As a lover of food, I heart Thanksgiving. To me, it is a holiday dedicated to the celebration of all the delicious Fall flavors. While pumpkin is the official mascot of Fall, I have noticed a new flavor popping up as well. Masala chai is a beverage originating in India prepared by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices. Chai spice mix doesn’t have an official recipe, different spice mixes are made in different areas. The spice mix generally includes ginger and cardamom as the base. Other spices that are added include cinnamon, star anise, peppercorn, clove, all-spice, and nutmeg. There is something so warm and soothing about these spices that I just can’t get enough of.
The pumpkin chai cupcakes are moist and delicious but not overly sweet. The chai tea concentrate adds a hint of spice to the cupcakes, but if you can’t find it, you can always just use water. These cupcakes are perfect on their own or they can be paired with chai spiced frosting for a sweeter, more decadent option. If you wanted to serve the cupcakes as a side dish, add ½ cup of craisins to the batter before baking and call them pumpkin muffins! These can also be made in a mini cupcake pan for a cuter presentation.
Pumpkin Chai Cupcakes
Servings
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups white sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon or Jamie Geller Hawaij for Coffee
- 1 can 15 oz. pureed pumpkin
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup canola oil
- ½ cup chai tea concentrate such as Oregon Chai or water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 lbs. confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 8 to 10 tablespoons chai tea concentrate e.g. Oregon Chai
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with 3 dozen cupcake liners.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, oil, chai tea concentrate, and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on low until smooth.
- Distribute the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each one halfway.
- Bake 12 to 15 minutes until the cupcakes spring back to the touch. Allow to cool before frosting.
Frosting:
- In the bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle, combine confectioners’ sugar, shortening, vanilla, and salt.
- Slowly add the chai tea concentrate, and mix on low until smooth and creamy.
- Mix in the spices.
- Frost the cupcakes.
If you make these the day before, do they need to be refrigerated? Or should you make the cupcake and then frost the day you eat them? Do leftovers need to be refrigerated? Thanks.
I’m so sorry to hear that! I’ve never tried making this recipe into a cake. The cupcakes are very dense, that’s why I make them a bit smaller than usual. More leavening in the batter such as baking soda or powder would probably help in cake form.
Made this in cake form for sukkot and it was such a bust!! WOndering if I id something wrong — it came out dense as anything, weighing about 100 pounds, and the inside was this weird, super-dense consistency…quite gross!
you can definitely do that! You can leave out any of the spices to suit your taste, but the tiny amount of black pepper isn’t very noticeable, it gives a tiny background spice that is so reminiscent of chai tea.
I’d rather have all those spices that are in the frosting in the muffins instead (minus the pepper –just doesn’t belong there), & I can do w/o the saturated fat of the frosting too…
So happy find your site
I would like to know how to prepare kosher food and cakes