My Mom really likes Chai tea. So when I came across a recipe for Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes (wow, what a cumbersome name!) I knew I had to make them. I did, and as I predicted she loved them. But what surprised me is that I also loved them…and so did my Dad and David! Crazy, huh? Try ’em, you will be glad you did!
I’m not sure where I got the original recipe. I tried to find it again so I could look for an alternative to the spices…but I never could track it down. So I give the original recipe poster credit, and for that I apologize! I did change things up a bit in my version, though….as usual, you’ll see my edits in PINK. Without further ado, I give you:
Chai Latte Cupcakes
Cupcake Ingredients:
-1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 3/4 cups sugar
-3 eggs
-2 tsp vanilla
-1/2 tsp salt
-3 tsp chai spice mix (2 tsp ground cloves, 1 tbsp cardamom, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger)*
OK, I could not find cardamom. So I bought Chai Tea bags instead:
Good Stuff.
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I thought I would be fancy and use half all-purpose and half cake flour for fluffier cupcakes. No. My cupcakes came out very dense and flat. I believe this would not have happened if I had stuck with all-purpose only.)
–1/2 cup buttermilk
-1 cup whole milk
Cupcake Instructions:
-Cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
-In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and spices (or no spices if you’re going the tea bag route)
–If you’re going with the tea bags instead of the spice mixture, this is what I did: I brought the 1 cup whole milk to a boil and added 3 tea bags and let it steep for a minute or two. Then I poured the milk back into a measuring cup because it looked like some of my milk had evaporated away. It had! So I added more whole milk until the amount came back up to the 1 cup mark. Does that make any sense??
Looks gross, huh? It's not! It's yum-E!
-Alternate adding the milk mixture and the flour mixture to the butter mixture, making sure to begin and end with the flour. Does THAT make sense??
-Pour into lined muffin tins and bake at 350° for about 20 minutes, or until they pass the toothpick test.
Chai Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:
-1 cup Crisco (ugh. This frosting turned out SO good…but I hated myself for using the Crisco. I’m pretty OK with gross amounts of butter, but Crisco just seems to be crossing the line for me. I should have used a different buttercream recipe. Maybe next time!)
-1 cup unsalted butter
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp salt (I skipped the salt because I used salted butter.)
-2-3 tsp Chai Mix (or not, if you’re going the tea bag route)
-1 envelope Dream Whip
-1/2 cup water (I brought the water to a boil and added 1 tea bag. Let it steep for a minute. Add more water if you lost any in the boiling process. I did not.)
-8 cups powdered sugar (This seemed ridiculous to me, too. I think I used around 6 1/2 and probably could have gone with 5 1/2. Very sweet icing!)
Icing Instructions:
-Cream the Crisco and butter and Chai mix (or not, if you’re using tea bags!)
-In a separate bowl, mix the water (or Chai water, if you’re using tea bags!), vanilla, salt and Dream Whip.
-Alternate adding the powdered sugar and water mix to the Crisco/butter mix. When everything is combined, beat on high speed for 5 minutes.
-Frost those cupcakes and ENJOY!
Love you, Mom!
Becki
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