Delicately flavoured Earl Grey Lemon Cupcakes topped with tangy lemon Cream Cheese Frosting are another tasty addition to my Small Batch recipes. A simple to follow, easy to make recipe, the bergamot from the tea leaves provides a a beautiful fragrant, soft sponge that pairs beautifully with the citrus lemon.

I’ve been loving creating these small batch recipes for those living in small occupancy households during lockdown. Without the ability to visit family and friends or travel to work, it’s impossible for many to bake a multi layered 9 inch cake or 12 cupcakes. I’ve had lots of beautiful comments letting me know how useful these small batch recipes are, for which I’m so grateful for. As with all these recipes, they can be doubled to create a standard size batch to suit larger families.

Ingredients for earl grey cupcakes — 1. Ingredients

Steeping earl grey tea into milk — 1. Ingredients

Process Ingredient Shot — 4. Add egg & milk and mix

Cup cake batter spooned into muffin tray — 7. Spoon batter in cupcake case

What’s in these Earl Grey Lemon Cupcakes?

The ingredients within these cupcakes are pretty standard. The usual butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk, baking powder and salt.

What sets these apart are the Earl Grey Tea Leaves which transcend this cupcake to a thing of cupcake beauty. Can you tell I’m a fan of Earl Grey?! Seriously, its one of my favourite add ins to sweet treats and pairs so perfectly with blackberry, lemon and even chocolate.

If you love it too then make sure to have a look at my other three Earl Grey recipes on my website:

My recipe calls for half the tea leaves to be infused into the milk and the other half to be added straight into the sponge. I love the ground tea leaves to be in the actual sponge batter as it adds more texture and taste. If this isn’t your ‘thang’ then I recommend not cutting open the tea bag to release the leaves. Instead put the whole tea bags into the milk to steep. Then remove them just before adding the milk to the batter. You’ll get a slightly softer bergamot flavour but one that is delicious none-the-less.

For more small batch recipes please check out these favourites:

Salted Caramel Brownies

Gluten Free Orange and Almond Cake

Raspberry White Chocolate Pop Tarts

EARL GREY LEMON CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Author: Emma
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 18
Total Time: 33 minutes
Yield: 6 1x
Category: Cupcakes
Method: Baking
Cuisine: British

Description

Delicately flavoured earl grey cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting. A beautiful flavour combination for an easy to make, home-made cupcake recipe.

THIS SMALL BATCH RECIPE CAN BE DOUBLED IN SIZE TO MAKE A REGULAR SERVING SIZE OF 12 CUPCAKES

Scale

Ingredients

Earl Grey Cupcakes

4g ground earl grey tea leaves, (2 earl grey tea bags)

100ml milk

60g butter, softened

100g sugar

1 medium egg, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

120g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

30g butter, room temperature

70g cream cheese, room temperature

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1/4 teaspoon salt

180g icing sugar, sifted

Instructions

For the Earl Grey Cupcakes

Place the contents of one tea bag and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat and gently bring to a simmer. Place lid on the saucepan, remove pan from heat and set aside for the tea to ‘brew’.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F. Prepare the cupcake pan by placing the cupcake paper cases into the pan moulds.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, this takes about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat for a further two minutes. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. Fold in these dry ingredients along with the remaining earl grey tea leaves. Pour milk into the mixture and stir until combined.
Pour mixture into cupcake cases until 2/3 full. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat butter and cream cheese in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer for 3 minutes until well combined. Add lemon zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and salt and beat till mixed in. With your mixer on low, gradually add your icing sugar into the bowl until fully combined. If the icing is too thick then add more lemon juice and mix thoroughly. If the icing is too runny then thicken it up with ¼ cup of icing sugar at a time.
To decorate : Once the cupcakes are at room temperature, spoon cream cheese over each cupcake and sprinkle with more lemon zest.

Notes

If you prefer to not have the ground tea leaves in the batter, then place the two teabags straight into the milk and let them steep. When the recipe calls for the milk to be added to the batter then remove the teabags prior to pouring in the milk.

Keywords: Earl Grey Cupcakes, Afternoon Tea

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