A cupcake for the W.I.

Week 17, Bake 17.

I have moved! I am now in the (very changeable weather) county of Somerset. I have not started my new job yet, that's tomorrow but I am already on the quest of making friends. I know no one in this county (other than one of my school friends who lives an hour away), so on Monday when I was wondering round one of the most beautiful little towns I came across a row of craft shops! Sadly all but one were closed on Mondays, nevertheless I went into the one which was open and as I was leaving it I saw a poster for a new W.I. group.

The stereotype of the W.I. (or Women's Institute) is eighty something women all sitting in a circle knitting tea cosies, or if you have watched the calender girls, sixty something women stripping off and using tea cosies to hide their personal areas. This poster for the W.I. was different. It featured the 1950's woman with the phrase 'we can do it' on it. After a bit of clever googling I realised that these women who were setting up a new W.I. were young, and so trying my hardest to be brave and confident I have decided to go tomorrow night to the W.I.
Why not? The W.I. is pretty much what I am about, they enjoy knitting, making jam, cakes and doing charity work. So I emailed them and they are very happy to have me and said that the first meeting will be about what the W.I. does and we will be eating cake. So that is why this weeks bake will be (mostly) taken to the girls at the W.I. tomorrow.

So here it is... Earl Gray Cupcakes: my two favourite things, tea and cupcakes... what could be better?

Ingredients:

• 175ml of milk
• 2 Earl Gray tea bags
• 115g of unsalted butter
• 225g of caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 250g of plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of corn flour
• 75g of butter (for the icing)
• 2 lemons worth of juice and zest
• 400g of icing sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c. (Having just moved into my flat I have realised that all the numbers on my cooker have been rubbed off... so I'm currently guessing a lot!)
2. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it simmers then pop it to one side to cool and add the Earl Gray tea bags in it and let it just sit for 3 minutes.
3. Squeeze the tea bags and let the milk cool.
4. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
5. In a mug beat the two eggs together and then add them into the butter mixture one tablespoon at a time. Beat well.
6. Now sift one third of the flour (adding in the baking powder and cornflour), then add one third of the tea infused milk, repeating this until it is all beaten in.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, cool for another 20.
8. Meanwhile beat the butter, lemon juice and half of the icing sugar together.
9. When smooth add in the rest of the icing sugar and then pipe it onto the cupcakes.

And that's it! The two best things in the world combined... tea and cupcakes.

I will let you all know how the W.I. night goes, I am totally nervous about meeting a room full of new people but hopefully these cupcakes will give me confidence.