A cup of tea

Let me start off by saying, these next cupcakes I didn't actually bake tonight. I made them a couple of days ago but I haven't had the chance to blog about them until now.

This next cupcake comes from the fragrant & spiced section of the cookbook. They are called chai cupcakes. "Chai is a spiced Indian tea made with frothy warm milk." The cupcake was pretty light and have a spicy flavor.

This recipe calls for self rising flour, baking powder, salt, chai tea powder, sweet butter, brown sugar, egg whites, and buttermilk.

All the ingredients were easy except the chai tea powder. Go figure. After searching several markets, including Whole Foods I still couldn't find a powder version of the tea so I went for tea bags instead and cut them open to get to the spices. The recipe didn't call for that much to begin with. One tablespoon is all you'll need.

Bake for the usual 20 minutes at 350 degrees and you've got yourself a surprisingly good cupcake. When its cooled you top with a cream cheese frosting. I skipped this step for the soul propose of, I already know how to make that frosting, and didn't want to waste ingredients. Not to mention the author of the book portrays the cupcake without frosting, and so will I. I think it may taste weird with it, but who knows. It tastes just fine plain. Perhaps when I make the variation I'll throw some frosting on there.

I give this cupcake a B+

Photography: Travis J. Premo