These Earl Grey cupcakes smell heavenly with lavender icing. They are also so pretty to look at. It starts with a vanilla cupcake infused with Earl Grey tea. Then finish off with an aromatic lavender buttercream icing. Earl Grey cupcakes are made by steeping tea bags in the milk that goes into the batter and grinding more tea leaves into the flour, so the bergamot runs through the whole cupcake.
These unique flavor cupcakes will taste amazing with a cup of Earl Grey tea or even Earl Grey Lavender tea. They would be a welcome addition to your next tea experience.
First, the colors are spectacular, and it is so inviting. Then it makes you think of the vintage era or days gone by. I love the scent of the subtle Earl Grey tea with a touch of lavender. Culinary Lavender is powerful, so start with a small amount and add more as you desire.
Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 25 minutes, plus 15 minutes for the milk to steep
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 16 to 18 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 51 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 18 cupcakes
- ⚡ Calories: 609kcal per frosted cupcake
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Bergamot and vanilla in a soft crumb, under a floral lavender buttercream
- ✋ Difficulty: Moderate, the steeping and the grinding are the only extra steps
Quick Answer
Bring the milk and two Earl Grey tea bags to a boil, take it off the heat, cover it and let it sit 15 minutes, then strain and cool the infused milk. Cream the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy, about five minutes, then add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and the loose tea from three more bags together, then alternate the dry ingredients with the infused milk into the creamed butter in three additions. Fill lined pans two thirds full and bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes. For the frosting, pulse the sugar with the culinary lavender until fine, cream the butter, vanilla and salt, beat in the lavender sugar and then the powdered sugar, add the milk and pipe it on.
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Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- The tea goes in twice. Two bags steeped in hot milk, and three more opened straight into the flour. The infusion carries the bergamot oils, the dry leaves carry the flavor that survives baking.
- Hot milk pulls more out of the leaves. Bergamot oil is fat soluble, so steeping in milk gets far more of it than steeping in water ever would.
- Five minutes of creaming is not an exaggeration. That is how long it takes to beat enough air into butter and sugar to lift a cupcake this rich.
- Alternating wet and dry in three additions keeps the batter from splitting and keeps you from overworking the flour once the liquid is in.
- Grinding the lavender with the sugar breaks the buds down and distributes them, so you get perfume instead of the occasional woody bite.
- Culinary lavender is powerful. Start with a small amount and add more as you desire. Too much and the frosting tastes like soap, which is very hard to walk back.
- Two thirds full, no more. These rise well, and a cupcake that mushrooms over the liner will not take a clean swirl of buttercream.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The colors are spectacular. Pale lavender swirls in deep purple liners photograph beautifully and look like you fussed far more than you did.
- It tastes like the tea, not like perfume. The bergamot is the headline and the lavender sits behind it.
- It is built for a tea table. Serve them at an afternoon tea party or a tea party birthday and they are the thing people photograph.
- They make 18. Enough for a party, with a couple left for you.
- They match the rest of the menu. Put them out with my Earl Grey scones and Earl Grey shortbread cookies for a whole Earl Grey spread.
- Unfrosted, they freeze for two months, so the baking and the party do not have to happen on the same day.
Key Ingredients
Two lists, one for the cupcake and one for the buttercream, and the tea and the lavender are the two that decide how it tastes. Quantities are in the recipe card below.
- Whole Milk. A cup and a quarter, infused with the tea and cooled before it goes into the batter.
- Earl Grey Teabags. Five of them. Two steep in the milk and three are opened and whisked into the flour. Any brand works, including these 5 Earl Grey Teabags.
- Unsalted Butter. Three quarters of a cup in the cupcakes and a full cup in the frosting, all at room temperature.
- Granulated Sugar. A cup and a quarter in the batter, plus two tablespoons that get ground with the lavender.
- Culinary Lavender. A teaspoon and a half, ground with the sugar. It is powerful, so start small. This is the Culinary lavender I use.
- Large Eggs. Two, added one at a time with the bowl scraped after each.
- All Purpose Flour, Baking Powder and Salt. The structure, whisked together with the loose tea leaves.
- Powdered Sugar. Four cups in the buttercream, added in stages so it does not fly out of the bowl.
- Lavender Gel Color. Two drops, and it is entirely optional.
See the recipe card below for exact quantities and full instructions.
Variations & Substitutions
The tea and the color are both yours to move.
- Skip the food coloring. You don’t have to use any food coloring, it is a personal preference. But it does give them a nice appearance.
- Use loose leaf tea. You can use your favorite preference or even loose leaf. Just make sure you strain the tea leaves out after heating the milk, and see how I brew Earl Grey if you want the strongest infusion.
- Swap the tea. Lady Grey gives you a lighter citrus, and an Earl Grey Lavender blend doubles down on the frosting.
- Leave the lavender out entirely. A plain vanilla buttercream over an Earl Grey cupcake is still very good, and it suits people who find lavender strong.
- Use a different tip. A large star tip like this Wilton 1 M gives the swirl in the photos. A plain round tip gives a softer dome.
- Want more lavender on the table? My blackberry lavender bundt cake uses the same flavor in a larger format.
How to Make Earl Grey Cupcakes
Before you start: preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two standard muffin pans with your favorite cupcake liners. Then make the Earl Grey infused milk, since it needs time to cool: combine the milk and 2 Earl Grey tea bags in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once it boils, remove from the heat, cover, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Strain out the tea bags, place the milk into a separate container and let it cool.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and the 2 eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl after each egg.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and the Earl Grey tea leaves opened from the remaining three tea bags. Add the first addition of the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and mix until combined; the batter will be thick and flecked with tea.
- Alternate the remaining dry ingredients with the Earl Grey infused milk in separate additions, mixing until just combined and scraping the sides with a spatula.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared liners until they are two thirds of the way full and bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until lightly golden on top. Remove the cupcakes from the pan, let them cool on a wire rack, then frost with the lavender buttercream below.
For the lavender buttercream:
- In a food processor or spice grinder, pulse the sugar with the Culinary Lavender until it is fine. Strain out any larger lavender pieces.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the unsalted butter, vanilla extract and salt until fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Add the lavender sugar mixture and mix until combined. Then add the powdered sugar, scraping the bowl after each addition.
- Once the powdered sugar is all incorporated, add the milk and mix until well combined. If desired, add lavender food coloring to create a beautiful color for the buttercream.
- Put the frosting in a piping bag or a baggie and decorate as desired.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Grind the tea leaves for the batter. For the best flavor infusion, finely grind your Earl Grey tea leaves before adding them to the batter. This helps release more of the bergamot oils and ensures the tea flavor is evenly distributed. You can pulse the loose tea in a spice grinder or mini food processor until it becomes a fine powder. The result is a rich, aromatic cupcake with true Earl Grey depth in every bite.
- Cool the infused milk. Warm milk poured into creamed butter will melt it and collapse all the air you just beat in.
- Start the lavender small. Culinary lavender is powerful. You can always grind a little more into the sugar, but you cannot take it out.
- Piping without a tip works. You can fill a baggie with frosting, cut a small hole in the tip and frost that way. I use a circular motion.
- Frost only cold cupcakes. Buttercream slides off anything still warm, and my frosting notes cover the rest.
- Scrape the bowl constantly. Butter climbs the sides of a mixer bowl and never fully incorporates unless you go after it.
Serving Ideas & Suggestions
These cupcakes will be a wonderful addition to any afternoon tea party, birthday party, or even a women’s bible study. Serve them with some Earl Grey scones or Earl Grey cookies, and a pot of Earl Grey brewed properly.
For a full tea table, put them out with my cucumber tea sandwiches, a plate of scones and my lemon bars. There are more menus in my tea party cupcakes, adult tea party ideas, Mother’s Day tea, garden tea party and tea party desserts posts, my tea party checklist covers what else you need, and my notes on afternoon tea etiquette take the guesswork out of the order things are served.
Earl Grey Cupcake FAQs
No, you don’t have to use any food coloring, it is a personal preference. But it does give them a nice appearance.
No, you can use your favorite preference or even loose leaf tea. Just make sure you strain the tea leaves out after heating the milk.
The best way is to store them before frosting them in an airtight container. You can freeze them for up to two months, or store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let them warm up to room temperature before serving.
Culinary lavender is sold in the spice aisle of most health food stores and online. Make sure it is labeled culinary, since lavender grown for potpourri is often treated and is not meant to be eaten.
Yes, and that is the point of steeping the milk and grinding the extra leaves into the flour. If you want it stronger, grind the tea finer rather than adding more bags, which can turn the crumb bitter.
Too much lavender, or lavender that was not ground fine enough and left in large pieces. Pulse it with the sugar until it is a powder, strain out anything woody, and start with less than you think you need.
Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lavender Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Cup Whole Milk
- 5 Earl Grey Teabags
- 3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Frosting
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Culinary Lavender
- 2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 4 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Whole Milk
- 2 Drops Lavender Gel Color
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 standard muffin pans with your favorite cupcake liners.
- Prepare the Earl Grey Infused milk in a saucepan by combine the milk and 2 Earl Grey Teabags and bring to a boil over high heat. Once it boils remove from heat and cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Then strain out the tea bags and place the milk into a separate container.
- Next in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream together the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy about 5 minutes. Next, add the Vanilla Extract and 2 eggs 1 at a time. scraping the bowl after each egg.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and and additional Earl Grey tea leaves opened from the extra 3 tea bags. Next, alternate the dry ingredients with the Earl Grey infused milk into the creamed butter mixture in 3 separate additions. Mix until combined, while continuing to scrape the sides with a spatula.
- Spoon the batter into the 2 prepared pans until they are 2/3 of the way full and bake 16-18 minutes or until light golden on top. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.
- Next in a food processor or spice grinder, pulse the sugar with the culinary lavender until it is fine. Remove any large lavender pieces.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and salt until fluffy, approx 5 minutes. Add in the lavender-sugar mixture and mix until combined. Next, add in the powdered sugar, scraping the mixture after each addition.
- Once the powdered sugar is all incorporated, add in the milk and mix until well combined. If desired, add lavender food coloring tocreate beautiful color for the buttercream.
- Put the frosting in a piping bag or baggie and decorate as desired.
