20 Mar Scottish Teatime Cupcakes
I’m back! I’m alive! SXSW is officially over, thank goodness!
Four days later, I’m still in recovery mode. Unfortunately, mid-way through last week I contracted a nasty cold – the product of too many handshakes & not enough hand sanitizer – and I’m slowly working my way back towards feeling “normal”. (As much so as possible, I’m always a little left of normal.)
Despite the snotty kink in my plans, I saw some great shows and met some incredibly smart people. I can’t wait to tell you all about my SXSW week, but today is not the day. I have piles of laundry and mounds of dirty dishes waiting to be washed (yes, for me the bounce back takes nearly as long as the event), but I wanted to share these cupcakes with you before the end of the week.
Because going more than a week without cupcakes counts as a sin. And no, I don’t really have the authority to declare that but I’m doing it anyway.
My friends over at Walkers Shortbread were kind enough to send me another shipment of their fantastically addicting cookies. All the cookies. Seriously, I can only bake with so many and the others are lovingly attaching themselves to my hips because I. can’t. stop.
Buttery shortbread is my kryptonite.
And really, what pairs better with kryptonite shortbread cookies than tea? I happen to be a dunker, what about you?
There’s a quote in the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that, as a tea & cookie (or should I say biscuit?) fan, stuck with me.
One of the characters, Evelyn, is trying to explain what it means to dunk a biscuit into tea. She explains that dunk ‘Means lowering the biscuit into the tea and letting it soak in there and trying to calculate the exact moment before the biscuit dissolves, when you whip it up into your mouth and enjoy the blissful union of biscuits and tea combined. It’s more relaxing than it sounds.’
I don’t know about the relaxing part because for me, it usually means ending up with pieces of soggy cookies on my shirt, but the blissful part I can get behind.
And since I find inspiration in Evelyn’s words, I decided to package that teatime bliss into cupcake form. These Scottish Teatime Cupcakes use black tea to flavor a traditional vanilla cupcake recipe and are topped with a crushed Walker’s shortbread cookie spiked buttercream – think cookies and cream of the Scottish variety.
All of the flavors of a traditional teatime, plus cake because, why not?
And since my Walker’s goodie box included Scottie Dog shaped shortbread cookies, I could resist adding a few to these cupcakes for added Scottish pizzazz. Cute, right?
Should you be craving some buttery morsels of your own, you can use code BLSPRING2014, for 20% off your entire purchase (excluding sale items) made at www.us.walkersshortbread.com from March 20-27, 2014.
Now, let’s have a Scottish Teatime Cupcake tea party and speak in Scottish accents the whole time. Shall we?
Note: This is a sponsored post brought to you by Butterlust + Walkers Shortbread. All opinions are my own – I really love these cookies!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 5 black tea bags
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 15 shortbread cookies, finely ground (I used a food processor)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a cupcake pan. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, heat milk in the microwave. Steep tea bags in milk for at least a half hour, up to overnight.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking side, baking powder & salt. Set aside.
- Add sour cream & vanilla to the tea mixture. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat together the sugar and oil until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.
- With the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture, mixing until barely combined. Add the tea mixture and mix until just combined. Add the remaining half of the flour mixture and mix just until the batter comes together. It will be very wet.
- Divide batter evenly between prepared muffin cups (makes about 16 cupcakes). Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Remove cupcakes from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter for 5-7 minutes or until it becomes fluffy and light in color.
- Turn the mixer to low and add the powdered sugar in one cup increments, mixing well between addition. Add vanilla and mix well.
- Add the Shortbread crumbs to the icing and mix until well distributed, saving a few teaspoons for garnish.
- Fit a pastry bag with the pastry tip of your choice and scoop icing into the bag. Pipe onto cupcakes and garnish with reserved crumbs and/or Scottie Dog cookies.
dina
Posted at 18:24h, 21 Marchthey look great. i love the scottie dog shortbread!
dina recently posted…Weekend Whets 3/21
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Posted at 17:09h, 24 March[…] Scottish Teatime Cupcakes recipe via Butterlust […]
Kirsty @ Bake Good
Posted at 11:38h, 22 MayI love these! I live in Scotland so I feel like I should definitely give them a go. Walkers shortbread is very easy to come across here (maybe too easy!).
Kirsty @ Bake Good recently posted…Strawberry and Blackberry Crumble Bars