Ice Tea Lemonade Cupcakes

Cupcakes

• Preheat a fan-forced oven to 160C (320F) or 180C (356F) for a conventional oven. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
• Heat your milk in the microwave for 2 min. Add tea bags and let it stand for 5 min. You may need to squeeze the bags to get that tea flavour out. You want to get the milk nice and dark. Dispose of the bags. If you end up with less milk because of the tea bags, add enough milk to ensure you have 375ml of milk for the recipe.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt. Turn mixer on low speed and allow it to mix for a couple minutes to help everything combine well (alternatively you may do this by sifting the ingredients together). Add the softened butter and let it mix until it resembles a fine sand like texture.
• Next, add tea milk, eggs, yogurt, oil and vanilla extract in a large jug and whisk well.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients in a slow and steady stream until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and mix for another 20 seconds.
• Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way (using an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter into the cupcake liners makes this a quick and easy process otherwise you can use two tablespoons). Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow them to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
• Once the cupcakes have baked and cooled core the centre and fill with lemon curd.
• To flavour the frosting add the lemon essence or zest and mix until well combined.
• Fit the end of a piping bag with a Wilton 6B tip and frost your cupcakes in a swirl. Decorate with a lemon slice wedged in the side (make sure you take out the seeds!) and place two small mint leaves on top.