These Earl Grey Cupcakes are light, fluffy, and delicious. The batter is infused with steeped earl grey and is topped with an earl grey buttercream with specks of tea leaves.

For the longest time, I really disliked Earl Grey. It had this strange soapy taste and I avoided any sweets with it. Several years ago, I tried a popular local ice cream shop that sold earl grey ice cream. I fell in love with their earl grey. That was definitely the gateway drug to my addiction to earl grey aha! Now I am obsessed with making earl grey sweets in any form. This is why I had to make earl grey cupcakes! They’re light and are flavourful, but not overpowering.

Which Earl Grey Do I Use?

Choosing which earl grey to use is super important. I had been looking for an affordable and quality earl grey tea leaf for a long time. The problem with earl grey tea is that some of them taste like soap. Some of them have good flavour but you need a lot of tea bags to get that flavour. I tried most of the ones at the grocery store and I have finally found one that I always stick to.

Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey – It’s affordable, and easily accessible too! I can find this tea bag at most of my grocery stores and if not I can order it off amazon. I really like this tea because it smells fragrant, has good flavour, and most of the time I only need 1-2 tea bags per recipe. Also the tea leaves are quite fine so I can directly add it into a recipe without food processing it.

How to Use Tea Bags in Baking

There are a few ways to use tea bags in any baking recipe. Using it depends on the actual recipe itself and how much flavour you want. However, I almost always use these two ways when baking with tea leaves.

1. Using the dry leaves: This is my go-to method 90% of the time. I rip open the tea bag and use the tea leaves. In this earl grey cupcake recipe, I add 1 tsp of dry earl grey tea leaves into the buttercream itself. The tea is fine enough so you don’t get a gritty texture. If you’re using larger tea leaves, I recommend food processing them to avoid chunks of leaves in your baking. I find this adds so much flavour and it is pretty much handy in all cases. I also add dry tea leaves into my macaron shells!
   
2. Steeping: The second way I use tea bags is by steeping them. Instead of steeping them in the bag, I rip open the bag and steep the leaves by themselves. I always strain the leaves, but because some leaves are finer than others, I end up getting some in my final product. I actually love this because it adds that roasted earl grey flavour and that little bit of tea leaves adds that visual impact as well.

I use both methods for these earl grey cupcakes. I steep the tea leaves in the milk and then use dry leaves for the buttercream. Oftentimes, I will also use the leftover steeped leaves. Otherwise, after straining, you can just compost the remaining leaves. Don’t forget to throw away the tag in the garbage as it’s not compostable!

A good way to store the dry tea leaves is by ripping a few bags and storing the leaves in an airtight container. This makes it much easier to measure and often leads to less mess!

Earl Grey Cupcakes Cupcakes

Recipe by DariaCourse: Dessert, Cupcakes

Servings

16

Cupcakes

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Total time

40

minutes

These Earl Grey Cupcakes are light, fluffy, and delicious. The batter is infused with steeped earl grey and is topped with an earl grey buttercream with specks of tea leaves.

Ingredients

• Earl Grey Cupcake

• 3/4 cup (170g) Unsalted Butter Room Temperature

• 1/2 Cup (100g) Granulated Sugar – or omit brown sugar completely, use 1 cup

• 1/2 Cup (100g) Packed Brown Sugar

• 2 Room Temperature Eggs

• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract or 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Bean Paste

• *1 Ripped Earl Grey Tea Bag* I use Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey

• 1 Cup (250mL) Milk (I used 2%)

• 1 Tsp Reserved Earl Grey Tea Leaves (from the steeped mik)

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour (300g)

• 2 Tsp Baking Powder (10g)

• 1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt

• Earl Grey Buttercream

• 3/4 Cup (170g) Unsalted Butter Room Temperature

• 2 Cups (250g) Powdered Sugar

• Pinch of Kosher Salt

• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

• 1 Tsp Dry Earl Grey Tea Leaves + Optional 1/2 tsp reserved steeped tea leaves

• 1-2 Tbsp of Milk

Directions

• Earl Grey Cupcakes
• In a small pot over medium heat, add 1 cup of milk and rip one earl grey tea bag. Let it steep for 5 min or until it comes to a boil and the milk is visibly coloured. Set aside and let it cool.
• Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
  In a bowl with a whisk or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream 3/4 cup unsalted butter with both sugars or just granulated sugar for 1-2 min until well combined. Scrape the bowl if using a stand mixer.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next egg. Batter should be pale and thick. Add vanilla extract or paste until just combined.
• Add all the flour, baking powder, and salt. Strain steeped earl grey milk into the batter. The milk should be warm to the touch, but not hot. Add 1 tsp of the steeped reserved tea leaves. Mix on low and increase the speed slowly until just combined and there are no bits of flour visible. Do not overmix but make sure the batter is nice and smooth.
• Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Lightly grease the liners. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop cupcake batter into liners until 3/4 full. They will rise around 30%.
• Bake in the middle rack of the oven at 350° Fahrenheit for 20-25 min or until the edges are slightly brown and a toothpick comes out of the centre easily. Let cool completely
• Earl Grey Buttercream
• In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream 3/4 cup unsalted butter for 2-3 min alone till slightly fluffy. Add half the powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, vanilla extract, and dry earl grey tea leaves. You can also add some of the steeped tea leaves for more flavour. Mix till smooth. Add the rest of the sugar and combine. If the buttercream is slightly thick, add a splash of milk until your desired thickness.
• Assemble
• Transfer the earl grey buttercream into a piping bag with a fitted star tip. I use Wilton’s 6B.
  
• Pipe cooled cupcakes with earl grey buttercream starting from the outside. Pipe in a circle, layering on top until you reach the middle. Frost as much or as little as you like!
• *Optional* Dust with powdered sugar and dry earl grey tea leaves as garnish.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Make sure you use an earl grey tea that is semi-fine. If the tea leaves are big you can put them in a food processor.
• You can omit brown sugar if you like. Using all granulated sugar gives a lighter texture in my opinion. But I like that these had more texture with crisp edges because of the brown sugar.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by WPZOOM

*This post contains affiliate links where I may receive commissions for purchases made through these links. I will only share products that I love and/or use on a daily basis!*

Feel like spicing these cupcakes up? Make Neapolitan buttercream and add flavours like chocolate, strawberry or vanilla to the earl grey! Neapolitan Cupcakes can be found on my blog here.