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.