Chocolate Chai Cupcakes with Cinnamon Almond Frosting

 

I had the good fortune of getting a long weekend due to snow in my area, so I decided to try another recipe, meeting my two recipe a month goal for January. I absolutely love Starbuck's Chai Tea Lattes, and these cupcakes were inspired by that beverage. There are myriad recipes out there for various types of chai cakes, but I ended up using one of my own creation. This is the first time I have ventured out into the realm of crafting my own recipe, and I was quite pleased when the kitchen did not explode or the cupcakes catch on fire. 

Candace's Chocolate Chai Cupcakes

Makes about 28 cupcakes

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature 

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 3/4 c. granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract  

4 medium eggs 

1 c. chai tea concentrate 

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1 tbs.  baking soda 

 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbs. honey 

1 tbs. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare your cupcake pan. 

In your mixer bowl, cream together the butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Mix until the butter appears incorporated into the sugars. Add the eggs and mix until the batter is the consistency of wet sand. 

Add the chai tea concentrate, honey, and cinnamon, mixing on medium speed. I used the Tazo tea brand concentrate because that's what they use at Starbucks. Your mixture will now be runny. Gradually add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Do this in stages, adding a bit and then mixing. This will prevent the flour from getting everywhere. Mix until the batter is thick, almost a fudgey consistency. 

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Be careful not to overfill the liners as this batter tends to rise a great deal. Bake for about 20 minutes, testing with a toothpick to ensure they are baked all the way through. 

Cool cupcakes on a wire rack and then frost. 

Just a quick note. I made these cupcakes during the middle of a very damp snow. The moisture in the air might have contributed to the way the cupcakes rose in the oven. You may want to experiment with the amounts of batter you put in the liners. I found that I needed less batter to end up with a perfectly sized cake. 

Cinnamon Almond Frosting

1 stick butter at room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature

3 tbs. chai tea concentrate

1-2 tbs. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. almond extract 

32oz bag confectioner's sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

In your mixer bowl combine the butter, cream cheese, chai tea, milk, vanilla and almond extracts. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, mixing on medium speed. If mixture appears too thick, add either more milk or tea depending on how strong you want the chai flavor. Increase mixer speed and mix until icing is smooth. Add cinnamon to taste, mixing in on low. 

Prepare a pastry bag using a medium round tip. Fill the bag with icing and ice the cooled cupcakes beginning on the outer edge and swirling inward.

 

These cupcakes were incredibly tasty with a subtle hint of spicy chai. I would have preferred a stronger chai flavor because I really enjoy the spicy sensation of the drink. Next time I make them, I will use more chai mix and additional spices like cardamon and cinnamon.

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Some of my creations...

I dabble in cakes from time to time as well as cupcakes. This first one if of my sister's wedding cupcake tree. This was the first time I worked with fondant. We kept it simple and used a marshmallow fondant recipe.

This one is of my wedding cupcake tree. We had a destination wedding with an informal reception when we got back home. We decided that royal icing flowers would be best as they were casual and bright.

I made this cake for a baby shower. I wanted to make fondant animals, so this was a great opportunity to try that out. I must say that the ducks were an adventure. I was able to explore the limitations of marshmallow fondant. Next time, if I want larger figures, I will use crispy treats to form the structure and then drape them in fondant.

The Buzz cake was another fun experiment. I had to freehand the creation of the Buzz centerpiece.

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Vanilla Cupcake with Blueberry Cream Cheese Butter Cream

I made these cupcakes for my high school's open house. It's usually a very long day for the teachers, so I decided that it might be nice to have a sweet treat before the parents arrived. I've been wanting to work with fresh fruit for a while now. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I started by culling the internet for a cupcake recipe that would be easy to make and required fewer than 10 ingredients. I settled on Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes from How to Eat a Cupcake, a blog with excellent cupcake recipes. I was able to find everything I needed at my local Super Target, always a plus. The quantities of the ingredients were convenient for a household of two, as I am often befuddled by involved recipes because inevitably the leftover ingredients will go bad before my husband and I can use them.

For the frosting, I decided to modify a basic butter cream recipe. I loved using the blueberries because they provided a natural tint to the icing that made it a lovely lilac shade.

Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes from How to Eat a Cupcake 

The recipe yielded about 30 cupcakes for me, and I filled some of them quite full. I think I would have ended up with more had a been a bit more even on my batter distribution among the cups. 

1 3/4  c. cake flour - I had a hard time finding this at first. It was on the bottom shelf in a box, not a bag like regular flours. 

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1 tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. unsalted butter softened and cut into tablespoons
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 c. whole milk
1. tsp. vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 325. Prepare your cupcake pan with liners. 


Thoroughly mix dry ingredients in your mixer bowl. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer on medium speed, slowly add the butter to your dry ingredients. I softened my butter in the microwave for about 20 secs. Make sure your butter mixes in evenly. You should have a mixture that looks like a dry cookie dough or pie crust. 


In a small bowl or large measuring cup- I used a 2c. measuring cup, and it got a bit messy- whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. The recipe specifies that the liquid ingredients are added to the butter mixture in thirds, scraping the bowl with each addition. Since I am very impatient, I turned on my mixer to one notch below medium (I use a KitchenAid) and slowly poured in the mixture. This worked well,and I didn't have to scrape the bowl. The batter was thicker than a traditional cake batter and tasted fabulous, like a moist sugar cookie dough. 


Fill your liners about 2/3s full. Bake between 17-21 minutes, rotating halfway through. Always check your cakes with a toothpick to ensure they are done baking. When the toothpick comes out clean, they are ready. Mine took about 22 minutes, but I have an older oven and it was very humid the day I baked these. 


Allow cupcakes to cool on a wire rack before icing. 


Blueberry Cream Cheese Butter Cream

Keep in mind when you are purchasing your ingredients that this is not a low fat recipe. I bought regular cream cheese because the consistency is best for a smooth butter cream. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries. For frozen, just follow the directions on the package for thawing and drain thoroughly. 


1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened but not melted (one stick)
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature (about half a standard package)
2 lbs. 10x confectioner's sugar
4-5 tbs. whole milk
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Prepare your blueberries. If you used frozen, allow them to thaw and drain thoroughly. I sprinkles a bit of sugar over my berries after they thawed, so they would have a syrupy consistency. If you're using fresh, wash your blueberries and cut in half, sprinkling with sugar. Let the blueberries stand for about 10-15 minutes. I prepare my blueberries before I begin my cake batter to give them time to stand. Place blueberries into a food processor or blender and puree. Make sure the puree is not chunky because you won't be able to use a decorating tip if they are. Pour this mixture into your clean mixing bowl.


Add the butter, cream cheese, and confectioner's sugar to the blueberry mixture. Allow the confectioner's sugar to settle before attempting to mix. Add the whole milk and vanilla. Using the paddle attachment, begin mixing incing. Start on low to prevent the sugar from going everywhere. As the icing begins to look doughy, turn up the speed of your mixer. Mix until icing is thick, but not stiff. You want to be able to pipe it out of an icing bag. If your mixture is too thick, add more milk to achieve the right consistency. 


To ice the cupcakes, fill a pastry bag with the icing, and using a large star tip, start at the edge of the cupcake and swirl in. You could complete the cupcake by adding a fresh blueberry garnish. I kept mine simple because I was transporting them to school. 




These cupcakes were a huge hit with my coworkers. The cake turned out nice and moist. It tasted like the cake version of a sugar cookie. The icing added the perfect creamy sweetness to top off the cake. The blueberry flavoring was subtle, and the cream cheese kept the icing nice and light tasting. If you want a stronger blueberry flavor, I would recommend using blueberry preserves in your icing. 




 

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Welcome to the Great Cupcake Experiment

Let me introduce myself. By day I am a high school English teacher in Tennessee. By night, an avid reader and videogamer. In my fantasy life, I own a bakery bookstore that specializes in cakes, cupcakes, and collections of short stories.

I have been dabbling more frequently in the baking arena and decided that I would like to set aside more time to pursue this hobby. I figured the best way to do this would be to get others involved so that I might be more motivated to follow through with my ideas; thus this blog was born.

My goal is to bake at least two cupcake/cake recipes a month while school is in session. During the summer months, I would like to up that goal to three recipes per month. I will provide recipes, comments, and pictures of my creations along with reviews from friends and co-workers.

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