Chai Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting

One of my girlfriends is in the Army, so when she says "I'm in Sydney for a week!" we all drop whatever we're doing and go to see her. Last visit we were all being merry at a restaurant when I discovered that she was free the following Saturday. Before I knew it, everyone was coming around to my place and I had promised to make cupcakes in whatever flavour my Army friend wanted. She chose Chai.

If you are someone who thinks that Chai is a type of flavouring syrup which gets added to lattes, stop right where you are. Chai acutally just means tea in most South Asian countries but in Australia it specifically refers to Masala Chai, an Indian blend of spices and black tea commonly consumed with milk and sweetener. The mix of spices in Masala Chai varies but most of them will contain cloves, nutmeg, star anise and cinnamon at the very least.

When Saturday rolled around, Husband and Wiggle were both deathly ill with a cold so I made some hasty phone calls and got morning tea moved to a friend's house. Fortunately I'd organised it as a 'bring-a-plate' affair so it was easy to move.

The cupcakes were a big hit and my choice of Vanilla Bean for the frosting, which I had agonised over, turned out to be spot on - flavoursome enough to complement the cakes but not overpowering. These ones I will make again!

Ingredients

1/2 cup hot water
1 tbsp Masala Chai
1/2 cup milk
125g butter
1tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon chinese five spice

100g butter
1 vanilla seed pod
2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

Method

Put Masala Chai and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil 2-3 minutes and reduce to a simmer. Add milk and simmer a further 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add flour, ground spices and 1/2 cup of your freshly brewed chai and mix thoroughly. Spoon batter into patty pans and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 mins or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Beat butter until very pale. Split seed pods and scrape the beans out into the butter. Add icing sugar and continue beating. Add milk, a little at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Spread over cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

The Cupcake Odyssey: Rosemary

Rosemary is probably my favourite herb. I love everything about it - the way it looks, the way it smells, the way it goes with all my favourite savoury foods, the sweet-spicy flavour it has, even the way it looks as a garnish. So when I was looking for unusual flavours to put into a cupcake, Rosemary was a bit of a no-brainer.


What was more difficult was coming up with a suitable frosting. I have always paired my cupcake flavours so that I have one flavour in the cake and another in the frosting, and I didn't see why this should be any different. I settled on muscat, which is another old favourite, and settled down to work. At first I thought I'd try a plain muscat icing. Which was disgusting. Then I thought I'd try a muscat-marscapone frosting, which looked very promising as I'd found several recipe suggestions on teh internets and figured that if other people could make it work, so could I. The problem with this was that once mixed with marscapone, the only part of the muscat that was discernable was the alcohol, which was not what I was going for. Eventually I thought I'd make a muscat-toffee glaze. Let's not go into the gory details of that particular disaster.


Eventually, I had to concede that rosemary is just such a fabulous flavour that it needs no accompaniment. And voila - it didn't.

Rosemary Cupcakes with Buttercream


Cupcakes

2 inches fresh rosemary, stripped

125g butter

3/4 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup milk


Buttercream

2 cups icing sugar

100g butter

2 tbsp milk (approx)


Method

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Put the rosemary leaves in a spice grinder and grind until finely minced. Take a moment to inhale the amazing scent. Add rosemary, flour and milk and beat until smooth. Spoon into patty pans and bake in moderate oven 20-25 mins or until a knife inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean.


Beat butter for frosting until very pale. Add icing sugar slowly, while beating. Add milk until the desired texture is achieved. Spread over cooled cupcakes and top with a rosemary flower.


I think these may be my favourite ...

The Cupcake Odyssey: Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting

So, it's been a little while. I started a post the other day, which was going to be a running commentary on a party day, but the day fell apart pretty promptly and I wasn't really in a state of mind to be blogging about it. I will finish the post at some point, but rather than a "how to put on an awesome party" post it will be a "how not to do things" post.

Anyway, the other reason I've been so quiet on the blog front is that I've been very, very busy in the kitchen, testing some new recipes. Specifically, cupcake recipes. And here is the first: Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting.

Discussing lavender as a flavour at work, my boss put it best when she said, "Lavender smells lovely, but it's not the sort of thing you smell and then think, I'd like to eat that." Certainly, food isn't the first thing that the sweet, spicy scent of lavender brings to mind. But a little hint of lavender aroma can be heaven in baked goods, creating a delicacy that dough, bless it, just can't quite achieve. The honey frosting is important as it adds a silky, creamy texture which the cupcakes definitely need, and the floral notes in the honey complement the lavender beautifully.

Practical note: culinary lavender is NOT the same as pot pourri lavender. Don't just go pick some from your Nanna's garden, becuse the lovely fragrant stuff that grows in front yards is full of camphor, which really doesn't taste that great. Culinary lavender (Angustifolia) can be purchased online from lavender farms, or, for a more convenient option, Just Lavender from T2 works beautifully. Never use flowers from a florist or supermarket for cooking - they usually contain toxic pesticides. Lavender is also not suitable for consumption if you are pregnant or lactating - thanks to Van Badham for this tip.

(Photo courtesy of the Cowboy)

INGREDIENTS:
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
pinch bicarb soda
1 1/2 tbsp lavender

200g butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1-2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup milk
red and blue food colouring, OR fresh lavender flowers

METHOD:
Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, then flour, milk and lavender. Beat to a smooth batter. Bake in preheated (180 degrees) oven as follows:
For cupcakes (18-24), bake 20-25 mins
In a 20cm round cake tin, bake 55 mins
In a 22cm round cake tin, bake 40 mins
Cake is cooked when golden brown on top and a butter knife comes out clean.

Using electric beaters, cream the butter until it is very pale and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and continue to beat. Add the milk, a little at a time, until the icing is a good consistency (it needs to be firm enough to create a thick layer but not so thick that it breaks the crust off the cake as you spread it on).

FOR CUPCAKES:
Mix the honey in with the icing and spread on cooled cupcakes. To frost cupcakes neatly, get a little frosting on a butter knife and smear it right in the middle of the cupcake. Turn the cupcake around in your hand as you spread the icing out toward the edges of the cake. This way you won't get icing all over the edge of the patty pans, which detracts from the look of the cupcakes considerably - and isn't the adorableness of cupcakes half the fun? Top with a fresh lavender flower to serve.

FOR LARGER CAKES:
Separate about a cup of icing and set aside. Mix honey in with the bigger batch of icing, spread liberally over cake. I love to make two cakes, frost one all over then put the other on top and frost that too, so that when you cut into it there's a lovely oozy layer of frosting sitting decadently in the middle. Also, a tall cake just looks more exciting. Mix blue and red food colouring, a little at a time, into the smaller batch of icing until a good lavender colour has been achieved. Pipe around the base and top of the cake and serve.

Note: This post has been getting more traffic than all the others put together, mostly thanks to a lovely link from Van Badham. If you like this recipe, please check out all the other cupcake posts - and if you really, really like it, why not follow me and catch new cupcake recipes as they come out!

Creme Brulee Cupcakes

"It's like creme brulee ... in a cupcake!" was the highly original (but highly flattering) comment my friend made when sampling one of these creamy little delights. These are definitely for those with a sweet tooth (and not on a diet) as they are loaded with butter and sugar, but if you want to take the edge off a little and go for a more balanced taste, you can very slightly burn the toffee which will provide a slightly bitter note to cut through the sweetness.

These cupcakes need to be made in reverse, that is - make the custard for the frosting first as it needs to be quite cold before the butter and icing sugar can be mixed in.

Frosting

1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
125g butter (slightly softened)
1 cup icing sugar (approx)

Heat a small saucepan full of water over medium heat until simmering. Mix caster sugar, flour, egg and milk in a metal bowl. Place the metal bowl over the boiling water and use electric beaters to beat the mixture until a smooth consistency has been reached and the mixture is hot (this is important as the eggs need to be cooked unless you want a salmonella risk). Cool by putting the bowl in a sink full of iced water while you make the cupcakes and toffee.

When you are ready, add the butter to the mixture and beat with electric beaters, adding large spoonfuls of icing sugar one at a time, until frosting is thick and pale. You mat reach a point where you decide to stop adding icing sugar and just keep beating it - tasting the mixture along the way is crucial (and delicious)!

Cupcakes

125g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2tsp vanilla essence (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking powder

Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs (one at a time). Add flour, baking powder and milk and mix thoroughly. Ladle into cupcake pans (you should get about 25 from this recipe - 24 if you're keen on licking the bowl!). This mixture is very liquid because of the extra egg so keep that in mind! Bake in a preheated 180 degrees (celsius) oven for 20 minutes or until golden and nicely risen - be sure to do the clean knife test before removing from the oven! Allow to cool thoroughly.

Toffee

Put 170g caster sugar and 4 tbsp water into a small saucepan and stir continuously over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Turn the heat up to medium-high and leave the mixture, without stirring, until it turns golden-brown. It takes a long time to start colouring but once it does, it gets there fast! you need to watch it constantly as it is very easy to burn. If you do want a burnt toffee flavour, leave it until it is just starting to look more 'brown' than 'golden'. There is a fine line between sweet toffee and edible burnt toffee so it is better to err on the side of caution here! Pour mixture onto a large, flat tray lined with baking paper and allow to cool. Once firmly set, snap into small pieces. You will need at least as many pieces as you have cupcakes!

Assembly

Once the cupcakes are cooled, top with a generous layer of frosting. This frosting recipe makes loads more than you will actually need - my solution was to freeze the leftover but until I have tried defrosting and using it I can't say for certain that's a good solution. Making a double batch of cupcakes on the other hand - definitely a good solution. Once all the cupcakes have been iced, place a piece of toffee on top of each one.

Voila! Creme brulee cupcakes.

Note - unfortunately, these cupcakes need to be refrigerated. As a general rule I am against refrigerating cake as it makes it quite stodgy, however this frosting will melt in seconds so there's not really any other option.

Did you try these yourself? Do you have another cupcake interpretation of creme brulee that you've made or would like to see made? Let me know!