I absolutely love chai. Ever since college, it is still hands-down my favorite drink to order at coffee shops. (And even lately – I’ve been experimenting with recipes making it at home!) Whether it’s cool and iced in the summer, or warm and cozy in the winter, a good chai is definitely my “comfort” food of the warm drink world!
So when I recently saw some chai cupcake recipes popping up on the blogosphere, I knew I had to give them a try. Then I also found out the theme for this week’s Holiday Recipe Exchange was vanilla, I figured this was the perfect week to try some vanilla chai cupakes – yum!
Unfortunately, to be honest, my first batch was a total disaster, thanks to accidentally adding just 1/2 cup flour instead of 1 1/4 cups flour. Arggggg. But thankfully once I actually followed the recipe, they were extraordinary! The vanilla and chai spice flavors are absolutely delicious, and the cupcakes came out with a perfectly light and fluffy texture. Then once they were iced with this simple but rich cinnamon buttercream…look out. Completely irresistible. :)
So if you love chai, you must give these a try!
Vanilla Chai Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. chai spice mix (recipe below)
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
Chai Spice Mix Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Buttercream Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade
- 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- remainder of the chai spice mix
- 1 Tbsp. cold milk, if needed to thin out the buttercream
Instructions
Cupcake Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a cupcake pan with liners.
- In a small bowl or plastic bag, combine the chai spice mix ingredients. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and beat in one egg at a time. Stir in 2 teaspoons of the chai spice mix. Fold in the flour and buttermilk alternately and stir until combined, don’t over mix. Mix together the baking soda and vinegar in a separate bowl, then add it to the batter and mix until combined.
- Spoon into prepared cupcake tins until 3/4 full and bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Buttercream Directions:
- In a stand mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy. On low, mix in the vanilla and the rest of the chai spice mix. Carefully beat in the powdered sugar about ½ cup at a time. If the buttercream is too thick add 1-2 tbs of cold milk until the desired consistency is reached. Then pipe onto cooled cupcakes with your favorite frosting tip. (I used a 1M Wilton tip.)
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Ali’s Tip:
I’ve mentioned this before, but an easy way to get perfectly sized cupcakes (and muffins!) is to scoop the dough into the muffin tins with an ice cream scoop. I like this one.
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Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Beanilla.
These look sooo yummy! Will give it a shot for sure! :-)
These look absolutely amazing! I want to try this recipe out for a couple of upcoming Christmas parties – how many cupcakes does one batch make?
Thanks again!
These sound delightful. I absolutely love chai and even have a chai biscotti recipe on my blog. Gorgeous cupcakes.
I made these last night. They are delicious and a huge hit with the fam! Thank you for the post and the inspiration!
Hi! I thought of something you might like. I was at a restaurant where they served Hot Apple Chaider (apple juice or apple cider, heated up with chai drink mix.) It’s AMAZING! I thought that these cupcakes would be delish as is OR with some tweaks to get the apple cider flavour. I can’t decide whether the cider flavour should go in the cupcake itself or in the icing (b/c honestly I can’t figure out how to make butter cream apple-ish) but your recipe has inspired me to test it out!! :)
What are those little decorative balls? Can anyone point me in the right direction? I really want to use something similar to decorate mine! They look wonderfully fancy. : )
These sound AMAZING!!!!!!!
Crazy world. I just made something very similar to these on the 11th. Mine are gluten free though. If you ever need a gluten free version, check ’em out. They were absolutely to die for. Rave reviews with the coworkers :)
https://goodbyegluten.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/chai-cupcakes/
I am a huge fan of coffee, but chai cupcakes I can get excited about! Thanx for the chai recipe – I always wondered what the flavors were! These look beautifully delicious!
oh my goodness…these sound like my DREAM cupcake!!!
Gorgeous pictures (found this through Tastespotting!).