Birthday Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

This year for my birthday Tim made me delicious birthday cupcakes flavored with Earl Grey tea.  The cakes were really yummy with a fluffy texture and a subtle Earl Grey flavor.  If you are a big tea fan, you could probably get away with adding more tea (maybe one or two extra tea bags), although the cupcakes were excellent as is.  The tea really made the cupcakes pretty as they ended up flecked all throughout - almost looked like poppyseed cakes!  The lemon frosting paired perfectly with the cupcakes, adding a sweet-tart element.  The lemon flavor was definitely stronger than the tea flavor though, so keep that in mind when deciding how much tea to add to the cupcakes.  I love lemon and tea flavors together, and so these cupcakes were perfect for me!  Thank you, Tim!

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Birthday Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream (adapted from Desert Candy, original recipe here)
Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups self-rising flour
2 bags (2 T) earl grey tea (removed from tea bags)
1 cup milk

For the frosting:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups (1 pound) powdered sugar, sifted
Zest of 1 lemon
3 T lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and fill two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Beat the butter until creamy.  Add the sugar and cream with the butter until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
3. Beat in half the flour along with the tea leaves.  Beat in the milk, and then the flour, stirring until just combined.
4. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
5. Cool the cupcakes completely, and then make the frosting. Beat all the frosting ingredients together until smooth.  Frost the cupcakes and top with a candle!