For those who are wondering, rooibos is a type of naturally
decaffeinated tea, with a rich vanilla flavour which adds a fabulous depth to
your cupcakes. I topped these little beauties with some chocolate buttercream and a biscuit dunked in the top, but you could leave that out if you're not feeling fancy!
If you like this,
you could try it with other favourite teas – Sunshine Grey, for example, would
add a lovely lemon scent. Just a quick note: rooibos tea is sometimes marketed
as redbush tea, but as far as I know they’re exactly the same thing!
Ingredients
1 rooibos teabag
3 tbsp boiled water
80g margarine
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
100ml milk
2 eggs
Extra margarine, icing sugar and cocoa powder, for the
buttercream (adjust quantities according to how much you want)
Miniature cookies, to decorate
Makes a dozen.
Preheat the oven to 190˚C (or 160˚C
if you have a fan oven). Next, rub the the margarine, sugar, flour and baking
powder together until the mixture looks like very fine breadcrumbs. Then whisk
the eggs and the milk together, and add to the dry ingredients. Finally, open up the tea bag and empty the tea into the bowl. Give it all a good stir.
Get a 12-hole bun tin ready with cupcake cases of your
choice, then fill each one about 2/3 of the way with mixture – don’t be tempted
to put any more in, because the cakes will rise during baking and you don’t
want them to overflow, or they’ll stick to the pan. Bake for 18 minutes, until
they’ve puffed up and slightly springy to the touch, and allow them to sit for
a few minutes before popping them out of the tin.
Leave to cool completely before you start whipping up
your buttercream – then combine margarine, icing sugar and a spoonful of cocoa
powder and mix to a smooth consistency. Buttercream is a bit of an inexact science,
so you have to keep adding stuff and tasting until it’s right. If it seems a
bit thick and claggy, add a tiny splash of milk, then spread generously on top
of each cake. Top with half a mini cookie, to complete the scrumptious cuppa effect!
