Chai Cupcakes Recipe

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Chai Cupcakes

Chai was my most popular flavour during my cake business days, even making it into Every Day with Rachel Ray.
Here's the recipe for it, as Chai Cupcakes!

Chai Day is coming up - September 21 - so I figured I’d so something special this year - FINALLY blog my Chai Latte Cake Recipe!

Well, Chai Cupcakes, in this case. Figure it’s an easier way to enjoy the cake, rather than torting full cakes.

Anyway, my Chai Latte Cake has a fairly storied history!

Way back in the day - when I had a custom cake business - it was absolutely the most popular flavour I offered.

I had a LOT of really amazing flavours - like Citrus Splendor, B-52, Cookies & Cream (2nd most popular!), Spumoni Torte, and more - , so the fact that this one stood out to that degree was always a bit of a shock to me.

Many of my flavours involved more than one actual cake flavour, syrups brushed on layers, multiple Swiss Meringue Buttercream flavours, sometimes a layer or two of chocolate ganache... I mean, there’s a REASON people called me “Evil Cake Overlord”!

But it was this fairly basic looking spice cake that won hearts, above all others.

People who loved spice cake, loved it. People who loved chai loved it. People who didn’t even like spice cake loved it - I’m guessing because it wasn’t super “In your face” spice? It was just a great all-around people pleaser.

Whatever the reason for the popularity, it definitely was a delicious cake - I’ll give it that!

So, when I started offering cookie mixes - based on my most popular holiday cookie flavours, such as Chewy Chocolate Mint Chip, Chai Shortbread, and Chewy Chocolate White Chip Cookies - it only made sense that I’d offer it as the sole cake mix offering.

I couldn’t keep them in stock!

Of course, when my second cookbook - centered completely on cakes (“Evil Cake Overlord”, obviously!) - came out... I had to include my fabulous Chai Latte Cake Recipe in it.

... and that’s the last time it’s been photographed. I had to dig WAY back into our archives to come up with these cake photos!

As I previously mentioned, this recipe was featured in my second cookbook,Evil Cake Overlord: Ridiculously Delicious Cakes!

We've long been known for our “ridiculously delicious” moist cakes and tasty, unique flavors. Now, you can have recipes for all of the amazing flavors on our former custom cake menu, and many more! Bake your moist work of gastronomic art, then fill and frost your cake with any number of tasty possibilities. Milk chocolate cardamom pear, mango mojito, and more!

Feeling creative? Use our easy to follow recipe to make our yummy fondant. Forget everything you’ve heard about fondant – ours is made from marshmallows and powdered sugar, and is essentially candy – you can even flavor it! Order your copy directly through my site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!

Anyway, back to these Chai Cupcakes...

Chai Cupcakes

The Ingredients

These are super easy to make, only requiring a few spices and some tea to get the flavour going, in a fairly basic cake batter recipe.

You can use Instant Black Tea powder if you can find it - apparently it’s not a thing, here in Canada - to brew tea and use it in place of the water.

The Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix acts as a humectant - it’s what ensures the final cake is nice and moist.

The Frosting

I’ve always made this with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Not only was it always my favourite frosting - hands down - it worked especially well with the Chai Cake.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream is less in-your-face with the sweetness than American Buttercream is, and I find that works really well with the mild flavour of these Chai Cupcakes.

... Especially if you PILE the frosting on. Really, we’re talking about cupcakes - you should DEFINITELY pile the frosting on. 🙂

The Presentation

Historically, I’d made this as a 4 layer cake with layers of frosting between them, then frost the outside with a thin “crumb coat” layer, chill it, then frost with a thick layer of frosting.

If I was doing a fondant cake, I would get that frosting layer VERY smooth, and chill it once again before applying the fondant.

Of course, Chai Cupcakes are a lot easier!

I like to use an ice cream scoop to measure the batter into the cupcake pan.

While I don’t usually bother with liners when making muffins, I do like to use cute liners for cupcakes. It’s September, the weather has taken a turn for *autumn*, so I found some cute fall themed liners to shoot these Chai Cupcakes.

I think they work well with the flavour and look of the Chai Cupcakes.

Serving Chai Cupcakes

Getting up on my soapbox here...

Do not refrigerate these cupcakes immediately before serving them, *especially* if you’re using Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Chilling the cake makes it hard and dry - and dry cake is SAD cake. Just... don’t.

If you’re using Swiss Meringue Buttercream, it also hardens, and crumbles. Think about it like trying to eat a stick of butter - not super pleasant.

That’s not to say you can’t chill these Chai Cupcakes at all, just give them PLENTY of time to come up to room temperature before serving them!

More Chai Flavoured Recipes!

Love the warm, spicy flavours of chai? SO do I! Here are a few recipes on that theme:

Chai Cinnamon Rolls
Chewy Chai Blondies Recipe
Gluten-Free Chai Doughnut Holes
Milk Chocolate Chai Truffles

Anyway... On to that recipe!

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5 from 1 vote

Chai Cupcakes

Chai was my most popular flavour during my cake business days, even making it into Every Day with Rachel Ray. Here's the recipe for it, as Chai Cupcakes!

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time22 mins

Cooling time1 hr

Total Time1 hr 32 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 24 Cupcakes

Calories: 268kcal

Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

Muffin Tin

Cupcake Liners

Ingredients

• 3 cups Cake flour
• 2 ¼ cups Granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp Baking powder
• 2 Tbsp Unsweetened Instant Black Tea * OR 3 black tea bags
• 1 ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Cardamom
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• ½ tsp Ground Cloves
• ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 3 ½ oz Instant vanilla pudding mix**
• 6 Eggs
• 1 ½ cups Butter melted
• 2 Tbsp Pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup Water
• 1 batch batch Swiss Meringue buttercream
• or
• 1 batch American buttercream
• 1 Tbsp Unsweetened Instant Black Tea Powder
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ½ tsp Cardamom
• ½ tsp Cinnamon
• ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
• ¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
• Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• Combine flour, sugar, tea, baking powder, salt, spices, and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl. Add in eggs and butter, beating until smooth.
• Carefully add melted butter and vanilla to the mix, mixing on medium speed until smooth.
• Add water to batter, mix until well incorporated and smooth.
• Divide batter among prepared muffin pans. Bake until golden and knife inserted into center of batter comes out clean - about 20-22 mins .
• Allow to cool to cool to room temperature, before decorating.
• Prepare either Swiss meringue buttercream or American buttercream, following the applicable recipe , using vanilla extract.
• Mix together instant tea and spices, add about 2 tsp very hot water, mix to form a thick, smooth paste.
• Beat paste into prepared frosting until fully mixed in and smooth.
• Frost your cupcake as desired, enjoy!

Notes

* If you can't find instant black tea powder, heat the water in the recipe and brew 3 black tea bags in it, for a strong tea.

** The pudding mix can be skipped, if you're a purist. It makes the cake extra moist and the recipe really... fool proof.

Nutrition

Calories: 268kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 396mg | Potassium: 36mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 414IU | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 1mg

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