Chamomile tea cupcakes are the perfect afternoon treat, especially when they have delicious honey-citrus cream cheese buttercream on top! Delectably spongy little cakes, permeated with the noticeably soothing flavor of chamomile. And graced with just enough sweet honey-citrus cream cheese frosting to bring balance back into a week that has gone awry.
Chamomile tea possesses the amazing power to bring about serenity in even the hairiest of situations. Like when three of four kids have feverish-monster-colds that are threatening to turn into serious respiratory yuck? Just brew a cup of chamomile, and poof! All is right with the world.
Another cup of chamomile infused with honey can sugar-coat the fact that while the other boys are on the mend, the child that seemed to escape the business-end of the cold instead felt it rear its ugly head by percolating breakfast out his business end.
Let’s not forget the tranquility brought forth by a steamy mug of chamomile after trying to take said percolating-child to the doctor–only to discover that someone left a car door ajar, which necessitated a visit from a kind tow truck driver to jump-start the battery before travelling anywhere.
Ah, yes. Some weeks just beg for a calming cup of chamomile tea, or in this case, copious amounts of chamomile cupcakes.
The Sundays With Joy baking group is featuring a spin on Joy Wilson’s Mini Chamomile Cakes with Honey Frosting. The recipe comes from her tome, Joy the Baker Cookbook: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes.
Since it was most definitely a chamomile-with-honey kind of week, I doubled Joy’s recipe to yield more cupcakes, then modified it slightly by playing with the sugar and leavening ratios, and cutting back on the amount of tea in the batter. Once the delightfully fragrant cupcakes had cooled, I tweaked The Only Frosting You’ll Ever Need by adding honey with a few drops of King Arthur Flour’s Fiori di Sicilia extract. The slight orange tang imparted by the Fiori di Sicilia is the perfect compliment to the honeyed cream cheese frosting.
Chamomile tea cupcakes will fix your sweet tooth with a calm, peaceful dessert!
♥♥♥
Kirsten Kubert
Yields 24
Recipe adapted from the Joy the Baker’s “Mini Chamomile Cakes” by Joy Wilson
40 minPrep Time
20 minCook Time
1 hrTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 8 Tbs. (1/4 lb.) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 2/3 C. granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 C. 2% milk
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 ¾ tsp. baking powder
- ¾ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- The contents of 4 Tazo Calm chamomile teabags (or 4 Tbs. good quality, well ground chamomile tea)
- 1 Recipe The Only Frosting You’ll Ever Need , substituting 1 Tbs. honey and 2 drops of orange extract for the vanilla extract and milk.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until they have been well incorporated. Stir in the vanilla extract and the contents of the tea bags to distribute.
- In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, mixing well to incorporate. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly drizzle in half of the milk mixture, stirring until blended; scraping down sides of bowl, as necessary.
- Repeat the additions by adding another 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and ending with the last 1/3 of the flour mixture, stirring well in between each addition. Once all ingredients have been added, mix the batter on medium speed for one minute.
- Use a large (3 oz.) scoop to fill prepared muffin cups one-half of the way full of cake batter. Be careful not to over fill the cups, or the cupcake batter will expand over the cupcake liners and onto the pan while baking.
- Bake cupcakes in the preheated 350 degree oven for 18-20 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. A cake tester inserted in the centers should come out clean.
- Cool for 2 minutes in the pan, and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Once cool, frost the cupcakes with The Only Frosting You’ll Ever Need, substituting 1 Tbs. honey and 2 drops of King Arthur Flour’s Fiori di Sicilia, (or orange extract) for the vanilla extract and milk called for in the recipe.
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