Preparation Time: 25 mins
Baking Time: 16-20 mins
Yield: 12 regular sized cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcake:

• 100 g soft unsalted butter
• 25 ml coconut oil (room temperature)
• 110 g Sprig Coconut Palm Sugar
• 2 medium-large eggs
• ¼ tsp pure Sprig vanilla extract
• ½ tsp ground Cardamom (if you do not like it reduce it to ¼ tsp)
• 50 ml strongly brewed Indian Chai (no added sugar)
• ½ tsp freshly grated ginger
• 110 g plain flour
• 1 tbsp. corn flour (yields a softer cake, you may leave it out and replace it with more flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• A generous pinch of salt

Frosting:

• 200 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 250 g sifted icing sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• Sprig All Natural Colour Extract (Paprika Orange and Spinach Green)

Directions

• Pre-heat your oven to 160^oC, line a 12-hole cupcake tin with some cupcake cases; brew some strong tea (strong to your preference, the stronger the tea, the more chai flavour you get)
• In a medium-large bowl, sift all your dry ingredients, flour, cornstarch/corn flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; then add the ground cardamom separately, just whisk lightly with a whisk and keep aside
• In a larger bowl, add your soft butter, coconut oil and sugar and whisk well till it is fully incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, whisk after each addition; then add the vanilla and freshly grated ginger; mix well
• Once your chai is not too hot, add half of your dry ingredients and whisk, then add 50ml of chai, mix; add the remaining half of the dry ingredients and switch to a spatula and fold it in till you see no more dry flour
• Use an ice-cream scoop to divide the cupcake batter evenly between the cupcake liners; bake for 16-20 minutes (O baked mine for 16 minutes and 30 seconds); check after 16 minutes because every oven is different; then leave them to cool on a wire rack
• As the cupcakes cool, make the frosting: In a large bowl, using a hand-held mixer, blend the soft butter for 1 minute, sift in the icing sugar and salt and whisk for 2-3 minutes, add the vanilla and whisk for another two minutes
• Divide this frosting among three bowls equally and colour one with the orange and the other one with the green food colours; leave the third one as is
• Take three small piping bags and one larger piping bag
• Transfer the frostings into the smaller piping bags, snip off their ends and put these three in the larger bag with your favourite piping tip (this is the easiest way to get a tri-colour swirl instead of putting all colours in one; however, you may follow whatever is convenient to you)
• Once the cupcakes cool down completely, frost your cupcakes and serve; these taste best the day it’s made; however, you can refrigerate them for a day or two

Recipe and image courtesy of www.bakesalotlady.com