full.

Bake your cakes for 12-15minutes or until browned. Cool on a wire rack whilst you make some butter cream!

Buttercream Frosting:

125gms of Butter

1 3/4 cups of Pure Icing Sugar.

Milk for texture.

Beat your butter until pale and fluffier. This took me about 3-4 minutes.

Gradually add your icing sugar. I would say 1/2 a cup at a time. Beat in after each addition. 

If you feel as though the icing is getting too stiff add a splash of milk to bring it back to a texture you feel happier with.

Bare in mind to get beautiful defined icing you do need quite a thick consistency.

Put the butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a jumbo star tip and pipe a spiral onto each cupcake.

Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

You're all done!

xx