Side-by-Side Baking, Tea Flavoured Sponge

• allowing the tea bags to infuse in butter.  This batch of cakes was made using a Victoria Sponge recipe and was topped with a tea flavoured buttercream;
• allowing the tea bags to infuse in milk.  These cupcakes were made from a muffin type recipe which mixes its dry and wet ingredients separately before combining the two.  These types of recipes usually have a good volume of milk to them thus lending itself nicely to my little experiment.  The cakes were topped with whipped cream which had been infused with tea;
• incorporating the actual tea leaves into the sponge batter.  This batch of cakes were also made from a Victoria Sponge recipe.  They were simply decorated with a water icing, the water coming from a pot of brewed black tea.

Firstly I shall address the tea infused in butter batch. 

• As the recipe calls for the tea bags to be allowed to steep in melted butter before solidifying, a relatively large amount of butter is actually 'lost' mainly through the teabag being saturated with it.  It is incredibly difficult to retain the quantity of butter that was started with.  In this recipe, which only made 3 decorated cupcakes, I started with 150g of butter and managed to reclaim 105g from the teabags, therefore losing 45g.  That equates to 30%.  Clearly 45g of lost butter isn't the end of the world, but if this recipe was scaled up significantly then a loss of 30% of butter starts to make the whole bake a more costly (and wasteful) affair.
• Another notable comment to make is the length of time it takes from starting to infuse the tea into the butter to arriving at a stage when the butter is solid enough to be suitable for baking with.  It's only around 30 - 45 minutes, but if you're looking for an ultra quick bake this clearly isn't the method for you.

Secondly, the tea infused in milk cupcakes.

• In a similar way to the butter method above, the milk volume was reduced during the infusion stage.  Possibly, though only slightly, due to evaporation, but mainly as a result of the bag holding onto the milk despite it being squeezed out gently.  This said, by percentage, less milk than butter was lost.
• These took far less time, in comparison to the butter ones, to prepare.  The  warmed infused milk only needed to return to being lukewarm before being used where as the butter needed to return to its solid state.
• The decoration used for this batch was a double cream which was infused with the Earl Grey tea.  Clearly the colour of tea permeated into the white cream and resulted in it having a slightly grey hue.

Next, we come to the cupcakes carrying the actual tea leaves.

• This was the quickest bake as it simply required the tea bag to be opened and the leaves scattered into the batter.
• Clearly, the sponge was liberally peppered with the leaves in a similar way to when baking with poppy seeds.
• As the leaves were fine in size they weren't noticeable during the eat.  Had they been larger the eater may have had to use a toothpick!

And finally, the taste results.

So let's get to it and bake!

Tea Infused in Butter Cupcakes.

See my recipe for Russian Caravan Cupcakes.

Tea Infused in Milk Cupcakes.     Yum

Yield: 5 muffin size cupcakes
Serves: 5
Difficulty: Easy
Time: hands on time 20 minutes; plus 20 minutes bake time; cooling time; steeping time
Freezable: Yes, undecorated

You will need:
2 Small Heavy Based Pan
Wooden Spoon
Electric Hand Held Beater
Sieve

Muffin size Paper Cases
Muffin Baking Tray
Balloon Whisk
Piping Bag
Piping Nozzle

For the flavoured milk
95ml Milk (we used full fat cow's milk)
1 Teabag (we used earl grey)

For the sponge mixture
24g Unsalted Butter, softened
70g SR Gluten Free Flour (or regular SR Flour), sieved
42g Golden Caster Sugar
41g Caster Sugar
Pinch Salt
70g Tea flavoured infused milk
1 medium Egg, lightly beaten

For the tea flavoured cream decoration
150ml Double Cream
1 Teabag (we used Earl Grey)
1-2 teaspoon Icing Sugar

Decoration
Chocolate Strands or Grated Chocolate

How to make them:
1.  Infuse the tea flavour into the milk and double cream.
Pour the milk and double cream into two separate small pans and add a teabag into each pan .  Set the pans over a low to medium heat and allow
the liquids to warm through and almost come to the boil. Periodically swirl the pans to diffuse the tea.  Turn off the
heat.   Allow the liquids to cool.  Gently squeeze out the tea bags, aiming to get more of the tea flavour into the milk and cream without breaking the bag.

2.  Pre-heat the oven to 190c / Fan 170c / Gas 5.  Place the muffin cases into the muffin tray.

3.  Make the sponge.  Place
the soft butter, flour, sugars and salt into a good sized bowl.  Use the electric handheld beater to mix the ingredients until the butter has been incorporated and the mixture is fine grains.  I'd recommend covering the bowl with a cloth to avoid creating a dust cloud during this step!  Measure 70ml of tea flavoured milk from the pan, and add the lightly beaten egg.  Pour the tea flavoured milky egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with the beaters until combined.  Avoid over beating.

4.  Fill the muffin cases.
Using a teaspoon, fill the cases with the batter mixture.  You're
aiming for them to be half to two-thirds full.  You may decide to weigh
each muffin to ensure equal sizes.  Each cupcake will weigh about 60g.

5.  Bake.
Place the muffin tray in the centre of the oven and bake for about 20
minutes.  You may need to rotate the tray after 15 minutes of
baking.   Once baked, remove from the oven and place on a cooling tray.

6.  Whip the double cream.  Pour the tea flavoured cream into a medium sized bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk until you achieve soft peaks.  Add a teaspoon of icing sugar to balance the flavour, adding a little more if you like.    Whip the cream again to combine.  Avoid over beating.   Spoon the whipped cream into a piping pag fitted with a star nozzle.

7.   Decorate the cupcakes.
Once the cupcakes are completely cold pipe a swirl of the tea flavoured cream onto the top of each cake.  Sprinkle with chocolate strands or grate over some chocolate.

Enjoy!

Tealeaf Cupcakes.     Yum

Yield: 3 muffin size cupcakes
Serves: 3
Difficulty: Easy
Time: hands on time 20 minutes; plus 20 minutes bake time; cooling time.
Freezable: Yes, undecorated

You will need:

Electric Hand Held Beater or WoodenSpoon
Sieve
Spatula or large Metal Spoon
Muffin size Paper Cases
Muffin Baking Tray

For the sponge mixture
45g Unsalted Butter
23g Golden Caster Sugar
22g Caster Sugar
1 Teabag (we used Earl Grey - ensure fine tea leaves)
1 Egg, lightly beaten
45g SR Gluten Free Flour (or regular SR flour), sieved
1 tablespoon milk

For the tea flavoured water icing
4 tablespoon Icing Sugar
1 Teabag (we used Earl Grey)
Boiling Water

Decoration
Chocolate Strands or Grated Chocolate

How to make them:
1.  Pre-heat the oven to 190c / Fan 170c / Gas 5.  Place the muffin cases into the muffin tray.

2.  Make the sponge.  Place
the soft butter and sugars into a good sized bowl and
beat together with a wooden spoon or electric beaters until very pale
and fluffy.  Open the teabag and add the leaves to the butter mixture. Mix again.   Gradually add the beaten egg a little at a time, beating
well after each addition.  Beat in the milk.  Sieve the flour into the
mixture.  Use a spatula or large metal spoon fold this in gently.

3.  Fill the muffin cases.
Using a teaspoon, fill the cases with the batter mixture.  You're
aiming for them to be half to two-thirds full.  You may decide to weigh
each muffin to ensure equal sizes.  Each cupcake will weigh about 60g.

4.  Bake.
Place the muffin tray in the centre of the oven and bake for about 20
minutes.  You may need to rotate the tray after 15 minutes of
baking.   Once baked, remove from the oven and place on a cooling tray.

5.  Make the tea flavoured water icing.
Using the teabag and boiling water brew a black cup of tea.  Place the icing sugar into a small bowl.  Add two teaspoons of the brewed tea and mix together.  Add a little more tea as necessary, the mixture should be quite thick.  Spoon a teaspoon of the water icing onto a cold cupcake.  Use the back of the spoon to gently spread the icing out to the edge of the cupcake.  Decorate the remaining cupcakes.  Sprinkle over chocolate strands or grate over a little chocolate.

Enjoy, with a good cup of tea of course 😉