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This week I decided to use up some chai spiced teabags. Which makes for a really quick and simple way to get flavour without grinding up the actual spices needed. You could of course substitute the teabags for the combination of spices needed to make chai tea. Infusing the teabags in the milk before adding it to the cake mixture adds a very subtle and warm spiced flavour to the cupcake. The frosting has pineapple chunks blended down to a purée and added to the buttercream frosting. As promised, there is also a recipe for sugarpaste which I made the cameo's with. I found that the sugarpaste was a great consistency to work with and was a really good made at home alternative to shop bought sugarpaste. Feedback from tasters this week were that the cake was crumbly and a little dryer in texture but one of the best they have tasted!

For the spiced chai cupcakes:

You will need:

Large mixing bowl

Electric whisk

Medium mixing bowl

Spatula

12 cup muffin baking tray 12 muffin paper cases Teaspoon

Tablespoon

Saucepan

Measuring jug

Ingredients:

125g butter or margarine

125g sugar

250g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 medium sized eggs

150ml milk

x6 spiced chai teabags

Turn on the oven and set to 180°

Place the teabags along with the milk into the saucepan and place on the hob on a medium to high heat and bring to the boil, turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Place the butter and sugar in the large mixing bowl, use the spatula to blend the butter and sugar together, beating until pale in colour, creamy, light and fluffy in texture. Remove the teabags from the milk and add to the butter and sugar with half of the flour, combine using the spatula to fold in the flour and milk. In the other mixing bowl, whisk the 3 eggs using the electric whisk on a high speed setting until almost 5 times their original volume. The eggs will become pale and thick. Add the remaining flour, baking powder and a third of the egg mixture. Fold in the ingredients using the spatula, when the ingredients are combined, add the remaining egg and fold in lightly.

Using the tablespoon, place a spoonful of the mixture in each of the muffin cases and bake for approx 30-40 minutes, checking their progress at around 30 minutes into cooking time. The cakes should be risen with a perfect mound formation taking shape on the top and golden in colour. You can always test by inserting a clean skewer into one of the cakes, if it comes out clean they are ready, if not return to the oven checking with the skewer again at 5 minute intervals. (Always really important never to open the oven door and allow any air in before 25-30 minutes of cooking as this will allow for the mixture to 'drop' and sink, look through the oven door if you have one that's made of glass to visually check on their progress rather than open the door).

Once baked, remove from the oven using oven gloves and allow to cool completely. (You can remove them from their muffin tray and place on a wire rack to cool to avoid any further cooking or any sweating). You can always just remove the cupcakes from their muffin tray cups and place them on the small spaces between the cups on the tray to stand and cool.

For the Frosting: 

You will need:

Food processor

Piping bag

Spatula

Medium closed star nozzle

Ingredients:

750g icing sugar

75g butter

250g drained tinned pineapple in natural juices

Drain the the pineapple of any excess juice and place in the food processor, pulse blitz on a high speed setting until a purée and no lumps are visible. Add the butter and icing sugar and pulse blitz on a slow speed setting for a short while to roughly incorporate. Switch the machine off, remove the lid and use the spatula to scrape any dry or unmixed ingredients towards the centre of the mixing bowl. Replace the lid, turn the machine back on and pulse blitz on a high speed setting until a smooth piping consistency is achieved.

Using the spatula to remove the frosting from the food processor, fill your piping bag ready with your medium closed star nozzle.

Pipe in a circular motion starting at an outer edge of the top of the cupcake, working your way inwards towards the centre applying even pressure and graduating the circle upwards as you go to finally finish off in the centre by stopping the flow of frosting and pulling the piping bag up and away from the cupcake. Repeat for all the remaining cupcakes.

For the sugarpaste (Makes up a quantity of 1kg - This recipe only requires a quantity of 250g):

You will need:

Large bowl

Spatula or palette knife

Silicone Cameo Mould from issue 8

Small knife

Small clean paint brush

Ingredients:

1kg icing sugar

140g liquid glucose

2 tablespoons glycerine

1 sachet powdered gelatine (Enough to set 575ml)

1-2 teaspoons of almond extract

4 tablespoons hot water

Few drops of vodka

Edible dusting powders; Blue, silver, black, red, peach and brown

Make up the gelatine using 4 tablespoons of hot water and allow to rest for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes of resting, the gelatine will expand and this is a good indication it is ready. Add the liquid glucose, glycerine, almond extract to the gelatine and stir well until a glossy and well combined syrup is formed. Place the icing sugar in a large bowl and add the syrup to the icing sugar. Stir well using a palette knife or spatula until the mixture comes together. There maybe a small amount of dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl, this is normal. Turn out the mixture onto a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and knead the suagrpaste until it becomes a solid ball without being too dry or too wet. I used this recipe and the ingredients amounts were exacting, giving a really perfect consistency of sugarpaste to work with.

Cut off approximately 250g to work with and wrap the remaining sugarpaste well in cling film and then place in an air tight container or plastic bag and store for future use. It will keep well if wrapped properly for at least a month, maybe a little longer. Use your silicone cameo mould from issue 8, dust the inside lightly with a small amount of icing sugar and fill the mould with an oval shaped piece of sugarpaste roughly the same size as the mould. Press down on the back of the mould, pushing the sugarpaste into it to make sure that all the details have made their impression on the sugarpaste. I found that dusting the silicone mould inside with icing sugar allowed for the cameo to be pushed out with ease, although I did have to keep washing the mould after each use and dry it to use it again. You could always use a little amount of vegetable oil to lightly grease the mould which will also allow an easy release of the sugarpaste cameo. Repeat until you have 12 toppers trimming any excess sugarpaste using a small knife.

Using a saucer or a mixer palette. Add a few drops of vodka to the centre. (I use any white spirit as a replacement for the alcohol that can be purchased from the shops and find it to be a good alternative. Position the 5 colours of edible dusting powder around the vodka away from the centre on the drier outer edges of the plate. Dip the paint brush in the alcohol and then peach edible dusting powder you are going to paint with first. Draw any liquid alcohol needed using the brush, rather than adding directly to the powder. Once you have mixed a little colour and are ready to paint, paint the face and around the neck. Rinse the brush clean with each colour change and repeat for the blue around the chest area for her top, with the silver for the beaded necklace, the black for the eye and eyebrow, the reddy brown for the hair and silver for the background. Repeat for all 12 and allow to dry. Once the toppers have dried, you can place one on top of each of the cupcakes ready to be served. Enjoy! I hope you enjoy this recipe and look our for next week's post. Until next week! Happy Baking!