EARL GREY CUPCAKES WITH HONEY BUTTERCREAM

These cupcakes were my second and final attempt to get them right for my friend, Olivia's bridal shower. The first attempt I made didn't turn out the way I wanted them too, so I knew I needed to find a new recipe. I love my Miette cookbook so I tried one out of there and IT WAS AMAZING!

It's my new favorite go-to recipe for cakes and cupcakes. It was super moist while still being crumbly in all the right ways. And it took on the flavor of earl grey tea beautifully!

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Honey buttercream, makes 24 standard size cupcakes
Recipe slightly adapted from Miette

For the cupcakes:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk
4 bags earl grey tea
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, heat the milk until little bubbles start forming around the edges. Take off the heat and steep the earl grey tea in the hot milk for 15-20 minutes. You really want the tea to be strong so that the tea flavor doesn't get lost in the cupcake. If the milk starts to cool down while the tea is steeping, you can transfer it to a measuring cup and microwave it for 30 seconds, just to keep it hot.

With the milk in the saucepan, add the butter and heat until the butter is melted. Pour the milk and butter mixture into a bowl, set aside, and let cool to 80-85 degrees F, using an instant read thermometer. While the mixture is cooling, be sure to stir it once in a while, vigorously with a whisk to keep it incorporated.

In the top part of a double boiler, or in a bowl large enough to sit on a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Fit the pan or bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in the bottom pan or a saucepan and gently warm the mixture, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the thermometer registers 110 degrees F. Pour the egg mixture through a medium- mesh sieve into the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and whisk on high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and has cooled to slightly above room temperature. Stop the mixer.

Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated. The batter should be smooth. Check the milk mixture to make sure it is fully cooled, then slowly pour it into the batter, whisking on low speed. Stop mixing as soon as the batter is well blended and smooth. Remove the bowl from the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl again, and fold by hand a few times with the spatula. Divide the batter between the cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes until the tops spring back when pressed with your finger and a tester comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in pans. Clean the bowl to your stand mixer and let's make some honey buttercream!

For the frosting:
2 cups honey
5 large egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 cups (1 1/2 pounds) unsalted butter, room temperature

Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Put the honey in a small saucepan over medium heat. Using a candy thermometer, heat the honey until it reaches 248 degrees F.

As soon as the honey reaches 248 degrees F, immediately pour it into a heat-proof measurer. Pour a few tablespoons into the whites, away from the whisk, so the hot syrup doesn't splash, and whisk on medium speed for a few seconds. The honey is very hot, so be careful. Pour the honey in a very thin, steady stream aiming for the side of the bowl towards the bottom, but not the whisk as it will whip it back up at you. When all of the syrup has been added raise the speed to high and continue to whisk until the mixture becomes a meringue with a stiff peak. You can check the stiffness by stopping the mixer, taking both the bowl and the whisk off and pulling the whisk straight out of the meringue. If the meringue on the end of the whisk hold its shape in a "peak" when flipped upside down with the peak pointed towards the ceiling, you know your meringue is done.

Put the bowl back on the mixer and set the speed to medium. With the mixer running, drop in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding another. The mixture may deflate and begin to look curdled, but that is ok. Keep adding the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until it is fully incorporated. The frosting should be smooth and thick.

If the frosting still looks curdled after the butter is all added, raise the speed to high and beat the frosting until it comes back together. Do not fret, because it will come back together, I promise. You could also hold a torch to the bottom of the bowl to warm it up a little, but I've never tried this method so I don't know how well it works.

Using a piping bag fitted with a large star tip, pipe the honey buttercream on top of the cupcakes in rosettes, or however you want to decorate them, they're your cupcakes after all.

Use the buttercream immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 1 week. Or freeze for up to 2 months. To use a chilled buttercream, remove from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, about 1 hour.

These cupcakes were a hit at the bridal shower! I kept getting questions about how I got the tea and honey flavors into the cupcakes. They were like, "You can do that?" "That's a thing?" Yah, it's a thing! And now you can do it too!

If you try these cupcakes, leave me a comment down below letting me know what you thought of them? Were they too sweet? Not enough tea flavor? Too much tea flavor? What about the frosting, was it too overwhelmingly honey-y? I want to know what you thought so I can learn!

xo Morgan