Each fall I search for an apple or honey spice cake recipe that will be both moist and flavorful for the High Holidays. This year I decided to make cupcakes rather than a cake – since many people only want a bite or two of something sweet and cupcakes add a touch of whimsy to the dessert table.

Sunday afternoon, I prepared Tea, Honey & Lavender Cupcakes. They are light, moist and make flavorful combination. Our son Jason and the grand boys agree – giving the cupcakes multiple thumbs-up.

Tea, Honey & Lavender Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:
3 spice or chai tea bags (I used Good Earth Original Sweet & Spicy Tea Blend)
2/3 cup boiling water
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, at room temperature

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
8 ounces confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup honey
blue food coloring
1 tablespoons dried lavender flowers, ground

Preparation:

For the cupcakes, make the spice tea and allow to cool.

Heat oven to 350º and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper.
In medium-size bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, combine the honey, melted butter, buttermilk and egg. Add the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed to combine – do not over beat. Add the cooled tea and beat until just combined. The batter will be very thin, almost like soup.

Divide the batter evenly among the cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 18 minutes. The cupcakes should be nice and brown.

For the frosting, beat the cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer, until light and creamy. Beat in the honey and a few drops of the food coloring. Stir in the ground lavender flowers.

Spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

Store without frosting in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Cupcakes adapted from: Shelly Kaldunski, Cupcakes: Chai and Honey Cupcakes.
Frosting adapted from: Fergal Connolly, 500 Cupcakes: The Only Cupcake Compendium You’ll Ever Need: Lavender and Honey Cupcakes

Enjoyed this post? See these:

1. Chocolate cupcakes – things to do with kids
2. Date Nut Bar Recipe
3. Easy Blueberry Pie Recipe

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Tags: dessert

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.