Earl Grey Cupcakes

It was fun having people guess what kind of cupcakes these were. The closest first try was "the spice that you get after Indian food." Because I used the actual tea leaves in the cakes, some people were scared of how they looked. I had to assured them that I didn't use any bugs.



These cupcakes came out not as fluffy as my usual cupcakes. I guess it's because I used tea (water and tea) instead of milk. But I was happy with how they tasted. The tea flavor was noticeable but subtle. I used cream cheese frosting (with added 2 tablespoons of strong tea) because that's what I had but I think they might go better with whipped cream.



Ingredients

• 1 stick of butter at room temperature


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 cup strong earl grey tea (I seeped 3 bags of tea in 1 cup of hot water.)


• 1 bag of earl grey tea leaves

Earl Grey Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 stick of butter at room temperature


• 1/2 cup confectioner sugar


• 1 package of cream cheese


• 2 tablespoons of strong earl grey tea

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.


2. With an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well between each addition. Add tea leaves.


3. In a cleam bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.


4. Alternately stir dry ingredients and 1/2 cup of tea into the butter mixture in 2 batches. Scrape the bowl when needed. When there's no streak left, spoon into the muffin pan. Fill up to half full.


5. Bake for 22 minutes. Rotate the pan half way through. Let cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting.


6. To make frosting, beat butter and confectioner sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add cream cheese and tea. Beat until combined.