Rooibos Tea Cakes

I do love a good cup of tea and trying many types of tea but on of my favourites is Rooibos tea, or red tea as some people call it. So after finding a recipe for early grey tea cakes in The Hummingbird Bakery - Cake Days cookbook I thought that it would be good to try a rooibos tea adaption, as there were variations for peppermint or fruit tea in the book. I had some tea laying around I gave them ago and was very pleased with the outcome.

I always half the icing quantity that that cookbooks say as I find that they make far to much and can always make more if I don't have enough. My recipe below uses half of the cookbooks ingredients for the icing and yet still covered all 24 cakes.










Made 24 small cupcakes

Ingredients 
3 Rooibos Tea bags
3tbsp Just boiled water
80g Butter
280g Caster sugar
240g Plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
200ml Milk
2 eggs
For the Icing
25ml milk
250g icing sugar
75g butter

Method
1. Place the tea bags in a mug and add the just boiled water, then leave to brew for 30 minutes

2. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F or Gas Mark 5) and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases. Place the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix to a texture of fine breadcrumbs.

3. Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and whisk. Add the brewed tea, squeezing every last drop from the teabags into the milk mixture, then set the teabags aside for the frosting.

4. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth and thick.

5. Divide the batter between the paper cases, filling each two-thirds full. I baked in 2 batches of 12. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch, then leave to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully.

6. Meanwhile, place the used teabags in a small bowl with the milk for the frosting and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the teabags and give them a good squeeze to extract maximum flavour.

7. Whisk the icing sugar with the butter in a bowl until no large lumps of butter remain and the mixture is still powdery. Pour in the tea-infused milk while mixing until soft and fluffy.

8. Divide the frosting between the cold cupcakes, smoothing the tops and swirling with a palette knife.

Optional: use any type of tea you want to create different flavours.

Keep Loving Food

Karen