Chai Tea...In a Cupcake!

Personally I'm a big fan of Vanilla Chai. I used to only like the one that Dunkin Donuts made but ever since I found out how horribly bad it is for you, and how regular chai tea can do the same, I've switched. The aroma of it, the spices, the taste... all of it is so yummy! So I decided to do a little research.

I wanted to see if it could be made into a dessert. Apparently someone else was thinking the same thing because I found a recipe for Vanilla Chai Tea Cupcakes. Don't those sounds awesome?! Well they are. Just for the record.

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp cardamom*

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup apple sauce

1 cup milk

4 chai tea bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine all dry ingredients except for the sugar, set aside. In a small sauce pan heat milk until it simmers. Remove from heat and let all four tea bags steep for 10 minutes, remove bags and let milk cool to room temp. (I'm terrible at waiting so I let it wait until it was semi-warm and they turned out just fine.)

In a mixer blend butter and sugar together. Add apple sauce and mix untill well combined. Once that's done alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, mix untill well combined. Be careful not to over mix in this step.

Distribute batter into the cupcake pans and cook for 14-16 minutes depending on how fast your oven bakes. A toothpick should come out with a few crumbs on it when they are done, seeing as these cupcakes are very moist!

* Cardamom is another ingredient that I wouldn't use outside of this recipe. Although it is the main ingredient in Chai tea, it's also super expensive. I'm talking like $17 for a tiny little jar of it. So I didn't add it. Maybe they'd taste better with it in it, I'll never know. I'm certainly not going to pay that much money for something that's going to sit on my shelves and collect dust.

For the Frosting:

Vanilla

Confectionary Sugar

Butter

Cinnamon

Once again my frosting is an estimate. I went by the actual recipe for this one and I had a ton left over. Way more than I ever needed. So estimate how much you'd like and then frost away! To get the nice swirl I just threw the frosting in a zip lock bag and then cut one corner off. Easiest piping method out there.

These cupcakes are unbelieveably good. They are so most they practically fall apart in your hands. I do have to say though that the frosting I made was also equally delicious but it over powered the flavor of the cupcakes a bit. I did use a lot though due to the fact that I had a rediculous amount of frosting. So I'd go easy with the frosting on the cupcakes or go easy on the cinnamon. Either one would work.

Gosh, don't they look tasty?! A big glass of ice cold milk goes great with these.