Some of you may have noticed that lately I’ve been sharing a lot of photos of Amoda Tea products. Well, I can finally let the cat out of the bag – I’m partnering with them on a really fun and unique project!
I connected with the lovely Tegan, one of the founders of Amoda Tea, a couple of months ago when she tweeted about my recipe for Earl Grey cupcakes. This got us chatting about baking with tea and we discovered we both could learn a lot from each other. Several more emails later and our ‘project’ was born.
THE PROJECT
Each month, Tegan will be send me a package of tea of her choosing. My challenge? To come up with something in the kitchen using that tea! And by “something”, we’re both thinking baking since that’s what we are both gravitating towards. So, the Baking with Tea series has officially been launched here on kitchen frolic! I’m sure that I’ll be learning lots of new lessons as I start to experiment more and more with baking with tea, plus I hope to learn lots about tea itself from Tegan and Amoda Tea.
ABOUT AMODA TEA
Founded by Darryl McIvor & Tegan Woo, Amoda Tea is an online tea shop that focuses on ‘craft tea’ – teas blended in small batches by artisanal tea companies. Amoda’s craft tea selections are all-natural (no artificial flavourings or sweeteners) and many are organic and/or fair-trade.
With their Tasting Boxes, Retails Sets and Monthly Subscription service, there’s a s lot of different ways to sample their teas. Fall in love with something? Then you can buy that specific tea through their site as well.
In the months to follow, I’ll be discussing more about Amoda Tea and their selection, but for now… December’s Challenge!
THE TEA: Chocolate Frost by Petali Tea
Description on Amoda Tea’s site: “Of all the mint chocolate teas we’ve tasted, this one is at the top. This is a dessert tea for pure tea lovers. The mint is gentle and the chocolate is natural. Think rich dark chocolate rather than sweet milk chocolate. Simply delicious.”
What’s in it: black tea, cocoa nibs, chocolate natural flavouring, peppermint
Paul is a big fan of chocolate mint, so naturally he was pretty excited that I was going to create something with this chocolate mint black tea that Tegan sent. As soon as he saw the name, he immediately said “Cupcakes. Chocolate Mint cupcakes.” Who was I to argue?
I found a really simple chocolate cupcake recipe, worked in the tea and then topped it with my no-fail buttercream recipe, flavoured with the tea and some mint extract.
THE OUTCOME: The cupcakes turned out pretty great! The cupcake itself was light and not too sweet, and the mint buttercream was perfect. However, the tea flavour itself was overpowered by the mint so you couldn’t really tell that there was any tea in it. When my sister and I sampled the cupcake pre-frosting though, you could definitely make out the tea (if you didn’t know there was tea in the cake, you could tell that there was something ‘different’ – in a good way). But once the frosting went on, the tea flavour disappeared.
BAKING WITH TEA LESSONS LEARNED: Strong flavours (like mint) will overpower the tea, making it difficult to spotlight the tea. However, since the flavour of the tea was ‘chocolate mint’, I’m not sure if the tea flavour was really covered, or if it was actually adding flavour to the cupcakes and I just couldn’t tell the difference. Either way – these cupcakes are awesome! LOL
- for the cupcakes:
- 1 cup steeped Chocolate Frost black tea, hot
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- for the frosting:
- 1 teaspoon of Chocolate Frost tea
- 6 tablespoons milk (you may not use all of this)
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 tablespoon pure peppermint extract
- 3-5 drops of green food colouring
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
- Preheat oven to 375F degrees.
- Line 12 muffin cups with liners.
- In a medium-size bowl, combine the hot steeped tea (leaves removed) and the unsweetened cocoa powder. Mix together until smooth. Place the chocolate-tea mixture in the fridge to cool.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, cream the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar and mix until *just* combined (do NOT overmix!).
- In a steady stream, add the cooled cocoa mixture to flour mixture and stir until smooth.
- Fill each muffin tin 3/4 of the way full with batter.
- Bake for 16-19 minutes (cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean – be careful not to overbake).
- Remove cupcakes from the oven and place the pan onto a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cupcakes from the tin and place onto wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled completely, they are ready to frost.
- Prep: About 45 minutes before you start making the frosting (you can start this while you’re making the cupcakes, place the Chocolate Frost tea into the milk to steep (because the tea is loose, using a tea steeper is the easiest way to do this). Set aside. (If it’s a warm day, store the steeping milk in the refrigerator).
- In a stand mixer, beat butter for a few minutes with the paddle attachment on medium speed until the butter is creamy.
- Remove the tea leaves from the milk and discard tea leaves. Set the milk aside.
- Add 3 cups of powdered sugar to the butter and turn your mixer on the lowest speed. Once the sugar has been incorporated with the butter, increase the mixer speed to medium and slowly add salt, peppermint extract and 2 tablespoons of the milk. Beat for 3 minutes.
- Add in a couple drops of food colouring. Depending on how ‘green’ you want your frosting, feel free to add a few more drops until you achieve the green you want)
- If you want your frosting stiffer, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you want.
- Once cupcakes have completely cooled, frost them using your favourite frosting tip.
- You can add the chocolate chips directly into the frosting (after the frosting is ready, slowly fold in the chocolate chips) OR
- After frosting the cupcakes, you can add the chocolate chips to the top of the frosting
source: adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Chocolate Chip Frosting
Disclosure: kitchen frolic received product samples courtesy of Amoda Tea in order for recipes to be developed. This in no way affected our opinions; all opinions expressed are our own. Please read our disclosure policy for further information.
Oh my – I need chocolate frost tea in my life. These cupcakes sound delicious, Steph and I love having tea in my sweets.