Earl Grey Cupcakes With Lavender Marscarpone Frosting

I've wanted to make an Earl Grey cupcake for a few years now, I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. You will need a few specialty ingredients for this one. First is loose leaf Earl Grey tea. You can get it from your local tea shop, a more commercial shop is Teavana. They are popping up in malls everywhere and also available online. That's where I got mine. The next thing you need is culinary lavender. I was lucky enough to have my sister bring me some from Hawaii. There are plenty of places online to get it, but it may be harder to come by locally.


Before you get started, there is some prep you should do.
Steep 1 tablespoon of earl grey in one cup of milk. Do not heat the milk. It will still steep, it will just take longer. The reason I'm not telling you to heat the milk is because if you are not used to using loose leaf tea it's very easy to over brew it, and make it bitter. What I did was started steeping the tea in the milk first, and left it while I got everything else together. If you want you can even leave it in the fridge over night.  

The next thing is to prepare the lavender syrup for your frosting. In a saucepan dissolve 1/4 cup of sugar in 1/2 cup of water. Once dissolved on medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of lavender and leave it simmer for 3 minutes. Then pour over a strainer and leave liquid to cool.
                                                    

Cupcakes

makes 2 dozen cupcakes 350 oven

1 cup earl grey milk (see above)

4 tablespoons of ground Earl Grey loose leaf tea (I used a coffee grinder)

1/2 cup softened butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

4 cups self rising flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar together for 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time mixing between each. In a separate bowl whisk flour and tea together. Add vanilla to your tea/milk. When the batter is nice and fluffy add 1/3 of the flour and tea mixture, then 1/3 of the milk. Continue to alternate, mixing between each. Fill cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes.

Frosting

1/2 cup lavender syrup (see above)

1 cup room temperature marscarpone cheese

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip whipping cream on medium speed in your mixer while adding sugar. Once sugar is added, turn mixer on high until soft peaks form. Add cheese and continue to mix, scraping bowl at least once. Slowly add syrup while mixing until thick.

I used ground lavender with a little powdered sugar for a garnish. (powdered sugar and lavender in a coffee grinder)

This is one of my new favorite cupcakes and I think it's the best frosting I've ever made. Enjoy!