Makin' Cupcakes

A friend of mine was holding a bake sale to raise money for the university library and had asked me if I would be willing to bake something. Of course, I wanted to make something... you don't have to ask me twice :P Baking for a cause is always exciting, and it gives me a chance to come up with creative presentations and decorative ideas for the goodies. Having finished up my annotated bibliography for my History class, I decided that I was free to let my mind wander into the realm of baking. What would I make? It would have to be something that people would enjoy, but not something that was too common. At first I thought about cookies, but then I decided against it because I'm sure the bake sale would end up with a butt-load of cookies. I finally settled on cupcakes; they can be versatiles and elegant, and decorating them would be so much fun. Here's what I came up with...

Chai Latte Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes (plus 1 mini-loaf)

Cupcakes:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp milk
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Tazo Chai Liquid mix (the kind Starbuck's uses)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tbsp chai spice mix (recipe follows)
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 batch of Chai Buttercream (recipe follows)

Chai Spice Mix (grind all ingredients together)
- 2 tsp fennel, whole
- 2 tsp cloves, whole
- 1 tbsp cardamom, ground
- 2 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 2 tsp ginger, ground

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F, prepare the muffin pan.
2. Make chai tea by combining milk with Tazo liquid.
3. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 1/2 tbsp chai spice mix.
4. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
5. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add in vanilla.
6. Stir half of butter mixture with the dry ingredients; add in half of the milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir well.
7. Add in the remaining egg and milk mixtures to the batter; stir just until combined.
8. Fill muffin tins 3/4-full, bake for 20minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean).
9. Remove from pan, cool completely on wire rack and decorate with buttercream frosting.

Chai Buttercream
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 - 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/8 cup milk (more or less, depending on desired consistency)
- 1 tsp chai spice mix
- 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger

Method
1. Beat butter until fluffy, smooth and creamy.
2. Add in sifted sugar, milk, ginger and chai spice.
3. Adjust milk-sugar ratio to reach desired consistency. Fill piping bag and decorate your cupcakes

My friend was quite excited to see the cute cupcakes I had prepared. I wonder how much she'll be selling them for? I'll probably stop by the bake sale tomorrow, just to see what kind of goodies the other contributors had made. It's always fun to see what other bakers concoct.
The recipe made enough for 12 regular sized cupcakes, and a small (I mean really small) loaf cake. Since there was some buttercream left over, I served the mini slices of cake with the frosting to my parents. My mom is addicted to the Starbuck's Chai Tea Latte and she just loved this dessert. My dad wasn't as ecstatic over the cake, but he did say that the chai flavor was very strong. The cake was very moist, and the frosting was beautifully ginger-flavored. I will definitely be making this recipe again! You should try it.

Update: I've just entered this blog entry into the Sugar High Fridays Challenge #41... yay! I think I'm getting the hang of this "Intra-net" thing; I'm so excited... this is my first ever entry into a blog event! See the details here: http://www.ismyblogburning.com/events/sugar-high-friday-41-sweet-gifts/ or for the original post click http://www.giftbb.com/sugar-high-friday-41-sweet-gifts/
Oh, and the bake sale was a success. My friend mentioned that my cupcakes were the first to sell-out! I'm not sure what I'm most proud of, being the first to sell-out my goodies or helping out the University... hmmm, tough one :P