Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream – A tea lovers delight! These unique, light and flavourful cupcake are made with earl grey tea leaves and topped with a beautiful lemon buttercream. This is a delectable dessert for springtime celebrations such as Mother’s Day, bridal showers, birthdays or afternoon tea.
Happy Monday everyone! It is indeed a happy Monday at my house. I woke up with a smile this morning, as today we are celebrating my one year blogiversary!!! That’s right, one year ago I hit publish one my first ever post introducing myself plus I also posted my first recipe here that day too. The first recipe I ever published was for these Earl Grey and Lemon Muffins. Those muffins are still one of my favourites, and today’s recipe to celebrate brings in similar flavours in honour of that!
It’s crazy to think that already a year has gone by. Over this last year I have learned a ton about blogging (and still have so very much more left to learn!), I feel as if my photography has improved and I’ve connected with many other lovely bloggers during this journey as well. Thank you to my boyfriend Joel, my family and my friends who have supported me since day one. Your encouragement, excitement and sharing of my blog has meant so much to me along the way. I am truly appreciative of each and every person who has visited my little corner of the internet here.
I feel that the next year will be full of wonderful, exciting things, both here and in my personal life. I have a whole ton of recipe ideas I can’t wait to develop and share with all of you. Food is truly my passion in life and I am so lucky to have a way to explore that and share it with the world!
When I realized my one year blogiversary was coming up, I knew I wanted to celebrate with some cake. I mean, what better way is there to celebrate? I also wanted to bring in those flavours from my first ever recipe post. Those muffins were actually inspired by a cupcake recipe similar to this one. Back around 10 years ago or so, I found a recipe for earl grey cupcakes and it was life changing. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out where this recipe was from and haven’t been able to find it since. To the mysterious blogger who inspired me all those years ago – thank you.
I knew I needed to develop my own version of those cupcakes. I love that these earl grey cupcakes are so light and fluffy yet still absolutely decadent. The aroma of the earl grey tea leaves is wonderful as these bake! The buttercream has just enough lemon in it to be refreshing, without overpowering the flavours of the cake. Together, you have got yourself one heck of a tasty treat!
I think that these Earl Grey and Lemon Muffins are perfect for your springtime celebrations – I’m thinking Mother’s Day, bridal showers, birthdays or even just afternoon tea. However, they would still be great year round when you want a light and refreshing flavour. While this recipe is only for a dozen cupcakes (we’re only a two person household and I do not need any more cupcakes at my fingertips), it can easily be doubled or tripled for larger celebrations.
This cupcake recipe is fairly easy and straightforward with only a few steps. I think the most challenging part (at least for me) was piping the icing! This is something I have only done maybe once before in my life so my piping may not be the prettiest out there, but I am okay with that. You could literally just schmear that lemon buttercream onto these with a knife and they would still be ridiculously tasty! Do whatever works for you, we want this to be fun, not frustrating!
Thank you all again for your support over the last year. Each and every view I get, every single comment or “like” truly means so much to me. Without you, my readers, I probably wouldn’t still be here today. I am so happy that I get to pursue my passion and do something I had dreamed of for many years before I took the plunge and started this blog. Alright, I’m done with the sappiness – here is your recipe! I hope you love it! 🙂
If you make these earl grey cupcakes with lemon buttercream please let me know! Leave a comment below, rate it, post on the Zest & Simmer Facebook page or share photos on Instagram using the hashtag #zestandsimmer. I’d love to see it and I am always thrilled to hear from you!
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Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tea bags earl grey tea (about 3 tbsp loose leaf tea)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
For the buttercream icing:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
Instructions
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a muffin tray with cupcake or muffin liners and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut open tea bags and stir tea leaves into dry ingredient mixture.
- In another bowl beat together the milk, oil, vanilla and egg. Pour into bowl with dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.
- Divide cupcake batter evenly into the cupcake liners. Please note that the batter is fairly runny. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are slightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing.
For the buttecream icing:
- In a mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in lemon juice and lemon zest until completely smooth.
- Once cupcakes have cooled completely, transfer icing into a piping bag. Pipe icing onto cupcakes, and decorate with sprinkles if desired. Serve and enjoy!
What a delicious combo – these cupcakes look perfect for afternoon tea! Congrats on your blogiversary
Thank you so much Fiona!!!
Memories of certain foods linger on for ever. So did these cup cakes to you that you couldn’t forget their aromatic taste. I love the aroma of earl grey tea and I am now getting curious to try them out. I am sure with the refreshing lemon butter cream icing they must be so delicious and enjoyable with a cup of earl grey tea.
Thank you Fouzia! It is amazing how the memories of good food can last! If you try these I hope you enjoy them. ❤️
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This recipe was way too runny. 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of oil for that amount of flour was not a perfect ratio at all. It literally looked like thin soup. I know you had mentioned that the batter was thin but i had to add another 1/4 cup of flour and reduce the oil to about 1/4 cup. They turned out great with that ratio. The first time I made them, they turned out dense and caked in from being too runny. Just wanted to share my thoughts.
Hi there and thanks for your comment. I’m sorry you had issues with the proportions of oil/milk & flour. I’ve made this recipe a number of times and have never had the same issue you describe so I’m not sure why you had different results. Mine have always turned out light, and look like the photos I have here. I thank you for trying my recipe and I’m glad you were able to find an adjustment that made it work for you.
Made these this morning for my sisters b.day,they are delicious,so moist!/Thanks for sharing,these are a winner for sure!
Thank you so much for your kind words Sue!!! I’m so happy you enjoyed them! ❤️
These were delish! Such a perfect combination of flavours and a perfect “spring flavour” as my daughter said.
I am so happy you and your daughter enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for trying it out. ❤️
I tried the NutFreeVegan’s recipe and saw your comment there! I haven’t tried your recipe yet, but found it interesting that you don’t dilute the tea bags in water! I found that a bit difficult to do considering it is such a small amount of water and the tea bags soak it up entirely. I will definitely try this recipe! So, it’s okay to just eat the tea leaves themself?
Hi Marcella! I’ve always just eaten the tea leaves themselves and it’s been just fine. I find using the leaves directly in the recipe gives much more flavour! I hope you enjoy 😊
Loved this recipe!
Could it be altered to make vanilla chai cupcakes?
Hi Gabby! I haven’t tried that myself but I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to use chai instead! If you give it a go I’d love to hear how it turned out!
I just made these for a friend’s birthday and they are fantastic! I happened to have some bergamot juice so I added to both the cupcake and the frosting- just small amounts, I didn’t measure. For giggles, I added some light purple food coloring to the cupcakes and made the frosting sunshine yellow. Next time I might add one more tea bag or a little extra bergamot juice, but it’s a delightful flavor profile. The lemon frosting hits first and then as you continue to eat, the earl grey finishes.
Hi Shae! Thanks so much for trying my recipe and I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Love the sound of the additions you made!
I did a half recipe and it turned out great – didn’t do the icing but it was fantastic as is. I’m a huge earl grey lover so I added a bit extra and used my mortar to really extract the flavour from the leaves. Thanks for sharing, will definitely be making again.
Hi Alex! I’m so happy you loved the recipe, thanks for giving it a try! ☺️
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