Cuppa Cakes

No dinner at Grandma’s this week, as she is sunning herself on holiday in Slovenia, but I persevered with trying to make a Mississippi Mud Pie from my brand new copy of The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.  Suffice to say it looked nothing like the picture (and that when they tell you to use a 23cm pie tin, do not assume that a 26.5cm one will work just as well).  Spurred on by this failure, and my weekly dose of The Great British Bake Off, to bake more, I decided to try something I had been thinking about for a few weeks, and which had a superb chance of not working.  If you are English and like to adhere to stereotypes, what is the best companion for a cupcake?  A cup of tea of course; the two were made to go together.  With that in mind, I decided to try a cupcake flavoured with good, old fashioned everyday English tea.

I had seen a recipe for green tea cupcakes in The Hummingbird Bakery: cupcakes and muffins, which used three tea bags brewed in milk overnight.  I didn’t have the time (or, admittedly, the patience) for this.  I put three tea bags in about 100ml of hot water, added about 20ml of milk, and left it to brew while I mixed the rest of the ingredients.  I took the vanilla cupcake recipe from the ever trusty Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird bakers, but when it said to add 60ml of milk I added 45ml and mixed.  I whisked the egg and vanilla extract into the tea, then added this to the rest of the ingredients as instructed.  Once they had cooked and cooled, I used the Hummingbird Bakery vanilla icing, topped off with half of a mini chocolate digestive being ‘dunked’ into the tea.

I was a bit apprehensive about how these would work out, but they actually tasted quite good (at least in my very biased opinion).  When I make them next, I will probably use the same number of tea bags but less water, as they ended up being a bit too moist.  Are tea and cupcakes a match made in heaven?  My tea-hating boyfriend assures me that he likes them, but I’m not sure if that means they were not quite flavoured enough, or that they were just right.

The jury is still out, so I may have to test them on Grandma’s unwitting guests next week.  If nothing else, they will be a very English-tasting treat to welcome her home.

P.S. This is why I decided not to write about the Mississippi Mud Pie:

Next time I will aim for something that looks like a less literal interpretation of its name.  However, while it may look like something from Mary Berry's nightmares, the large amount of chocolate and cream drowned out the pastry and it actually tasted quite good.  Good old chocolate: I knew you wouldn't let me down.