Black tea cupcakes with cardamom and honey buttercream

Its been a busy week for me. My parents took off on their bike and have been gone for a week now and I'm solely managing the clinic ! I could get used to being my own boss I think! I love my job. I'm so happy that I do. I've always had hobbies on the side.I took up sewing not too long ago. Sadly I lost interest after a while but doesn't seem to be the same with baking. I absolutely love it.

I'm a coffee person.person. I'm addicted. I have close to eight cups of coffee everyday.  I've used coffee in a lot of desserts. I love pairing coffee with chocolate. Tea,on the other hand,I'm not too fond of. Well there are days I like to experiment and today is one such day. I've made black tea orange cake before and that turned out great. Today I decided to make black tea cupcakes.  I love my tea with some cardamom so I added some to the cupcakes as well. For the frosting, I added honey to good old buttercream.

For the cupcakes-

You will need-

Half a cup of butter
One and half cup of flour
Two eggs
Three quarters of a  cup of caster sugar
One and a half teaspoons of baking powder
One teaspoon of vanilla essence
Three black tea bags
Half a cup of milk
One teaspoon of ground cardamom

Directions-
Pre heat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Place the cupcake liner in the baking tin and keep it ready.

Bring the milk to a boil and then place the tea bags in it for about three minutes.Add the cardamom to it. Let the mixture cool down and strain it and keep it aside.

Cream together the butter ad sugar for about two minutes.Add the eggs,one at a time and continue to whisk.

Add the sifted dry ingredients and fold it in.Add the tea mixture and vanilla. Bake for about 15 minutes.

For the Honey Buttercream-

You will need-
Half a cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
Two cups of icing sugar
Two tablespoons of heavy cream
One and half tablespoon of honey

Directions-

Cream the butter with an electric whisk for about two minutes .Add the sugar half a cup at a time and continue to whisk.Add the honey and cream and fill the piping bags.

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Apple pie cake

Who doesn't love a good apple pie? To be honest I could do with just the apple pie filling.Crusts are not my thing,to make or to eat .  Last September i visited Denmark with my husband and I still cant get over the danish apple cake (aeblekage). Its less of a cake and more like apple pudding with whipped cream and crispy meringue pieces in between.YUM! I loved the simplicity of the dessert and how it was all about the apples.No other seasoning but vanilla . This dessert however, has a bit more. I've combined two recipes- The German apple cake and the traditional apple pie. I had some more filling left so I went on to make apple crumble as well.

Its a fairly simple dessert to make but takes a bit of time. Can be done in stages .

First stage-

  Apple pie filling
Ratio depends on how "appley" you want it to me.

What you need-
2 kilograms of apple
1.5 cups of sugar ( depends on how sweet the apples are)
1tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon of freshly ground cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
half cup of water
1 teaspoon of cornflour (optional)(to be added at the end)

Mix all the ingredients and place it in a large saucepan with the lid and let it simmer for about half an hour .I like it when the apples are are squishy.Add the cornflour at the end and let it boil for about two more mins. Let the mix cool.

For the cake-

What you need-

3 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon of baking powder
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
A quarter portion of the apple pie filling

Pre heat the oven -160 degrees Celsius

Cream the sugar and oil.Slowly add the eggs one at a time and continue to whisk till all the eggs are added.Sift together the dry ingredients and fold it in.Add the vanilla essence and the pie filling. Bake at 150 degrees Celsius for about 45-55 mins .

Next stage-Assembly

After the cake has completely cooled down, take about one cup of the apple pie filling and spread it on top of the cake (you can use more or less) . To make it more decadent, I poured some salted caramel sauce over it (recipe in previous post).

So i still had about2cups of the apple pie filling remaining. I used it the next day to make apple crumble. I divided the filling into six equal portions and placed it in six ramekin bowls . Topped it with the crumble mixture and baked it at 160 degree Celsius for about30mins (till the crumble turns brown).

For the crumble mixture-
half a cup of butter
half a cup of sugar
one cup of flour
mix all the three ingredients with your fingers till it turns into a crumbly lumpy mix. Pour this over the apple filling and bake.Cool for ten minutes before serving .Tastes best with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.