These sweet tea cupcakes feature the flavor of the sweet sipper in cake form. They are a fun dessert for picnics, BBQs and more.
Sweet tea is a hot weather staple for a lot of folks, but now you don’t have to have a glass and ice to enjoy it. Instead you can eat your tea in cupcake form! They are the perfect way to cap off a summer party and would be perfect for a BBQ!
I’m going to let you in on a little insider knowledge about me. I don’t like tea.
I want to like tea. I’ve tried to like tea. I just don’t like it.
I enjoy the idea of cozying up with a mug of hot tea during the winter. I really would love to have an excuse to have a cute tea kettle that lives on the stove.
I have bought several varieties of tea and it’s just never as good as I hoped it would be. So I am stuck pining over tea kettles with no good reason to buy one.
During the summer, it’s basically the same story. I see folks with their glass of iced tea and wedge of lemon and think about how refreshing it looks.
Then I take a sip and quickly realize I am more of a lemon water kind of girl. Oh well, I guess it’s not meant to be.
However, it turns out I do like tea in cupcake form! I am sure that doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most of you.
It turns out I can have my tea and eat it too. After all that’s much better than drinking it.
For these cupcakes I steeped plenty of tea into the batter. It gave it the flavor and a nice tea color as well.
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I just used the standard ice tea blend I keep on hand for parties, but you could really use any tea you would like. I was really tempted to use some peach tea bags. Maybe next time!
To top your cupcakes, you will want a fun frosting. For these I used peachy keen buttercream.
They would also be fabulous with lemon sweetened condensed milk buttercream. That would give them more of a Tom Collins feel.
Though they would be great year round, they remind me of ice tea and make me think of summer. They would be a fun addition to a potluck or summer BBQ.
More tea inspired treats:
- Chai Tea Latte Gelato Popsicles
- Earl Gray and Strawberries Granola
- Arnold Palmer Texas Sheet Cake
- Homemade Chai Latte Bundt Cake
- Irish Tea Brack
Tips and tricks for sweet tea cupcakes:
- This makes 12 large cupcakes with big domes. You could probably eek out 16-18 cupcakes if you don’t fill the wrappers so full.
- Use your favorite variety of tea and feel free to be creative with tea and frosting combinations.
- Once you add your dry ingredients, mix until they are just incorporated. Overmixing can result in tough cupcakes.
- I like to use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to get the batter in the cupcake papers. It makes it easy to get even amounts without a huge mess.
Have you ever tried baking with tea? What are your favorite recipes?
Sweet Tea Cupcakes
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup whole milk
- 5 tea bags
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Warm milk to just boiling, remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep for about 20 minutes.⅔ cup whole milk, 5 tea bags
- Preheat oven to 350 and place 12 cupcake papers in a cupcake tin.
- Remove tea bags from warm milk. Stir together milk, sour cream and vanilla.⅓ cup sour cream, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt until lump free.1¾ cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar and oil until thick and pale yellow.½ cup vegetable oil, ¾ cup granulated sugar, 2 eggs
- Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the milk mixture. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients until just mixed.
- Scoop into cupcake papers and bake for 15-18 minutes.
- Cool in cupcake tin for about 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
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What frosting do you use?
I used a peach buttercream on these. My honey lemon buttercream would be good as well.
Do you think I substitute almond milk instead of whole milk?
I think that should work great.
I want to make these but I am wondering if you could substitute melted butter for the oil. I really don’t like using oil.
Yes, melted butter should work great. Just let it cool a bit and use a 1:1 swap.
Hello could you tell me how much milk in ml plz, as I’m from the UK? Thankyou.
2/3 cup is roughly 160mL.
Can these be frozen for a week or two ahead of time?
Yes. Cakes and cupcakes freeze pretty well. Put them in an airtight container and they’ll keep for a couple of months in the freezer.
So excited to try these! I really need to double the recipe. Do I double the tea bags too or would that be too strong?
I would double the tea bags too. I hope you love them!