Vanilla Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes

I love me some tasty chai. That warm, spicy, vanilla flavor is like a big hug on a cool fall day. I love translating great flavors into cupcakes. These would be great for a fall potluck or to pair with a cup of coffee.

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/3 cups vanilla soy milk
• 1 Tbsp loose OR 3 tea bags of Chai Spice tea
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Cream cheese frosting (purchased or I like this recipe)
• Cinnamon for garnish

 Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin with cupcake papers.
   
2. Heat soy milk in a small sauce pan over medium heat until it begins to bubble (keep an eye on the soy milk while you're warming it up as it's easy to scald it if it boils up too much). Remove from heat, add tea and cover. Allow to stand for approximately 10 minutes.
   
3. While the tea is steeping, sift the three kinds of flour together in a medium bowl and set aside.
   
4. When tea is done steeping, pour through a strainer (if using loose tea) or squeeze tea bags gently to retain as much liquid as possible. Measure out 1 1/4 cups of the tea milk. If you come up short, add more soy milk to equal 1 1/4 cup. Set aside.
5. Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer. With mixer still going, add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, salt and baking powder.
6. With mixer still running, add 1/3 of the tea milk, once incorporated, add 1/3 of the flour mixture. Alternate back and forth adding a portion of tea milk and then flour until all ingredients have been incorporated. Continue beating on low speed until batter is smooth and shiny.
7. Divide batter evenly between 24 baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
8. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. Add a generous dollop of frosting to the top of each cupcake to simulate foam on top of a hot latte. Garnish with a dash of cinnamon.

This is an original recipe designed for non-commercial use (bake sales are ok....if you own a cupcake shop or bakery and want to use my recipe, let's talk). This recipe is also available through my BakeSpace account.

I'm sharing this recipe with these great parties:

*Made by You Mondays on Skip to My Lou * DebbieDoo's Blogging and Blabbing * Get Your Craft On * Cast Party at The Lady Behind the Curtain * Permanent Posies * Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade * Blue Cricket Designs Show and Tell Party * What's Cooking Wednesday at The King's Court IV * Linkin' with Lil' Luna every Wednesday * Nothing But Country *

My recipe has since been featured on...