Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

This girl I work with is celebrating her 20th birthday and I (obviously) wanted to make her something special but I just couldn’t decide what. Then I remembered how we used to always talk about how good chai tea is so this morning I went on a wild goose chase looking for cardamom to make her these cupcakes. And let me tell you, I have never smelled anything so yummy come out of that oven before and that says A LOT since I’m constantly baking.

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

Adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 tsp. chai spice mix (recipe below)
1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup vanilla spice egg nog
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. white vinegar

Chai Spice Mix

1 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
remainder of the chai spice mix
1 Tbsp. cold milk, if needed to thin out the buttercream


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare a cupcake pan with liners
In a small bowl or plastic bag, combine the chai spice mix ingredients.  Set aside
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and beat in one egg at a time. Stir in 2 teaspoons of the chai spice mix. Fold in the flour and buttermilk alternately and stir until combined, don?t over mix. Mix together the baking soda and vinegar in a separate bowl, then add it to the batter and mix until combined
Spoon into prepared cupcake tins until 3/4 full and bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
In a stand mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy. On low, mix in the vanilla and the rest of the chai spice mix. Carefully beat in the powdered sugar about ½ cup at a time.  If the buttercream is too thick add 1-2 tbs of cold milk until the desired consistency is reached.  Then pipe onto cooled cupcakes

Mixing in the spices

Close-up of the batter

Pre-baked

Post-baked

Close-up of the buttercream

The final product!

Tagged: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, egg nog, nutmeg