Earl Grey cupcakes with tea infused butter cream

I am quite enjoying experimenting with cupcakes at the moment, and creating earl grey cupcakes has been something I have been wanting to try out for quite a while now. I saw the recipe in the Hummingbird cookbook and waited to have guests over for afternoon tea to bake them! As a migraine sufferer I'm not allowed much caffeine, so having an earl grey tea for me is such a treat still. I therefore have such happy associations with this particular type of tea and was very excited to create a happy drink into a happy bite. I regularly drink chamomile and some caffeine-free chai, which I would be very interested to try out as cupcakes in the next installment!


They are made as regular cupcakes, however you need to be a teeny bit more prepared as you need to brew some tea and let the teabags infuse for about half an hour.


Here is the recipe, which I didn't really adapt at all, so it's straight out of the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

Ingredients:

3 earl grey tea bags
3 tbsp hot water (just boiled)

80g butter

280g caster sugar

240g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4tsp salt

200ml milk

2 large eggs

Method:
1. Put the teabags in the hot water and let it infuse for 30mins.

2. In a mixer or with your hands, mix or rub together butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3.In a jug, whisk together the milk and eggs, then pour in the infused tea, squeezing out every drop of liquid from the teabags. Save the teabags for the icing (put in 50ml of milk and leave to infuse).

4. Pour 3/4 of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients, mix slowly to combine first, then increase speed to mix till the batter is smooth. Pour in the rest of the milk mixture and mix until smooth and lump free.

5. Fill the muffin liners no more than 2/3 full, bake for 18 – 22 minutes, until well risen and golden. When cooked, cool on a cool rack entirely.

6. To make the icing, mix together the butter and the icing sugar very slowly at first. Then mix in the tea flavoured milk until fluffy. Ice the cooled cakes and decorate!

Who's for a tea??