Earl Grey Cupcakes

There's no better way to celebrate the start of Spring (and hopefully the beginning of better warmer weather!) than making, and eating, a batch of pretty cupcakes decorated with spring blossoms. Here's the recipe if you want to try them:

Earl grey cupcakes

• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cu[p caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups self-raising flour (sifted)
  
• 1/3 cup skimmed milk
• 2 earl grey teabags

Lemon buttercream

• 125g unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp skimmed milk
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of half a lemon
• yellow food colouring (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 160C (fan forced). Beat butter, vanilla extract, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with an electric mixer until mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and milk in 2-3 batches until the mixture is well combined. Lastly, stir through the tea leaves from the 2 teabags. Divide the mixture evenly between cupcake cases (fill cases no more than 2/3 full) and bake for 15-20 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.

To make the buttercream, beat butter and sugar on a slow speed for 5 minutes until the mixture is as white as possible. Beat in the milk, lemon juice and zest and mix well to a smooth but firm consistency. Add yellow food colouring if desired. Pipe swirls of buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes with a star nozzle (I used a wilton 2D), then add sugarpaste or royal icing decorations if desired. The cherry blossoms I used were made by piping pink royal icing petals with a #57 tip (let flowers dry completely before using them as decorations).

Happy baking!