Monday, January 2, 2012

Vanilla Chai Spice Cupcakes

One of my colleagues' birthday is tomorrow, so I am making cupcakes.  If I don't make them, I don't get any because if you don't know all the ingredients, you can't eat it if you have food allergies. 
It's a new job (since August), and the cupcakes have made me somewhat popular because we generally have 1-2 birthdays a month.  So far we have had Banana Nut with Vanilla Frosting (recipes from Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook), Orange with Chocolate Frosting (a request, also from Betty Crocker) Pumpkin with Sour Cream Frosting (same recipe as Banana, with canned pumpkin substituted for the mashed banana), Individual Cheesecakes, Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting (also a request, from Betty Crocker), and some Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls (original--coming soon). 

The Vanilla Chai Spice Cupcake recipe comes from the website The Novice Chef, whose food choices are rather sophisticated and don't seem "novice" at all.  I substituted Stoneyfield vanilla yogurt for the buttermilk because we never have buttermilk around.  I did make a little goof--I made 18 cupcakes instead of 12 and sort of forgot to increase the amounts of spices. They still taste wonderful.

Note about the cake recipes in Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook:  It was originally published in 1950.  My mom got one as a wedding present and I grew up on those cake recipes.  But I find they work just as well or better if I cut the amount of salt in half.

Note 2 about the cake recipes in Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook:  If the recipe calls for shortening, sometimes I use Spectrum brand palm-oil shortening and sometimes I use butter.  No rhyme or reason as to the choice.

SOY-FREE CONSIDERATIONS:
none

1 comment:

Lisa said...

I am crazy about chai spices. Those cupcakes sound delish. I have a sweet treat linky party going on at my blog till Monday night and I'd love it if you'd come by and link your cupcakes up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2012/01/sweets-for-saturday-51.html