This time of year, there's nothing like a bite-sized sweet to go with your New Year's diet. These cupcakes are delightfully fluffy, tangy, and unique, and they won't spoil your dinner! Pop one or two into your lunch bag for an afternoon snack, or have them with a cup of tea in the morning. This make-at-home recipe was inspired by the London Fog Cake offered at Nuflours Bakery in Seattle. Instead of our usual frosting, we made these mini cupcakes with a simple orange zest glaze for a light, delicate little treat.

Earl Grey Mini Cupcakes

Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

• 150 g sugar (~¾ cup)
• 2 eggs
• 109 g vegetable oil (~½ cup)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 170 g water (~¾ cup)
• 210 g flour (~1½ cups)
• 3 tsp Earl Grey tea leaves (ground to a fine powder)
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp xanthan gum
• ½ tsp salt
• 250 g powdered sugar (~2 cups)
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp orange zest

*Use the gluten-free flour of your choice. We use a custom blend of millet, sorghum, tapioca, and potato flours.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line pan cups with papers.
2. Weigh ingredients for precision.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, tea powder, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt and whisk together.
4. In mixer bowl, combine sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and water, and mix at medium high until smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients to mixer bowl and continue mixing until thoroughly combined.
6. Pour batter into cupcake liners, leaving at least 1 cm of space at the top.
7. Bake for 10-15 min, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
8. Allow cupcakes to cool in pan while making the glaze.
9. In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, orange juice, and zest until there are no lumps.
10. Transfer cooled cupcakes to a wire rack.
11. Spoon or drizzle glaze over tops of cupcakes. If there is extra glaze, allow first coat to set before adding more.
12. Allow glaze to set for 30 minutes before serving.

The final result is a light treat that feels wholesome and fresh while still satisfying your sweet tooth. From appearance and texture, these could almost be mistaken for poppy seed muffins, but the sugary glaze gives it that extra something. My final thoughts:

• It turned out that I didn't really have the right tools for grinding up the tea leaves. Ideally, a mortar and pestle will give you the really fine powder that you want for this. A coffee bean grinder or small food processor can also work pretty well. I ended up doing my best with a muddler, which worked alright, but definitely gave me a coarser grind and batter texture.
• The orange glaze went so well with the flavor of this cake, but there were lots of other ideas we considered, such as a lemon devonshire cream, or a vanilla glaze with a sprinkle of candied citron over the top. The best thing about this cake is how well it pairs with a variety of flavors, and how easily it can be dressed up or down to suit the occasion.

If you make this recipe, we would love to hear about it! Tag us @nuflours on social media to share your finished product.