Chai Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream Frosting

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 12-count muffin tins with baking cups and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray. This batter is very wet and without spritzing the baking cups the paper will stick to the cakes. I find the foil baking cups work even better.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar, flour, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside

Melt 2 sticks of butter in medium saucepan. Once it’s melted add the cup of chai. I use the Tazo Chai concentrate because it’s easy. You could certainly make your own chai but make sure you use several tea bags to 1 cup of water. You want the chai to be really strong. After you add the concentrated chai to the butter, add 2 chai tea bags to the pot. Bring it to a boil then turn the heat off, cover the pot and let it steep for about 5 minutes.

While that’s doing it’s thing get another bowl and mix the buttermilk, baking soda, eggs and vanilla together.

Remove the tea bags and add the chai/butter mix slowly to the flour mixture stirring gently. I use setting 2 on my Kitchen Aid. It doesn’t have to be one homogenous mix – yet you don’t want to cook the eggs when you add the the buttermilk mix to the batter. Another way to cool it down is to pour it down the sides of the bowl as you add it to the flour.

After a few gentle turns of the machine add the buttermilk mixture to the bowl. Make sure it’s all well combined and then portion out the batter into the muffin cups. I use a 1/4 cup so that the cupcakes end up mostly the same size. This batter is very wet!

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted the middle comes out clean. When done remove from oven and cool on a rack until they are cool to the touch. Don’t rush or the buttercream will melt all over your cupcakes. Tasty yes but very messy and not nearly so pretty.

For the Icing:
With an electric mixer beat the butter and cream cheese until it is nice and creamy. Add the honey. Mix until fluffy. This is a softer frosting and if you plan on piping it I would recommend putting it in the fridge for a little while to get it firmed up.

Go ahead and frost the cooled cupcakes. I find that just a thin smear on the top is more than enough and lets the taste of the chai shine through.

Enjoy!!