Cupcakes
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by Jessica January 20, 2016
If you’ve actively been looking to break your resolution, I’m going to sell you right now.
One peek below into this swirly vanilla chai batter and we’re all done for. It’s OVER people.
Half of me wants to scoop this into a mug and drink it.
The other half doesn’t want to die from salmonella or, well… drink batter.
Also, I can’t stop typing “chair” instead of “chai.” My fingers automatically hit the R. I’m conditioned!
These cupcakes are so super fluffy and filled with tons of warming spice. It’s like a big mug of tea in cake. A big hug in a mug in a cake. Covered with an icing hat. The flavor is one that I didn’t have much interest in until I took a gigantic bite.
And died.
Also, is brown buttercream a thing? Should it be brown butter buttercream? I wanted to call it brown buttercream but thought you’d freak out and think that it was (or supposed be) brown. Which I suppose is not terrible since chocolate is brown. But still!
Regardless, the icing is made with brown butter. Shocking at this point, I know. So it’s made with brown butter, then covered in a crunchy sugar chai sprinkle. The coarse raw sugar adds the most wonderful texture on top of the fluffy buttercream cloud!
Like, hello: can I feel that crunch and fluff with everything I eat?
The best part is that I’ve never even cared about chai. It was never one of my beverages of choice, but after making these chewy chai snickerdoodles this past fall, I have changed my tune. I want everything chai. Especially loaded with sugar.
ALSO. This is the cupcake that I shared on my Tuesday Things post last week! Suspense is now over. A bunch of you have been asking and I have been a terrible person for ignoring you. Or, I just transferred the written recipe into an electronic version less than twelve hours ago because I’m struggling to get my life together. That’s real talkright there.
Now I know it’s still January and all but there are TONS of reasons that you might need a cupcake recipe, like a playoff football game, the superbowl, fat Tuesday or just this coming Friday night. When a blizzard hits. Be prepared. I personally choose the last option.
I know. This is your shocked face.
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Total Time: 1 hour hr
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4.96 from 62 votes
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Ingredients
cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purposeflour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg white
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup whole milk
frosting
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, browned and cooled to solid room temp
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon groundallspice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
crunchy sugar topping
- 1/4 cup raw sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Set it aside.
Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat it until creamy. Add the sugar and beat with the butter on high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Add in the oil and vanilla extract, beating on medium speed for another minute. With the mixer on low speed, add in half of the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk. Add in the other half of the dry ingredients and mix them on medium speed until the batter is combined.
Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full. Bake until the tops are set, about 16 to 17minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
frosting
Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until creamy. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the sugar. Add in the ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and allspice. Beat until the sugar is incorporated and add the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Beat the frosting on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy and creamy. If the frosting seems too thick, beat in the tablespoon of milk for 1 to 2 minutes until combined.
Frost the cupcakes once cooled. To make the crunchy sugar topping, stir together the raw sugar with the cinnamon and cardamom. Sprinkle on top of the frosting!
Notes
[cake frommy confetti cupcake recipe, chai spice fromchewy snickerdoodles!]
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Did you make this recipe?
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But can you even?!
posted in: Cupcakes, Recipes 85 comments
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4.96 from 62 votes (56 ratings without comment)
Leave a Reply
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Kim — Reply
These are DELICIOUS! Thank you for posting! Made these to celebrate Mother Teresa’s canonization! PERFECT!
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Jessica Wilson — Reply
Oh, no………you have got to be kidding me! This is definitely a way to break my resolution!
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Amanda — Reply
Hi there! The amount of milk in this recipe confuses me. Should I choose between 1/3 and 1/2 cup? Thanks!
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Shelly — Reply
My husband and I are huge chai latte lovers. For Christmas he gave me a jar of King Arthur’s Chai spice. So last night I decided to put it to use. I found your recipe after looking at many others, and decided it looked like the best one to try.
I tweaked it a little by using 3 teaspoons of the chai spice instead of all of the different spices. My husband who is not a cupcake fan, actually loved them. I also did a regular buttercream and used eggnog instead of milk and added 1/4 tsp of the chai spice to it. It was amazing. Thanks for sharing your recipe. -
Meeea — Reply
Thank you so much for the spice mix recipe! The flavour and proportion of the spices are perfect and it means I’m not dependent on chai spice tea bags or commercial chai mix to make a chai spice cake. I added the spice to my favourite vanilla cake recipe and steeped 3 tea bags in some hot milk and then cooled it before using it in the cake. Definitely a keeper. Thanks again.
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Lucy — Reply
Would I be able to make this as two 6-inch rounds, and if so, do you have a suggested baking time? Thank you!
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Emily — Reply
This is my favourite cupcake recipe of all time. I’ve made it countless times, and it works perfectly even with shonky rental ovens. Delicious, unique and reliable. Thank you so much.
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mary — Reply
I saw this and thought oh my yes I want to make those, kept scrolling getting exited to make them and then looking at the recipe absolutely not a drop of Chai in the recipe only spices. very disappointing will keep looking for a recipe that has chai tea in the recipe.
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Jessica — Reply
chai tea is “chai” because of spices… not tea? chai tea is black tea with chai spices. all of those spices are in these cupcakes. they are called chai cupcakes, not chai tea cupcakes. the are full chai spice, but they do not have tea in them. hence the name!
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Jojo —
Oh Mary & Jessica, I chuckled when I read your responses. First of all, ‘chai tea’ is a redundancy since the word chai means tea. In essence one is saying ‘tea tea’ when referring to this beverage as chai tea. All those spices DO comprise the ingredients that are generally used to make chai. As an aside, chai is commonly made with black tea, but others are popular as well – white, green, etc.
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Candice — Reply
I made these and I love Chai. These have all the flavors of chai and the frosting is sensational. Foolish to pass them by! They are delish!
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Candice — Reply
I made these in mini cupcake form for a Moms Night Out event for 50 women and everyone was in love with these! Now my daughter wants her bday cake with this recipe! Thank you for a great recipe! Love it!
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Helena — Reply
Loved!
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sigrid — Reply
hey there! was wondering if i could replace the sugar in the frosting wiht honey. do you have any tips?
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Pingback: chai cupcakes with brown butter chai frosting | Husbands That Cook
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Sarah — Reply
These were amazing, the only thing is I added way more of the spices cuz the flavor at first was way too light. didn’t have a strong chai flavor. but doubling the spices gave it the chai spice flavor I was looking for. Same with the frosting. I will say the browned butter really was the clincher for this! the nuttiness it brought put these cupcakes over the top amazing. will definitely be using this recipe again.
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fahriea — Reply
This looks great. Yet to try as I’m not sure what the butter quantity is for the frosting. It is 1 cup and two sticks or just one cup?
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Jane — Reply
Cupcakes were very dry, frosting was delicious with great flavor. Would definitely make the frosting again, but tweak the cake recipe.
