Chai Tea Mini Cupcakes (MSC)

I'm sure you have two things on your mind right now...
1) Jamie, where have you been the last two and a half weeks?
2) What does MSC stand for?

Was I right? Well I can answer both of those questions for you...
1) I was in London and Paris for 6 days and New York for 4 days. In between those two trips, I had errands, work and more work to do - so please forgive me for the lack of posts!
2) MSC stands for Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club, which is a fun little blog community that I am a part of. Twice a month, participating members pick a recipe from MS's incredibly awesome cookbook and post it on the same day. Because of my travels, I am late in posting - this should have been up on April 15th. Better late than never though - right??

I am not a coffee drinker but I do love tea. Chai tea wasn't introduced to me until my sophomore year of college and I have to admit I like the way it smells more than the way it tastes. I'm so unoriginal - I will take a plain Lipton black tea anytime. Needless to say, when I saw this recipe I was intrigued. Plus, it was during Lent that I attempted to bake these, so a non-chocolate dessert was exactly what I needed.

 
The spices used are cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves and nutmeg. You can see the specs in the batter - yum! The one problem with these cupcakes was that the cake-part was a little dry. I'm not sure if it was because I baked the mini- cupcakes a minute or two too long or what. They bake up so quick! I did do a few in regular cupcake tins as well, so don't be discouraged from trying this recipe because you think you have the wrong equipment.

The wonderful icing that goes on these cupcakes, made with condensed milk, made up for a little dry cake hehe If you want to see the full recipe, I would HIGHLY recommend buying Martha's cookbook! Otherwise, you can take a look at Rachel from Simple Girl's post since she hosted that recipe. She has some great recipes and pictures so check out her previous posts as well!

Tutti Mangia!