Full of delicious warming spices, giving it the perfect balance of sweet and spicy and topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, this cupcake perfectly embodies a delicious chai tea latte.
Chai tea lattes are one of my go to drinks! In the summers I love them iced and I switch to hot lattes during the fall and winter months. The blend of black tea with the various warming spices never fails to warm me up and make me think of cozy evenings wrapped in a warm blanket and reading a good book. The chai tea latte flavours always make me think of fall. Everyone gets really excited about Pumpkin Spice season (myself included) but I often think that the Chai Tea Latte gets over looked.
I knew I wanted to highlight the chai flavours in a cupcake. I decided to use a store bought chai tea latte concentrate in these cupcakes. This way I didn't have to worry about purchasing various different spices and trying to perfect my chai tea latte flavours for the cupcake. I love the way that they turned out. Of course, I decided to top the cupcake with a cream cheese frosting - because you can never go wrong with cream cheese buttercream! The tangy cream cheese flavour pairs well with the chai spices and the creamy-ness of the frosting mimics the foam atop a latte.
Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes
Makes: 2 Dozen Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
1 c milk
1/2 c chai concentrate
2.5 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 c butter, at room temperature
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
For the frosting:
1/2 c butter, at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
4 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 325. Line trays with cupcake liners and set aside.
In a small bowl combine the chai concentrate and milk, set aside. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, over medium speed, beat together butter and sugars, until well combined. Mixture should be light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, scrapping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. On low, slowly mix in half of the flour mixture. Followed by half of the chai/milk mixture. Repeat, ending with the chai/milk mixture. Mix until just combined, take care not to over mix the batter.
Fill cupcake liners 2/3s of the way full. Bake on centre rack for 20-22 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to wire rack to cool Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting:
In the bowl of stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, over medium speed, beat together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. The mixture should almost double in volume. Starting on low, beat in icing sugar, move mixer up to higher speed and beat for an additional minute or so. Mix in vanilla and cinnamon. Frost cupcakes as desired. See how I frost my cupcakes.
