November
26, 2008
Spiced Chai Latte Cupcakes
Folks, we have a winner. Hands down, no question about it, winner. This little gem will be joining lovely almond and rich chocolate on our wedding cupcake menu.
Holy cow they are delicious.
How they all came about:
Robin likes Chai. A lot. And upon hearing we needed a non-chocolate cupcake recipe for the wedding, suggested we try a chai cupcake. Sounds good, right? We first turned to our fail-safe book (though recently it has failed us), Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Indeed, there is a Chai cupcake recipe in there. However, it uses yogurt in the base, which, if you read the disaster that was the Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes last week, you’ll know that the yogurt didn’t fare so well. And I wasn’t going to risk that happening again.
So we began with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe, and went from there.
Chai tea is sure a complicated beast – but after a good bit of research, I understood fairly well that most chai teas are comprised of a few key spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger. Some used nutmeg as well, so we decided to toss some of that in the mix.
For the tea portion, we simply steeped some black tea, using the soymilk instead of water. This infused a rich tea flavor to the cupcake without needing any extra liquid – the soymilk was already in there.
The frosting was a challenge, but to me, no cup of chai is complete without a giant dollop of whipped cream. Short of frosting these with whipped cream, I wanted a frosting more silky and smooth than our standard buttercream. We decided to try, for the first time ever, a Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Success. The frosting was to die for. The best frosting I have EVER made. Much less sweet than American Buttercream, but so much richer and with an incredible depth of flavor that almost makes you think there is more in it besides egg whites, sugar, and butter. It made me extremely nervous, making it, though. The frosting feels very fragile, like it can barely support it’s own weight, and at the slightest hint of too much heat or even if you sneezed near it, it’d melt into oblivion. Has anyone worked with Swiss Buttercream before? It is so perfect in every way and I don’t want to abandon it, but I don’t want it to become a wedding-day disaster either.
Spiced Chai Latte Cupcakes with Cinnamon Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Makes 12 cupcakes. Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Frosting recipe adapted from Tartlette.
Ingredients
1 cup soy milk
4 black tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose leaf black tea
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extractFor frosting:
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamonDirections
Preheat the oven to 350ËšF.Heat soymilk in a small saucepan or microwave until almost boiling. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep for 10 minutes, then remove teabags, squeezing out as much soymilk as possible. Re-measure, and add more soymilk to make exactly 1 cup. Whisk in cider vinegar, and side aside until curdled.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Pour in soy milk mixture, along with oil, sugar, and vanilla, and stir just until no large lumps remain.
Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter (liners should be 2/3 full), and bake for 20-22 minutes or until puffed and golden. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
For buttercream: put the sugar and eggwhites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream.
Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick and shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until is is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and whip for another 30 seconds until incorporated. Spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes.
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#1 | Reply
Oh, those sound divine! I’m so going to have to try those sometime.
#2 | Reply
oh i love the drinks-so i know i’m going to adore these cupcakes. that frosting looks perfect :)
#3 | Reply
That white icing is brilliant! Do you think I could modify this to make a cake?
#4 | Reply
Hi Robin! The frosting for sure could be adapted, just make a lot more of it. :) For the cake – I’m not sure how this cupcake recipe would fare as a cake. I’d find a nice vanilla or spice cake recipe you know works well in cake form, and then just add the tea and spices to that. At least then you’ll know how it behaves. Good luck, if you do try it, let me know how it turns out.
#5 | Reply
These sound amazing. I hope your wedding works out just as well!
#6 | Reply
Ooh lala!!! I love! I have never had a spiced chai latte. It’s time to get my virgin lips to it! :D
And…referring to your header, wouldn’t you think it just appropriate for babies to be one of those good things made in the kitchen?
Oops! Turn off, turn on here!?
#7 | Reply
Rather than the IMBC, try making Mousseline Buttercream. Same thing, but it is MUCH more heat stable. I have made both but I definitely prefer the Mousseline over the IMBC. You can read up more about it on the net, but here is a link to a recipe for it and the method..
http://www.recipezaar.com/Mousseline-Buttercream-45835
#8 | Reply
*drool* I love a Chai Latte – I am definitely going to try these out!
#9 | Reply
MsC – Thanks for the suggestion! Heat stable is definitely a good thing… though cooking sugar is not my strong suit. I’ll definitely give that recipe a go next time. Thank you!
#10 | Reply
Oh my God, I am dying. Please send one of these over right now. :)
#11 | Reply
Holy cow is right! These look amazing, I can’t wait to give them a whirl :)
#12 | Reply
That looks amazing! I often find that buttercream is too sweet so I like the sound of that frosting! I also am a big fan of chai so Im pretty much in heaven right now.I’m bookmarking this!
#13 | Reply
Hey! Was really exited when I found this recipe! I’m insanely in love with Chai tea and all it’s derivatives. However, when I made the cupcakes I found that the batter was thick and sticky. I cooked them anyway, but the resulting cupcakes where pretty flavorless. I thought it might be better with the icing. However, the resulting mix was more butter than anything.
Perhaps I’d done something wrong? I’m not sure, but I can’t say i wasn’t disseminated by the results.
#14 | Reply
Thank you for a lovely cupcake recipe! The flavours are to die for. This is definitely my favourite cupcake at the moment.
Check out my rendition of it over on my blog -> http://thecreativepot.blogspot.com/2009/07/rooibos-chai-latte-cupcakes.html
#15 | Reply
Hi. Can I substitute whole milk and fresh ginger?
Thanks! Plz email me.
#16 | Reply
You really should try the chai cupcake recipe from “vegan cupcakes…” – I just made it and it was absolutely delicious – I topped it with cream cheese icing and the combination was heavenly! Do not fear the yogurt!
#17 | Reply
i wish i’d seen your modified post before making the chai cupcakes off the ppk site (with yogurt). all reviews there were positive except one. unfortunately my cupcakes were EXACTLY like that one negative review – rubbery and sad.
found your site while googling for a frosting and i love the swiss buttercream you used! sadly, on the whole, the cupcakes were beyond saving. with buttercream or not.
perhaps it might be like isa suggested on ppk, the temperature of my oven, since mine is in celsius instead of farenheit :/ ahhh this makes one sad baker!
#18 | Reply
Made these as mini-cupcakes over the weekend and they were absolutely fabulous! Great recipe. Perfect for the fall.
#19 | Reply
Hello! I do not drink black tea, is there any herbal tea you could use to substitute the black tea for?
#20 | Reply
I just made these and they were awesome! Just like a chai latte. For some reason, though, my frosting came out a yellow/cream color instead of your bright white. Do you have any idea why this would be? Thanks!
#21 | Reply
I made these cupcakes tonight. While the cupcake itself turned out beautifully, I can’t say the same about my meringue buttercream. Does it usually take some time to get the hang of this? I followed all of the directions that you laid out, and everything looked as it was progressing just fine until I stopped my KitchenAid & prepared to put the frosting onto the cupcakes. At that point, it became runny and appeared to almost be individually separating. Do you have any idea why it would be doing this? I want to keep working on this frosting, as it sounds divine; and even tonight, when it failed, it still tasted phenomenal.
Thank you for this lovely recipe. I adore the cupcakes; I’ll just have to do a bit of tweaking with the frosting. :)