Earl Grey Cupcake

Fluffy inside + pointy top :)

Earl Grey Cupcakes and Strawberry Shortcakes

This is a great cupcake for many occasions-teacher's appreciation, thank-you-gifts, birthday cupcakes, or tea parties. I first encountered the cake on the menu of Le Petit Culliere, a newly opened afternoon-tea place in Vancouver. Before I actually went recipe-hunting, I always thought these cakes actually had  tea leaves in them-dry tea leaves and cake dough? Hmmm................

It turns out the real tea flavor comes from a milk-tea mixture (the method is just like how you make milk tea!) added in the cake. While it retains its fluffiness it also has a nice smell to it.

A little note: cupcakes are not muffins, they're more toward the light and fluffy side (the less holes in the cake the better) while muffins have more air and taste a little drier than cupcakes. 

Without further due, here's the recipe:

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 12-16 cupcakes

Adapted from Oh so Very Pretty

For the cupcake: 

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 4 teaspoon earl grey tea leaves (I used Cream of Earl Grey from David's tea )
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (*if you forgot to leave the butter out early, microwave cold butter for ~20-25 seconds until you get a softened but not melted to liquid texture)
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) whole or 2% milk

For the frosting: 

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup cream cheese (1 package) 
• Confectionary sugar (about 1 cup) 
• Tea leaves for decoration (optional)

For the cupcake. 

1. Start off with heating the milk in your microwave. About 45s to 1 minute would work. 

2. Place the tea leaves in a teabag or a tea-maker with hot milk and let it steep for 30 minutes. 

3. Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). In a bowl, mix the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

4. Cream sugar and the softened butter and blend the creamed mixture with the flour mixture.

5. In another bowl, beat eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream and vegetable oil until smooth. 

6. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Add the tea-milk mixture slowly until just combined. If your batter still has some visible little chunks, use an electric mixer on high-speed for about 10 seconds to get rid of them.

7. Line your cupcake pan. 

8. Fill your cupcake liners until they are just over half-full. 

9. Bake for 15 minutes and do the toothpick test. If not, put them back in the oven for another 2 minutes. Because I had filled mine a little over, the cupcakes were not done until 17 minutes.  Transfer them onto a cooling rack. 

  

For the frosting. 

Cream butter and cream cheese using a hand or electric mixer. Slowly add confectionery sugar to your desired sweetness. 

The batch!