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?
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Hi Do you have a frosting to go with the cupcake?
I did a peachy keen buttercream with them. Though lemon sweetened condensed milk frosting would be lovely too!
Do you add the cornstarch with dry ingredients?
Yes, thanks for catching that!
If you wanted to use a different tea, say apple, would you still use the one tablespoon vanilla?
I would! In fact I plan on giving that a try this weekend!
These look like they belong at any good southern barbecue!
Thank you so much!
I am so surprised that you don't like tea! But, at least you can eat your tea! These are simply "Carlee genius" and I will be baking some soon!
I really want to like it! Thank you so much!
Oh my goodness, these sound divine!
Thank you!
These sound so good; I just LOVE sweet tea and drink it year round. Pinned.
Thank you so much!
You are speaking my food language! LOVE this!!
Ha! I aim to please! <3
Those cupcakes looks so good and I would love one right now Carlee. Thanks for the recipe!
I wish I could send you one, Julie!
These look absolutely scrumptious! I too love Sweet tea and these are brilliant and creative and the frosting looks divine!
Thank you so much!