Thai Ice Tea Cupcakes!

Spring break means access to so many kitchens and a car to buy ingredients! I wanted to make lunch for myself today, but was pretty hungry and really unwilling to go out. Also, my family consumes far less garlic and spinach than I’d like so there was none in our fridge. Thus, I had an uninspiring mac and cheese lunch.

However, Cait was pondering cupcakes, and showed me a recipe for Thai Ice Tea Cupcakes, and hey, I HAD ALL THOSE INGREDIENTS IN MY HOUSE minus the cream cheese for the frosting, but I was at the point where I’d be willing to go out and get that later. 

Yesterday consisted of lessons about chard. Today I learned about cooking with egg whites! I r total baking/cooking noob, so I’d never separated eggs before. Beating egg whites to “soft peaks” also presented itself as a new experience. Basically, beat them eggs until they’re all delightfully foamy!

Then … I had to fold them into the batter. What even??

Luckily, I had Sophie on the intarwebs to hold my hand through all this. She also sent me this video, which features a delightfully congenial and not-cheesy guide to all of the above. Folding the eggs properly is especially key for leavening (or “sproinging” as Sophie said) the cupcakes. Like bread!

I don’t think I folded the egg whites totally evenly, but it was still so satisfying to see some of them just poppin’ up! Like daisies! And look how adorably round some of them are!

In the end, they taste very quirkily delicious. I mean, they didn’t taste like thai ice tea, and it’s hard to describe beyond “nom-worthy”. The frostings were pretty badass, though. WARNING: I’d say you only need a fourth of what the frosting recipe calls for, as I now have a huge bag of thai ice tea cream cheese frosting leftover. It’s definitely more than enough for 24 cupcakes. Then again, my cupcakes don’t look nearly as voluminous and pretty as the original post’s pictures. HMM.

And yeah, I made some thai ice tea to eat with my cupcake. It’s made with a mix my parents get from GrandMart. My mom throws little jasmine tea leaves in, and they add a lovely twist to the drink!