Chai Cupcakes

These mini cupcakes are quite a crowd pleaser and very simple to make! I recently made a batch for a dear friend's birthday party. If you like chai lattes, then you'll love these. It's also quite fun watching people try to guess what spices are in the buttercream. The recipe is as follows:

Vanilla cupcakes
I adapted a basic vanilla cupcake recipe from Nigella Lawson's website by adding some ground cinnamon.

Ingredients:

• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 2 tablespoons milk 

Method:

1. It's important that you take out all of the refridgerated ingredients (butter, eggs and milk) ahead of time to allow them to come to room temperature. 
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
3. Put all the ingredients, except the milk, in a large bowl and beat using an electric mixer until you have a smooth batter. 
4. Add the milk and beat for another few seconds.
5. Spoon the batter into a prepared cupcake pan. I used a mini cupcake pan.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes or 15-20 minutes for regular sized cupcakes.
7. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes approximately 34 mini cupcakes or 12 regular sized cupcakes.

Chai buttercream

Ingredients:

• 125g butter
• 2 cups sifted icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Chai spice mix:
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Method:

1. Beat the butter till pale and creamy. The butter must be soft!
2. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time. Beat together.
3. Add the vanilla and milk and beat till smooth. 
4. Combine all the ground spices to make the chai spice mix.
5. Add the spice mix to the buttercream and beat till evenly combined.

The chai spice mix recipe came from a great little blog called "Some More Please!". Once you've made your buttercream, use a piping bag with any type of nozzle and decorate your cupcakes. I used a star shaped nozzle and studded each cupcake with a dark chocolate drop but you can decorate them whichever way you like! Have fun with it! Na xo

                                                               

 Photography by Akira