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Darcie Bakes //

April 25, 2015

{Homemade} Cinnamon Animal Crackers.

animalcrackerscover

Homemade animal crackers?! Yes, it can be done. All you need are some cookie cutters shaped like animals – preferably these circus animal plunger cookie cutters – and some good quality dough.

headlesslion
{The lions are my favorite, so I ate its head. Don’t mind my #ratchet nail polish job.}

threeanimals

If you do purchase the plunger cutters [which I would recommend, since they’re fun circus animal shapes, just like the store bought ones!], here are all of your animal shape options: a giraffe, a tiger, an elephant, a lion, and last but not least, a seal!

giraffetigerelephantlionsealEmbarrassing food blogger confession: I have actually owned these circus animal cutters for several years. But I only used them once or twice with some unsuccessful animal cracker recipes. Once I moved to a different apartment in St. Louis and gained a roommate who also likes to bake, I realized that she and I had the exact same cutter set. She was using them a lot to make homemade animal crackers, so I thought, “Why on earth haven’t I tried to make more animal crackers? This is silly!” So I decided to put them to use once again.

Dani has tested so many animal cracker recipes that she has created her own recipe, known as “Danimal crackers.” [Get it?! Haha.] Her cinnamon animal cracker recipe is my favorite, so I decided to start testing out my animal crackers with this recipe.

animalcrackers
{Tiger on the far left is all up on that lion. RAWR!}

The dough is easy to work with, and these babies keep practically forever. I used butter in the first recipe, just because I’m a fan of real butter, y’all [Paula Deen voice]. However, Dani says that she prefers to use shortening since it has less of a flavor – which gives them more of that typical animal cracker taste, and less of a “cookie taste.” I love adding cinnamon to them because, well, I love cinnamon. But you can leave out the cinnamon if you’re looking for more of a stereotypical animal cracker taste. Also, the mace is what really gives them their signature flavor, so try to use it if you can find it.

As for the cutters, they work pretty well. Sometimes the dough can get stuck in the intricate parts of the cutters. To prevent that, you just need to make sure that the dough is lightly floured and that the cutters have been floured before cutting out your shapes. Personally, I love that the plunger part of the cutter adds some intricate detail to the cookies, without being overly complicated. Aren’t these just the most fun?! Kids and adults will both love them, and they’re a great, easy-to-make snack. They also taste way better than their store bought counterparts, but that should be a given.

animalcrackerpile
{It’s a pile o’ animal crackers! That’s my kind of pile.}

Special thanks to Dani for tirelessly testing out at least fifteen versions of animal crackers! I will definitely try more variations and post them here in the near future. 🙂

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Homemade Cinnamon Animal Crackers.
Yield:
It varies; it all depends on how large and thick you cut out your crackers. I’d say I got about 40-50 animal crackers.

Ingredients:
– 6 TBSP. unsalted butter, at room temperature [Or shortening if you want less of a “cookie taste” – I used butter in this batch.]
– 1/2 cup granulated sugar
– 8 oz. all-purpose flour
– 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
– 1/8 tsp. ground mace [Note: You should be able to find this at spice specialty stores if you can’t find it at your local grocery store.]
– 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 1/2 tsp. baking soda
– 2 TBSP. corn syrup
– 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 large egg

Instructions:
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment [or with an electric hand mixer, or you can do this by hand], beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Add the egg, vanilla, and corn syrup to the butter/sugar mixture, and beat until combined.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined.
5. Form the dough into a flat disc, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate to chill and rest dough for at least an hour.
6. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Roll out chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface, and cut into animal cracker shapes. {Note: You may need to lightly flour the cutters as well to prevent the dough from sticking and tearing.
7. Place shapes on the prepared baking sheets, and bake for about 9-11 minutes. My animal crackers were still pretty soft; they had the texture of a softer graham cracker. You may bake them longer depending on how thick they are and how crunchy you want them to be. Enjoy! Animal crackers will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about two weeks to a month. You may also freeze for longer term use.

*Side Note: To clean the intricate parts of the cutters more easily, use a toothpick to pick out the dough that’s gotten stuck as you wash them with soap and warm water.

– Recipe from Dani, my roommate!
– Circus animal plunger cookie cutters from Chicago Metallic Bakeware.

Obligatory Disclaimer: I’m not being compensated for talking about these cookie cutters. I have just had them for quite awhile, and I like them. Kthx. 

Leave a Comment Filed Under: animal crackers, cinnamon, snacks

April 18, 2015

Giant Cinnamon Rolls.

daffodilrolls
{Yay for cheery daffodils from the Missouri Botanical Garden + fresh, giant, delicious cinnamon rolls!}

I’m in a pretty straightforward mood today. So let me just get straight to the point with this blog post: I’m pretty sure that these are the best cinnamon rolls I have ever made. Yes, I realize that was a bold statement. But – not to brag – I have made a few cinnamon rolls in my day, and these take the cake [err, take the roll?].

cinnrolls_preiced

These mofos are huge, as you can clearly see. They are filled with layers upon layers of buttery, delicious, sugary, cinnamon-y swirls. The brown sugar in the filling is probably my favorite part; I absolutely love how it tastes with cinnamon. There is also just a tad bit of cocoa powder in the filling, which I think just deepens the delicious filling even more. The dough is also great; yeast doughs can be tricky, and sometimes lackluster. But I really liked the dough for these.

cinnrollsiced
And that vanilla bean cream cheese frosting? *Homer Simpson drool/gurgle noises* It’s so creamy and delicious. I would bathe in it. [Sorry/not sorry for that visual.]

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I made them for Easter Sunday, which was definitely a wise choice. But I’d make them again at any time. You can even let the dough do its first rise; form the rolls, let them rise a bit more, then place them in the fridge overnight. Take them out in the morning, allow them to rise for about 30-60 minutes, then bake in the morning. And be everyone’s breakfast hero. Either way, just make these giant cinnamon rolls. They’re worth it. {The only downside is that you might be in a sugar/carbs coma after eating one. YOLO.}

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Giant Cinnamon Rolls.
Yield:
Two 9×13″ pans of GIANT cinnamon rolls (total 12 large rolls).

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
– 1 and 1/2 cups whole milk
– 1/2 cup half & half
– 6 tsp. active dry yeast [about three packets]
– 1/2 cup plus 1 TBSP. granulated sugar
– 8 TBSP. unsalted butter, melted
– 1 whole egg
– 2 egg yolks
– 1 TBSP. pure vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
– 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
– 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 1 1/2 tsp. salt

For the Cinnamon Sugar Filling:
–
16 TBSP. salted butter, softened to room temp. [You can also use unsalted if you like.]
– 1/2 cup granulated sugar
– 1/2 cup light brown sugar
– 1/2 cup ground cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp. unsweetened, plain baking cocoa
For the Frosting:
–
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
– 8 TBSP. unsalated butter, softened
– 1/2 cup heavy cream
– 3 cups powdered sugar
– 1 TBSP. pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
– 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:
1. Begin heating the milk and half & half in a saucepan. Heat until it reaches about 105 degrees F [use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature].
2. Remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly if it got a bit too hot [you don’t want to kill the yeast]. Add the yeast and one tablespoon of granulated sugar. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Melt the butter, and mix it into the yeast mixture. Add the whole egg and egg yolks, and the vanilla, then mix well.
4. Sift together the dry ingredients together, and set aside.
5. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Next, add half of the dry ingredients, and combine slowly. Add remaining dry ingredients, and combine with a dough hook for five minutes. [*Note: You can also knead for about 6-8 minutes by hand, if you do not have a stand mixer.] Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover it. Allow the dough to rest and rise for about 1.5 hours.
6. Once the dough has rested for an adequate amount of time and doubled in size, divide the dough in half. Turn it out onto a large floured surface [e.g. a clean counter top]. Roll each half into a large, thin rectangle, about 1/4″ thick. For these rolls, we want very thin layers so that the individual rolls will have more layers.
7. When you have one half of the dough rolled out, spread half of the softened butter all over the entire rectangle. Combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Sprinkle half of this mixture over the buttered dough.
8. Carefully roll the dough, being sure that it’s rolling tightly, so that it forms a long roll. Measure the dough and divide it into six even pieces. Place the rolls cut side down into a sprayed 9×13″ pan. [Note: They will look a bit tall and odd in the pan; this is normal.]
9. Once you’re done with the first pan, repeat the same process for the second pan of rolls. Cover the pans in plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rest/rise for about an hour.
10. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Bake the rolls until golden, about thirty minutes. Remove the pans and cool on a wire cooling rack.
11. While the rolls are cooling, combine the cream cheese, butter, and heavy cream in a mixer bowl. Mix until sooth. Sift the powdered sugar, and add it, the salt, and vanilla. Mix until smooth, and top the cinnamon rolls with your frosting. Enjoy!

– Recipe from Southern FATTY.

2 Comments Filed Under: bread, breakfast, cinnamon, cinnamon rolls, yeast dough

February 21, 2015

Cinnamon Chip Scones.

cinnscones_cover

Oh man.

I don’t even know where to begin with these scones. You see, cinnamon chip scones and I go wayyy back.

I’d even say that cinnamon chip scones are my homies. Yeah, I went there. Inanimate, edible objects are my friends.

Now you probably think I’m a weirdo for talking about scones as if they’re people. But these scones… Oh man.

I guess I’ll just go back to the beginning and explain myself so that you stop thinking I’m weird… [I mean, I am kinda weird, but who isn’t?]

sconescloseupSo… When I said cinnamon chip scones and I go way back, I really meant it. These cinnamon chip eggnog scones from King Arthur Flour were the first scones I ever made. If my memory serves me correctly, I first made these during Christmas break from college in 2011. I was immediately blown away by how good they were then, and I recall even my mom saying that they were good enough to be in a bakery. Yes, they’re that good.

stackedscones

The original scone recipe is probably meant to make the scones more of a seasonal thing; they use eggnog in place of the usual heavy cream. But screw seasonal desserts; I make these mofos year round. Since eggnog and cinnamon chips are virtually impossible to find in the middle of summer, I have made a few alterations to the original recipe so that I can make these scones whenever the heck I want.

sconeview2These scones rise beautifully and are relatively soft and moist [for a scone, anyway]. They are bursting with cinnamon flavor, and the turbinado sugar coating adds an awesome crunch once they’re baked.

sconepieceYou should seriously consider making these scones, even if it’s in the middle of winter. And then make them again around Christmas with eggnog too. They’re totally worth it.

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Cinnamon Chip Scones.

Ingredients:
For the scone dough:
– 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
– 1/4 cup granulated sugar
– 3/4 tsp. salt
– 1 TBS. baking powder
– 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
– 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pats or small cubes
– 1 to 2 cups cinnamon chips {I get mine from King Arthur Flour, but Hershey’s also makes them.}
– 1 large egg
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon eggnog flavor
– 3/4 cup cold heavy cream [or eggnog if you can find it]

 For the topping:
– 1 TBS. heavy cream or eggnog
– 2 TBS. turbinado sugar

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg.
2. Add the cubes of butter to the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is mostly incorporated within, and pea-sized crumb-like dough is formed. Mix in the cinnamon chips.
3. Measure the heavy cream in a glass measuring cup. Add the egg and vanilla, and whisk until combined.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until a dough forms. You may need to add more heavy cream to get it to come together.
5. Once the dough has come together, dump it out on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough until it’s about 3/4″ thick. Either roll into a circle and cut wedges, or cut circles out.
6. Place scones on a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Brush with extra heavy cream, then top with turbinado sugar.
7. For best texture and rising, cover prepared scones and freeze for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 (I usually only need mine at about 420) degrees F, uncover scones and place in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside but still soft on the inside. Enjoy!

– Recipe barely adapted from King Arthur Flour.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: breakfast, cinnamon, scones

November 16, 2014

The [Sorta Great] Homemade Poptart Experiment.

As a kid, I had a very – shall we say – particular method for eating Poptarts. I’ve never been a picky eater, but I just have some strange requirements for consuming certain foods, Poptarts included.

Here were my three mandatory requirements for eating Poptarts when I was a child:

01. I would only eat them un-iced. For some reason, that frosting squicked me out.
02. They absolutely had to be toasted. No raw Poptarts for me; that would make for a desert in my mouth. No me gusta.
03. And my final criterion for Poptarts was that they had to be slathered with a smear of melted real butter [no margarine, eww].

Looking back at my requirements for eating Poptarts makes me laugh now. I haven’t had a Poptart in years. And now, I’m not even sure I’d want to buy a box of them. If my kid self wasn’t too keen on them, I think it’s safe to say that my adult “foodie” self wouldn’t be a fan.

poptarts_coverHomemade Poptarts, though? Count me in!
My roommate and I decided that these homemade Poptarts were going to be our second Roommate Baking Endeavor [it’s a thing now, you know – see our Great Fried Doughnut Experiment post]. And man, was it an experiment. I made the title of this post “[sorta great],” because well, to be honest, these poptarts have a bit of a learning curve. Dani and I made strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon poptarts for our first attempt, and I will share the results plus the recipe with you further on down in this post.

These poptarts are not like the thicker, jam-filled “pop tartlettes” you can often find in bakeries. Of course, those are delicious in their own right [I love getting them from Whisk Bakery, here in STL when I have the chance!]. But the purpose of these homemade poptarts is to essentially mimic the “real” thing.

That plain, thin, flaky crust, with just a thin spread of fruit filling: that’s what these dudes are all about. While they’re not exactly what I’d call healthy [although there is fruit in the strawberry ones, so that has to count for something, right?], they were fun to make. As aforementioned, they definitely have a bit of a learning curve, even to seasoned bakers such as Dani and myself. We struggled with the dough, and we had some trouble with the strawberry filling being too dry, and not “paste-like.”

strawberry
brnsugarcinnDespite our struggles, the end results were tasty, and I have to say that they’re much better than Kellogg’s poptarts. I know that’s a pretty bold statement, but our goal here was to conquer another baking experiment, and we did succeed with that. I’m not sure if I’d ever make them again, but it was pretty fun. Oh yeah, plus it’s excellent fun to tell people that you made homemade poptarts, and their reaction is an amusing combination of intrigue/confusion. 😀 Yes, kids. It CAN be done. And the best part is that these poptarts can easily be veganized and/or made gluten-free! Yay! Homemade poptarts for errybody!

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Homemade Poptarts // Strawberry + Brown Sugar Cinnamon

Ingredients:

For the dough:
10 oz. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
8 oz. cold, unsalted butter, cubed (use shortening for vegan)
6 oz. corn syrup

For the icing:
12 oz. powdered sugar
2 egg whites (use corn syrup for vegan)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
(add cinnamon to the frosting for the brown sugar cinnamon poptarts, if desired)

For the strawberry filling:
2 oz. of freeze-dried strawberries
4 oz. dried pear
4 oz. dried apple (we could only find dried apples, so we used 8 oz. of apples and omitted the pears… you can find these dried fruits at Trader Joe’s)
1 oz. corn syrup

For the brown sugar cinnamon filling:
3 oz. fresh bread crumbs (GF bread crumbs work perfectly too)
1 oz. unsalted butter, melted (use shortening (or probably Earth Balance) for vegan)
4 oz. brown sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 oz. corn syrup
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt

**NOTE: The dough recipe above makes approximately twelve 3 1/8″ x 4″ poptarts, at 1/4″ thickness. Each filling recipe will fill those twelve poptarts. So we made two batches of the tart dough, two batches of icing, one batch of strawberry filling, and one batch of brown sugar cinnamon filling.

Instructions:

For the dough:
1. Carefully measure all the ingredients and pulverize in a food processor until a dough ball begins to form.
2. Remove the dough from the food processor, and pat together into a disk of dough. Wrap with plastic wrap, and allow to be chilled in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

For the strawberry filling:
1. Pulverize all the ingredients in your food processor (hopefully you cleaned it out after making the dough…) until a paste forms.
2. Roll out the fruit filling on a cutting board, and cut into rectangles that are slightly smaller than 3×4″ (so they’ll be a bit smaller than your dough rectangles). Set aside until ready to assemble the poptarts.

For the brown sugar cinnamon filling:
1. Pulverize all the ingredients in a clean food processor until you get a paste (it will be softer and more liquid-like than the fruit paste; this is normal). Set aside until ready to assemble poptarts.

Assembling the poptarts:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out chilled dough on a heavily floured surface until it’s 1/4″ thick. Cut into 3 1/8″ x 4″ rectangles.
2. Place dough rectangles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. For the strawberry poptarts, place a fruit rectangle on top of one piece of dough, then top that with another piece of dough.
3. Press the edges together, but don’t crimp them. The dough will naturally kind of seal itself together.
4. For the brown sugar cinnamon poptarts, place a tablespoon of the filling on top of the dough rectangles. Spread it out a bit, then top that with another rectangle of dough. Again, press the edges together, but don’t worry about going too crazy; it’ll seal itself like magic.
5. Bake the poptarts for about 20 minutes. Normally, I love golden brown everything, but the point of these poptarts is to mimic the real thing. So basically, they need to look borderline anemic. Allow to cool.

For the icing:
1. In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients until a thin icing is formed. Pipe the frosting around the edges of the cooled poptarts. You can pipe with a plastic Ziplock bag with the corner clipped off, or use a small piping bag and tip.
2. After piping around the edges, add some water to the frosting in the bowl and stir until it’s a thinner consistency. Pipe that thinner icing inside of the rectangle of icing you just piped. Spread until it evenly covers the top of the poptart.
3. Note: This frosting is pretty much just like royal icing, so if you know how it works, then you’ll be golden.

*BONUS* Notes + Tips from Dani and Darcie’s Test Kitchen:

– Make sure that the dough is chilled properly. This is non-negotiable. I like shortcuts as much as the next person, and I will admit that I find dough-chilling to be somewhat of a nuisance. But you can’t mess around with this dough. It needs to be chilled for at least 30 minutes, as the recipe says. You must also work with it while it’s still chilled. This dough is a bit difficult to work with, so don’t mess around with it, or you’re gonna have a bad time.
– Use a bunch of flour or powdered sugar when rolling out the dough. This is also non-negotiable. As I said, the dough is kind of sticky and can be difficult to work with. Rolling it out with either powdered sugar or flour will make your life so much easier.
– Don’t overstuff the dough with the filling. It’ll make them spread and then your poptarts will be deformed and weird-looking (kind of like ours, but hey, can’t always be perfect).
– For us, the strawberry filling was a bit drier than we anticipated. Freeze-dried strawberries have absolutely no moisture. Dried apples have some moisture, but we found that it was difficult to get that proper “paste” for the fruit filling. We tried adding water and more corn syrup, which helped a bit.
– Using a food processor for this made life easier. You could certainly mash/mix everything by hand, with an electric mixer, or with a stand mixer. But honestly? Pulverizing everything in the food processor was much easier. Minus cleaning up the sticky fruit paste, that is. 
– A food scale is very useful for this project. Here’s an embarrassing baker’s confession for ya: despite the fact that I own a food scale, I have never used one for baking. I have always relied on measuring cups, and for some silly reason, the numbers intimidated me. However, the recipe’s source suggests just weighing everything by ounces, and she was right: it is a lot easier and perhaps a bit more foolproof. I’d recommend trying it out if you can.
– Poptarts really are better when eaten on the second day. Brave Tart was right again: they are better on the second day! Who knew.

– Dough and icing recipe can be found here, from Brave Tart.
– Filling recipes also from Brave Tart.

datbrickwalldoe
I drank pineapple-banana-orange juice with mine, but I guess you could drink milk with yours. I’m just one of those weird people who hates cow’s milk.

PS: Thanks for getting this far and reading this novel of a post! You go, Glen Coco.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: breakfast, brown sugar, cinnamon, poptarts, strawberry

November 6, 2014

Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Chai Spiced Buttercream.

chaicupcakes1 copy
Okay so, I absolutely LOVE everything chai. Chai lattes. Iced dirty chai lattes. [*With just one shot of espresso, because any more than one makes me hyper… and I’m not a hyper person by nature. Yikes.] Pumpkin chai tea. Plain chai tea.
You name it – if it involves chai – I adore it. But so far, I’ve only really had it in drink form. Then I stumbled across these chai spiced cupcakes with chai buttercream. Umm, clearly I knew I had to make these ASAP. So make them I did. And that was one of the better decisions I’ve ever made. I happily discovered that baking + chai = I am in heaven [more than I normally am with baking]. That’s a scientifically sound math equation if I ever saw one. 😉

eckopanThere’s really not that much to say about these. Chai flavors are just the shiznit, ya know? Cardamom, cinnamon, ginger… Yes. Because chai is obviously the shiznit, I think it goes without saying that these cupcakes are, by extension, also the shiznit [for you not-up-to-date-on-slang folks out there, “the shiznit” is a good thing].cornercupcakeThe cake is a fairly light, moist, white cake that’s bursting with the best chai flavors. And the frosting is your typical vanilla buttercream, only it also has the amazing chai flavors mixed in. And then if you wanna go real balls to the wall, you can add a sprinkling of cinnamon on top of them after you frost them. If you love chai drinks, and you like cupcakes… then these are clearly something that needs to be made. It’s just logical.

cupcake_windowsill

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Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Chai Buttercream

Yield: If my memory serves me correctly, this recipe makes about sixteen to eighteen cupcakes. 

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes:
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
cinnamon, for topping

Instructions:

Make the Cupcakes!
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners [pretty gold ones would be super pretty for these!].
2. Make the chai spice mixture: combine the ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside for later use.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment [or a large bowl, using a hand mixer], cream together the butter and granulated sugar until they’re light and fluffy. Add in the egg and the vanilla, and scrape down the bowl as necessary until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. of the reserved chai spice mixture [note: remember, you’re only using 1 and 1/2 tsp. of the mixture – DON’T dump the whole thing in, or you’ll have an overload of chai spices in your cupcakes].
5. Alternate adding the flour/spice mixture and the milk, and beat the batter until just combined after each addition.
6. Fill the prepared muffin cups 2/3rds of the way full with the batter. Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes, or until a tester/toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes in the pan, then remove from the pans and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the Chai Frosting:
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until it’s lighter in color and fluffy.
2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, the remainder of your chai spice mixture, and vanilla extract.
3. Beat until it’s light and fluffy and ready for piping; add milk as necessary, until you reach the desired consistency.
4. Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes, and sprinkle the tops with cinnamon, if desired.

Recipe from Taste and Tell.

topviewcupcakes
Yeah, I totally took a picture of these cupcakes on my back deck. I’m wondering if my next door neighbors think I am nuts… #worthit

Leave a Comment Filed Under: cake cake cake, chai, cinnamon, cupcakes

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