Recipe of the Week - Chai Latte Cupcakes

Week 8

My niece just moved back to Mississippi from Lake Tahoe. She has been here for 18 months and we miss her already. She loves the flavor of Chai and in the small Mississippi town where we are from, there is little chance of her finding anything Chai...so every now and then I am going to mail her some Chai tea.
















In honor of Payton and her love of Chai, this week's recipe features Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes. As an alternative to this recipe, you can use your favorite vanilla or yellow cupcake recipe and just add the chai spice mix. If you don't have any of the spices on hand to make the chai mix, you can steep 3 chai teabags for 10 minutes in the warm whole milk. I am including a recipe for chai buttercream frosting, but if you think that will cause a chai overdose you can use a 7-minute or cream cheese frosting instead.

Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. of chai spice mix (recipe below)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup whole milk

Cream butter and sugar for about 5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Mix together the flour, salt and spices and add to butter/sugar mixture. Add the two milks, alternating with flour (always begin and end with flour).

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until done.
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Chai Mix

2 tsp. ground cloves
1 Tablespoon cardamom
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger


Chai Buttercream

1 cup Crisco
1 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2-3 tsp. Chai Mix (add spices to your taste)
1 envelope Dream Whip
1/2 cup water
8 cups powdered sugar

Cream the Crisco and butter and chai mix. Mix the water, vanilla, salt & Dream Whip together and set aside. Add the powdered sugar, alternating with liquid. When everything is combined, beat on high speed for 5 minutes.

Recipe of the Week - Lemon Cupcakes

Week 7

Lemon cupcakes are one of my favorites and the more intense the lemon flavor the better. I know I have already posted a lemon cupcake recipe, but I discovered a new recipe and we all know you can't have too many lemon cupcake recipes...this one will not dissapoint!

Lemon Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour

1 cup sugar (or Splenda Blend for baking)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter - room temperature

3 large eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Combine flour, sugar (or Splenda), baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture with a fork until crumbly.

Stir together eggs, milk, lemon juice & lemon zest in a small mixing bowl. Add 1/3 of the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Beat for 30 seconds at low speed with an electric mixer. Repeat this procedure 2 more times. Spoon batter into prepared cupcake liners.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done.

Recipe of the Week - Lemon Filled Cupcakes

Week 5

While searching for a lemon bar recipe, I came across this lemon cupcake recipe from Baking Bites. Filling cupcakes is easy and makes a more elegant presentation. Martha Stewart's lemon curd recipe is delicious with these cupcakes.

Lemon Cupcakes Filled with Lemon Curd

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter (room temperature)

1 2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon zest (or 1 tsp lemon extract)

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

approx 1 1/2 cups lemon curd

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Adding the lemon zest early helps release more of its flavor. Blend in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk. Add another 1/3 of the flour and the remaining milk, then stir in the remaining flour, mixing only until no streaks of flour remain.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each approx 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake for 16-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool completely on a wire rack.

To fill, use a melon baller to scoop a small hole in the top of each muffin. Alternatively, you can use star tip and pipe the curd into the cupcake. Fill with 2 tsp. lemon curd. Serve shortly after filling. Unfilled cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container until ready to fill and serve.

Frost cupcakes with your favorite buttercream or cream cheese icing.

CupcakeRecipes.com

Want to bake up a batch of cupcakes but need some inspiration? CupcakeRecipes.com has what you need - basic recipes, holiday recipes, wedding recipes. And frostings too! The wedding cupcake section of the site offers tips for arranging your display, flavor choices and how to determine which size of cupcake you need. The Christmas section lists recipes and decorating ideas. The site is easy to navigate and worth a look.