Week 44 – Earl Grey Cupcakes

This week I returned to my sweet tooth roots and used a recipe from my new baking book from The Hummingbird Bakery; ‘Cake Days’. On Friday it was my lovely colleague Eketerina’s birthday and seeing as though she had to work on her birthday I gave her free reign to choose whichever cake she would like (as long as it was from the Cake Days book... I was so keen to try it out!).  From the 231 pages of recipes Ekaterina kindly chose a straightforward bake as she knew how busy I was with work this week. All my colleagues are super supportive and interested in my baking challenge so it was no trouble at all to get baking on a school night to help her celebrate her special day.

So, with a little scepticism I set out to make Early Grey cup cakes. I wasn’t convinced that you would be able to taste the tea but how wrong I was!!

Ingredients

• 3 Earl Grey teabags
• 3 tbsp just-boiled water
• 80g unsalted butter, softened
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 200ml whole milk
• 2 large eggs

Frosting

• 50ml (1 ¾ fl oz) whole milk
• 500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar (this seemed like a ridiculously large amount of icing sugar to use for a few cupcakes but I went with it anyway)
• 160g (5 ½ oz) unsalted butter, softened

Method

One or two 12-hole deep muffin tins

1. Place the teabags in a bowl and add the just-boiled water, then leave to brew for 30 minutes ( I was worried that the taste wouldn’t be strong enough so I actually left the tea bags to brew for about an hour and a half!).
2. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F), Gas mark 5, and line a muffin tin with muffin cases. Use a hand-held electric whisk or freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment to mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt on a low speed until the texture of fine breadcrumbs.
3. Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and whisk by hand. Add the brewed tea, squeezing every last drop from the teabags into the milk mixture, then set the teabags aside for the frosting.
4. Pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed to combine. Then mix on a medium speed until smooth and thick. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk mixture and beat until all the ingredients have come together and the batter is smooth (the batter was quite runny which made me worry that I had missed a dry ingredient but it turned out OK! It made 16 cupcakes so there was a spare one to try before I gave them to the birthday girl! ;).
5. Divide the batter between the paper cases, filling each two-thirds full. If there is batter left over, spoon it into more cases in a separate tin. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes (mine took about 22-24 mins but that is probably because our oven runs a bit cool) or until risen and springy to the touch, then leave to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully.
6. While the cupcakes are cooking, place the used teabags in a small bowl with the milk for the frosting and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the teabags and give them a good squeeze to extract maximum flavour.
7. Using the electric whisk or freestanding mixer with paddle attachment, whisk the icing sugar with the butter on a low speed until no large lumps of butter remain and the mixture is still powdery. Pour in the tea-infused milk while mixing slowly, then increase the speed to high and whisk until soft and fluffy (again the frosting mix way a bit runnier than I expected but it did manage to stay on top of the cakes).
8. Divide the frosting between the cold cupcakes, smoothing the tops and swirling with a palette knife.

 

Variations

Peppermint tea cupcakes: Make as above but use 3 peppermint teabags instead of Earl Grey.

Fruit tea cupcakes: Make as above, but with 3 fruit teabags of your choice, such as summer fruits, mixed berry, strawberry or raspberry, and top the frosted cupcakes with fruit to match, such as summer berries or slices of fresh strawberry.

I am pleased to say I was proven wrong, both the cupcakes and the icing really did taste of Earl Grey tea! It was a subtle, aromatic flavour but it was definitely there and quite frankly I think it was one of my favourite types of cup cake! It was also a fave of my husband Dave who took the time to phone me on my morning commute to ask if he could have another one! I was however right about the quantity of the icing, it was far too much, I only used about half of it so the remaining half is stored in the fridge waiting for me to make a second batch. 

When I took them into the office I got the highest praise possible from one of my other colleagues Nuala who said that not only were the cupcakes good but in fact “the best cupcake she has ever tasted” - what more could an aspiring baker ask for!?

Most importantly the birthday girl enjoyed her bake and hopefully it cheered up her during a busy Friday at work.

Happy Birthday Ekaterina!

Have a yummy cake filled week xx Linds xx