Cupcake Heaven

My morning started off chatting with some lovely ladies on twitter about cupcakes.

For those of you who know me, you know I love cupcakes. If you don't, well..... I love cupcakes.



And if I haven't said it enough times yet, I love cupcakes.


So today I made vanilla chai cupcakes. Don't ask me for the recipe, because I don't have one. I hate recipes. I'm the anti-recipe. I'll tell you my method. Make your favorite vanilla cupcake batter.... just throw in a couple tablespoons of chai latte powder in with the flour. I used Oregon Chai... but you could use your favorite. (Pssst... if you are a box mix kind of lady, that's okay! Just throw in the couple tablespoons with all your other ingredients and mix away!) The cupcakes don't really taste that chai-y. They just have a hint of chai flavor. The frosting is where that lovely chai flavor explosion comes in.



How do I make frosting? I start with butter. UNSALTED! I mean you could use salted, if you like vaguely salty frosting. I do not, so I use unsalted. I use 3/4 of a pound... which is 3 sticks. Let 'em soften for awhile. If I get impatient, I throw them in the microwave, let 'em cook for 5 seconds, rotate, 5 seconds, rotate, until I'm satisfied with their softness. Throw them in the good old KitchenAid (if you don't have a KitchenAid you can't make cupcakes. Fact.) and let 'em whip away until they're almost white. WARNING! You will have to stop the mixer to scrape the bowl down a couple of times to get all the chunks out. (eeewh butter chunks...) When I'm satisfied with the smoothness, I throw in a couple teaspoons of vanilla. Then blend. Then I added 3 packets of Oregon Chai latte mix. Then blend. Then I just mix in heapings of powdered sugar until it's at a good piping consistency.



I use a giant pastry tip like THIS ONE! from BakeItPretty.com and just lightly swirl the frosting around the cupcake. I bought the cute pics at Hobby Lobby in the Valentine's section. The liners I bought on Etsy.