The Quest for the Yummiest Sponge Cupcakes :D

Earl Grey Sponge Cupcake

Chocolate Sponge Cupcake

After yesterday's Sponge Cupcake, I couldn't resist baking the variations following the same book :p I baked chocolate and Earl Grey sponge cupcakes this morning.


For the Chocolate Sponge Cupcake, the recipe is the same, except that instead of adding 60g of cake flour, add 50g cake flour plus 10g unsweetened cocoa powder. This time, the top  of my cupcakes cracked. Yesterday's cupcakes did not have this problem. I goggled and seems like it may be due to the temperature of the eggs (too cold). But for this recipe, the eggs are actually warm up to body's temperature before beating, so I am not sure what was the problem. But there was some hiccups when I was preparing - originally I had wanted to bake the Chiffon Cupcakes, but the yolk of the egg I cracked broke and mixed with the egg white. So I decided to go with the sponge cake again :D

Also, I might have measured the milk wrongly. I was trying out the new mini size measuring jug I bought :p The chocolate cupcakes still turn out great despite all these hiccups haha, lucky me ;)

I only managed to fill 6 cups. I wonder if I had filled the cups too full, therefore, causing the cracked tops. Or perhaps the temperature of the oven was too hot? There are just so many possibilities :p

Few hours later, I suddenly recalled another sponge cupcake recipe I saw on another book at the National Library yesterday. It is written by 获田尚子 too. The recipe uses a teaspoon of red tea leaves to make red tea cupcake. Being a tea lover, I waited no more and once again dashed into the kitchen and start working on my Earl Grey Tea Sponge Cake :D

Last year I did attempt to use Earl Grey tea to bake muffins. But it was disappointing, I could hardly smell or taste the Earl Grey tea in the muffins. Many bloggers have mentioned the very faint Earl Grey tea aroma in their bakes, so I figured maybe it is not easy to bring out the taste of the tea. But I just wanted to at least try using it in my bakes one more time, as I love Earl Grey tea :D

Using the same sponge cupcake recipe, except that I added a teaspoon of Dilmah Earl Grey tea leaves after adding the flour to the mixture. I added a drop of my reliable Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla paste, hoping to enhance the flavor of the cupcakes. The result was once again soft and fluffy sponge cupcakes, with a hint of vanilla and very faint Earl Grey tea aroma. There must be a way to bring out the full flavor of the tea? :p The tops of the cupcakes looked fairly nice this time, not much cracks. Can't believe that my first attempt actually yielded the best "look" - perhaps I was extra careful as it was a first experiment for me :D

Overall, I am happy with my Sponge Cupcakes adventure. This recipe is a keeper - it produces such soft and fluffy texture which makes me want to bake more of them, and of course, eat more of them haha.

Happy (Sponge cupcakes) Baking! :D

I am submitting this Earl Grey Sponge Cupcake recipe to submitting to Aspiring Bakers #30: it's Tea time! (April 2013) hosted by Food Playground. This is my first time participating in this, very excited :)