These light cupcakes make an excellent tea time treat!

I love simple sweets. I mean, LOVE them. There’s nothing like spending time baking with a movie or a podcast on in the background. One of the podcasts I avidly consume is The Adventure Zone (if you haven’t listened, give it a chance!) Really, it is a strange one, but absolutely worth it. It’s also a D&D podcast, that follows some pretty funny dudes as they craft adventures and stories together.

I originally wrote this recipe to accompany the first adventure in the podcast. One of the characters is an Oolong tea fanatic, but just making tea didn’t quite lend itself to my baking habits. So these cupcakes were born!

Ingredients

• 3 sticks (or 1 1/2 cups) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup loose leaf Oolong tea
• 2 1/4 cups flour, sifted
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup + 1 tbsp milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• Sparkling white sugar for decoration (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter on medium-low until melted. If the butter begins to bubble, turn down heat. Once melted, add in Oolong tea and leave on low heat for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let sit for another 5 minutes.
3. While butter is melting, mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
4. In another bowl, mix together sugar, milk, and eggs.
5. Once the butter is infused, strain out tea leaves, using a spatula to press the butter out of the leaves. Combine the butter with the wet mixture. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine into a thick batter.
6. Line cupcake pan with liners. Pour batter into each cup, about 3/4 of the way full.
7. Bake for 18-22 minutes for full-sized cupcakes, or 8-12 minutes for mini cupcakes. Check by inserting toothpick into center of cupcake; they are done when the toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan and place directly in the freezer.
8. While cupcakes are in the freezer, cream butter, milk, and lemon extract together in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer set on medium low. Add in sugar a 1/2 cup at a time, waiting for sugar to incorporate before adding more.
9. Frost cold cupcakes, and decorate with sparkling white sugar, or other sprinkles.

These cupcakes are best eaten the day of, but can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.