Success with cupcakes!
Now, I’ve had one prior success with a muffin/cupcake recipe which turned out well as you may have seen, but unfortunately the next day the oil started to ooze out of the cupcakes, and by the third morning they were extremely dry and stale. Not impressive at all, I must admit that I was quite disappointed with Stephanie Alexander for providing such a recipe…
However, I’ve decided to tackle the beast again thanks to the purchase of my brand spankin’ new ‘500 Cupcakes’ cookbook, and so armed with a wooden spoon and rubber spatula, I led a full-scale assault on cupcake-land.
Now, there were two recipes which took my fancy - the recipe for chai cupcakes and the chocolate & chilli cupcakes, however I encountered a slight problem - I didn’t have the full set of ingredients for either, and only 1 stick of butter in the fridge (this was at 1am this morning and I definetely wasn’t about to head out to the service station to buy more butter!). So what else could I do but mish-mash the two with the hopes of a success.
It worked 
So, now without any further ado, I present to you Ellie’s Chocolate & Chai cupcakes 
It’s amazing watching this…
…turn into this
Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster (superfine) suger
225g self-raising flour
4 tbsp dutch-process cocoa powder
1 sachet instant chai-latte powder*
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
100g semi-sweet dark chocolate chips
*The book actually recommended using chai tea powder, but I couldn’t locate anything like this at the supermarket so I just bought that lipton’s instant chai latte stuff.
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C and line your muffin tray with cupcake papers.
2. Combine all the ingredients except the chai powder and milk and beat with an electric whisk till smooth. Heat the milk and dissolve the chai powder into it, then slowly add this to the mix whilst beating. When it’s combined, stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Spoon the batter into the cases, filling no more than halfway full. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or till a toothpick inserted into the cupcake comes out completely clean.
4. Remove, cool and enjoy
This recipe is AMAZING. The cupcakes turned out as light as air with a texture that was so smooth it was like biting into a cloud. They are very chocolatey without being overly sweet, and the chai powder added some warmth to the mixture, which I imagine would be similar to the effect of putting some chilli powder in the mix.
Now, these actually are meant to be enjoyed with an icing which I didn’t have enough butter to make, but here it is for anyone who is interested!
Ingredients
175g icing sugar, sifted
50g dutch-process cocoa powder
3 tbsp Tia Maria
115g unsalted butter, softened
Blend all together till smooth, then spread onto the completely cooled cupcakes!
Now, my parents recently opened their own business, and today was the official ‘opening’ where the Korean community was invited to come and celebrate the new space whilst it was being blessed by their priest. They’d asked me to make a few baked goodies and I immediately agreed. However, later whilst I was wondering what to bake, I asked how many people would be there and the answer was “Oh…about 30 to 50″. WHAT??? This is what led me to bake from 1am to 5:30am this morning…
Furthest to the top are the chocolate and chai cupcakes. In the middle are some financiers, and closest to the front are some carrot and walnut cupcakes I made from my carrot cake recipe.
And again, so you can witness the sheer amount of miniature baked goods!
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Comments
Ellie Lis - I am totally diggin cupcakes at the moment! I can’t believe how well they turned out, and they were devoured by the guests! Hurrah!
Thanks hon, the opening went really well and my parents were very happy 
jenjen Congratulations on your cupcake success. It looks great!
The last two photos remind me of a scene in The Stepford wives (remake) where Nicole Kidman’s character is busily making thousands of cupcakes to fit in with all the other stepford women.
Ellie Jenjen - hehehe, thanks, I was mighty proud of them little cocoa-y mounds! And now that you mention it, those last two do look insanely like the cupcake scene from Stepford Wives…thank goodness I hadn’t gone and iced them though, eh? I might’ve been up for a couple of hours more!
Bravo! Congratulations, my friend.. you rocked the cupcake! They look scrumptious and I love how you combined the two recipes to make one your own.. way to go!
Congrats to your parents as well.. I hope the opening is a smashing success!
*hugs*