LoveTea: Paksong Oolong Cupcakes

   If its not obvious, I love cake. You may therefore be surprised to hear that I also love tea, just as much as cake. I've not baked with tea much, other than my honey tea bread, so when the guys at LoveTea sent me some Paksong Oolong tea I was excited to try it out in a bake.

   LoveTea is a genius idea. It gives tea lovers the opportunity to try different gourmet teas each month. This month's tea comes from the only tea garden in Laos, The Paksong Tea Garden. Seeds from wild growing trees on the Lao-Chinese border were used to plant the garden and were highly prized on their quality by Chinese Emperors; they even saved it for the imperial family and court dignitaries. Sounds like my kind of tea!

   The dry leaves of this tea smell like strawberry jam and once infused produce a delicate buttery floral flavour. I thought that the flavour would be complimented with lemon to add a little freshness to this golden tea.

Oolong tea infused cupcakes
(adapted from Black Dog blog)
     285g plain flour, sifted
     400g sugar
     2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
     1 teaspoon baking powder
     1 teaspoon salt
     300ml buttermilk, shaken
     100ml sunflower or vegetable oil
     2 large eggs, room temperature
     1 teaspoon vanilla extract
     1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
     1 teaspoon lemon juice
     1 cup hot oolong tea

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees and fill a cupcake tray with cases.
• Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients, except the oolong tea, together.
• Slowly add the wet to the dry ingredients. Add the tea last and stir well to combine.
• Divide between the cupcake cases and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and a tester comes out clean.

   I opted for chocolate buttercream because I had some spare in the fridge that needed using up. A mascarpone frosting would go just as well. Or even a white chocolate and thyme frosting as suggested on Black Dog. 

Find my chocolate buttercream recipe here.

   If you fancy sampling some gourmet tea then Matthew, Master Brewer at LoveTea, is offering a 40% discount to you lovely readers. Just pop discount code 'SLF40' at the checkout over at LoveTea.