
This recipe idea actually came about as a way to use some leftover ingredients I had from making my Cherry Chocolate Entremet Cake. When I realized I had way more cake batter than I needed I figured…cupcakes. And to be honest, these Earl Grey cupcakes are some of my favorites I’ve ever made.
To start with, we’ll make the cake batter as that can be frozen and stored until you are ready to make the mousse. I find these cupcakes to be a perfect afternoon tea cake, since they are made with tea after all. I also should mention that you will need good quality Earl Grey tea. While the stuff in bags works for part of this recipe, you want loose leaf tea as well. My chosen brand is Dilmah, which I picked up last week in Sri Lanka.

The cake part of the cupcake is a simple Victoria Sponge. I adapted this recipe from one I saw on Liv For Cake. I pretty much just left out the vanilla and did not make their vanilla buttercream frosting as I did the blackberry mascarpone mousse for these Earl Grey cupcakes.

You wouldn’t believe how good my kitchen smelled as I was making the Earl Grey milk for the cupcakes batter. Because I was boiling milk with tea leaves, my entire kitchen was just so fragrant. I knew these cupcakes were going to be excellent. After making the infused milk, it is time to start on the actual batter. I have to believe this flavor would also be just fantastic in financiers.

Now, one of the dry ingredients is also Earl Grey tea, however for this part I used cheap bagged tea. The reason being is that for the dry part you want really fine particles and cheap tea is essentially tea dust. For this part I just cut open a tea bag, measured out a teaspoon and added it to the flour, baking powder, and salt.


These cupcakes only take about 15 minutes to bake, so overall it is a pretty quick dish. After they are done, I just let them cool completely and then popped them in the freezer in a bag. Most bread freezes extremely well, so you can store them there for a while if you don’t want to make the ‘frosting’ right away.
Earl Grey Cupcakes Blackberry Mousse Frosting

The ‘frosting’ was a bit of inspiration I was quite proud of. I had a difficult time thinking of what to top these cupcakes with. But I love blackberry jam cookies with tea, so why not let that inspire me here. Voila…a perfect topping to these Earl Grey cupcakes.
For this, you totally could do it by hand, but whipping cream that way is not my favorite thing. I used my trusty Smeg stand mixer, which is one of my favorite kitchen appliances.


Earl Grey Cupcakes With Blackberry Mascarpone Mousse
Equipment
- cupcake tray
- mixer
Ingredients
Earl Grey Cupcakes
- 288 grams Flour All Purpose
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Earl Grey Tea powder or dust, no need for loose leaf
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 226 grams Butter room temperature
- 350 grams Sugar granulated
- 3 Eggs large
- 230 ml Milk Earl Grey infused
Earl Grey Infused Milk
- 350 ml Milk 3.2% (aka full fat)
- 1.5 tbsp Earl Grey Tea loose leaf, high quality
Blackberry Mascarpone Mousse
- 225 grams Mascarpone room temperature
- 236 ml Blackberry Juice seedless (you can also do 1/2 cup blackberry puree and 1/2 cup warm water)
- 60 grams Sugar granulated
- 200 ml Heavy Cream
- Chocolate shaved, optional
Instructions
Earl Grey Milk
- In a small pot bring the milk and loose leaf earl grey to a boil. Once the boiling starts, turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. While it is sitting you can work on the cake.
Earl Grey Cake
- In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and Earl Grey dust (cheap quality).
- In a stand mixer with paddle attachment (or a hand mixer) cream together the sugar and the butter. Slowly add the eggs one at a time. Then add some flour, then some infused milk, then flour etc… until all the wet and dry ingredients are together in the stand mixer. Once everything is combined, turn off the mixer. Do not over mix.
- Pour the Earl Grey cupcakes batter into paper cupcake sleeves in a cupcake tin. Put in an oven preheated to 175 C or 350 F for 15 minutes.
- When done, remove and let rest on a counter until completely cool.
Blackberry Mascarpone Mousse
- In a bowl mix together the mascarpone and blackberry juice until combined.
- Using the stand mixer whip the heavy cream and sugar until stiff peaks form.
- Fold in the blackberry mascarpone mixture into the whipped cream. If it is too thick you can add some more blackberry juice or even puree to thin it out.
- The cupcakes are best decorated when the mousse is slightly cold, so pop it in the fridge to make it easier to pipe. Or you can just spoon it on right away like I did. I grated some dark chocolate over the top before serving them, but that is entirely up to you how to garnish them.