Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Jasmine Green Tea Frosting

The cupcakes I baked for charity were a hit! A big thank you to those who came out to support...We sold a total of 42 boxes and the proceeds went to the International Women's Association in support of women and single mothers.

A HUGE thanks to my friends who helped out on the night itself...Livian, Aida, Carol and my sister Stephanie. We spent a total of 7hours baking, decorating, and packaging and only finished at 2am on Friday night...it was for a good cause though and was certainly worth it!

I had decided on two flavours and today I'll share the first one with you. I decided to do something with Jasmine as I find this flower and its scent absolutely lovely...so I whipped up a batch of vanilla bean cupcakes and played around with a few different ways to flavour the frosting...in the end I used a very strong tea...along with the tea leaves themselves to pepper the frosting with added flavour...and topped it off with the actual flower for decoration and it's added perfume...it's edible too!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, cut length-wise
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In a small saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean together until the milk just boils. Remove from heat and let cool for about 1 hour. Then remove the vanilla bean. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the milk. Discard the remaining bean pod. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175C. In a medium bowl, whisk together the salt, flour and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Alternately add the flour and milk mixture until well combined. Divide batter into about 20 lined or greased cupcake wells. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the middle cupcake comes out clean.

Jasmine Green Tea Frosting
1 cup softened cream cheese
4 Jasmine Green Tea sachets
1 cup hot water
1 cup icing sugar
Jasmine flowers for decoration

Put 3 tea sachets in the hot water and let the tea come to a strong brew. In the meantime cream together the cream cheese and the icing sugar. Break open the 4th tea sachet and empty the contents into the cream mixture and mix well. Once the jasmine tea is done pour it bit by bit into the cream mixture and blend well...the strength of jasmine green tea is up to your own personal taste if you would like it stronger then keep adding the tea...keep in mind though that the flowers used for decoration will also perfume the frosting. Once the frosting is done add to the top of the cupcakes once they have cooled down. Decorate with a jasmine flower and enjoy!