Hello readers!

It’s the start to my own personal cupcake week! (or mini-cupcake week)

A colleague of mine is having a brunch coming up and hired me to make some mini-cupcakes for the event, so starting today I get to have a few different mini cupcake posts!

I ran into this woman when I was getting my hair cut, and what she requested for the cupcakes was something that was not “pedestrian” – something unique and delicious.  So I came up with a bunch of suggestions, and she selected four that she and her sister liked best.  One is a recipe I’ve made and absolutely love, one is a recipe that I’ve made before and am improving on, one is a cake recipe I’ve made and I’m turning into cupcakes, and one is brand spankin’ new!

My brand new recipe is something that sounded interesting and very different – Earl Grey cupcakes with a lemon frosting.  Personally, I’m  not a tea fan – I like peppermint, mint, and then I switch to coffee.  But the idea of a tea cupcake just sounded so appropriate for a brunch, I couldn’t not include it in my list of recommendations.

This cupcake ended up oddly delicious – it almost tasted like a light lemon poppyseed cake.  The tea flavor doesn’t come out until the very end, as a subtle lemony-floral aftertaste.  I frosted a few of the extra cupcakes to bring to work, and I know for the rest of the cupcakes I’m going to do a very light layer of frosting, as the lemon can overpower the tea flavor.  All in all – this is definitely a cupcake I would make again – and maybe this is a sign I need to try drinking Earl Grey tea (although I think the butter, flour, buttermilk, and sugar vastly improved the flavor).

As an incredibly random side note, I’ve been listening to The Bachelor in the background (mainly because I was coated in flour and couldn’t change the channel and then was subsequently too lazy to do so), and I am wondering if anyone has ever counted the number of times someone says “like” in an episode.  If you made this into a drinking game… I can only imagine what the end result would be.

But I digress.

Cupcakes! 🙂

Earl Grey Mini-Cupcakes (adapted from Dessert Candy)

• 1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 182 g (1.5 cups) self-rising flour*
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 Tbsp Earl Grey tea

Preheat oven to 350.  Place paper liners in mini-cupcake pan and set aside.

In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter until light in creamy.  Add half of sugar, and beat until combined.  Scrape sides of bowl, add remaining sugar, and beat until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly and scraping bowl between eggs.

Mix the tea into the flour and whisk so the tea is evenly dispersed in the flour.  Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, and mix until combined.  Add in buttermilk and mix, then add remaining flour mixture and mix until you have a cohesive batter.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full, and bake for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until cakes spring back when lightly touched and are golden on the edges.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then cool completely on a cooling rack.

Lemon Frosting

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter)
• 226 g (2 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

Cream the butter until it is light and creamy.  Add powdered sugar slowly, and mix until combined.

Zest lemon over frosting; add lemon juice.  Mix until a cohesive frosting is formed (believe me – you’ll know!)

Frost cupcakes after they have cooled completely.