It’s time for the first Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge roundup! What amazing entries, I’m so impressed with the creativity of everyone who entered!
Voting is now open to everyone. Have a look through the entries, listed below. Visit their blogs to read more about how they created their cupcake. You can choose TWO of your favorite cupcakes – the ones that you think are most creative and you would be most likely to eat and enjoy – and vote for those two in the poll in the sidebar to the right. Voting closes in 5 days, on July 26. The 5 cupcakes that receive the most votes will then go into a random draw where one winner will be chosen.
You can only vote once for your favorite two. For more about how the voting works for this competition, read this page.
Here are the cupcakes for July 2010′s Mystery Box ingredient – TEA:
VOTING IS NOW OVER FOR THE TEA CHALLENGE
Sweet Tea Cupcakes with Raspberry-Lemon Frosting
Created by Amanda, of Like A Cupcake To The Head
Raspberry Zinger Cupcakes
Created by Amy, of Good Day Events
Inspired by one of my favorite summer-time treats, iced sweet tea made with Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger Herbal Tea, these cupcakes are both sweet and tart – the perfect summertime treat!
Thai Tea Cupcakes
Created by Anna, of Very Small Anna
A light cake flavored and colored with Thai tea. Filled with cayenne pineapple-tamarind jam and topped with a sticky sweet white chocolate-coconut glaze and toasted coconut.
Green Tea & Strawberry Cupcakes
Created by Catie, of Catie’s Cakes & Cookies
Lavender Milk Tea Cupcakes
Created by Christy, of Torte Law
These are a lavender and black tea cupcake with a rich milky lavender frosting. They are meant to evoke lavender milky tea, which is brewed black tea, steamed milk, and lavender syrup.
Irish Breakfast Cupcakes
Created by Christy, of Twistycakes
Irish Breakfast Tea cupcakes filled with honey cream.
Caramel Savannah Cupcakes
Created by Courtney, of C&C Cakery
Rooibos-Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream.
Lemon Berry Summer Cupcakes
Created by Emily, of iBAK3
A tart, moist, lemonade cupcake made with “Lemon Lift” tea, topped with a rich, creamy, blackberry-honey, butter cream frosting made with “blackberry sage” tea and real honey. The cupcakes are garnished with a sprinkle of “blackberry sage” tea leaves and blue sprinkles.
Lavender Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream
Created by Jackie, of Galexi Cupcakes & Sweets
Spiced Vanilla Honey Tea Cupcakes
Created by Jennifer, of Monster Sweet Tooth
I’m very happy to introduce Spiced Vanilla Honey Tea Cupcakes. These cupcakes are flavored with a wonderful blend of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. The vanilla packs an extra pow with the use of both vanilla sugar and extract and an extra bit of sweetness comes from the honey. My favorite Lipton black tea joins the mix as the secret ingredient and it’s all topped off with a creamy honey vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream that’s sure to remind you of the holidays.
Orange Cupcakesicle Cupcakes
Created by Jessie, of My Baking Empire
It’s an orange-flavored cupcake, I used Tazo brand’s Sweet Orange tea, and I put a simple whipped cream topping on it.
Kalahari Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes
Created by JoAnnn, of Moogie & Pap
I created a cupcake batter incorporating the tea by infusing it into the milk. I also added a chocolate ganche filling to the baked cupcake. Finally, I capped it with a mountain of raspberry Chantilly.
Calming Camomile Cupcakes
Created by Kat, of Sweets ‘n Stitches
These cupcakes are soft and cakey with the sweet subtle aroma of camomile. Topped with a lemon cream cheese icing and a swirl of honey to really put them over the edge!
Sweet Coconut Tea Cupcakes With Caramel Filling and Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
Created by Lina, of Sourkraut Krafts
Light coconut cake steeped with two Celestial Seasonings teas: Sweet Coconut Thai and Vanilla Ginger Green Tea. Oozing with homemade caramel from the center and topped with a tangy ginger cream cheese frosting with a hint of chai.
Chilli Kiss Chocolate Cupcakes
Created by Mel
Need something to put a little bit of fire in your belly to get you through winter? These cupcakes will do the trick. Don’t let the name scare you, the taste of T2′s Chilli Kiss tea and the rich chocolate combined in this recipe is quite mellow.
Afternoon Tea Cupcakes
Created by Olga, of Sunshine & Happiness
An orange-cranberry sponge cake cupcake with Earl Grey tea French buttercream.
French Earl Grey Cupcakes with Rose Italian Meringue Buttercream
Created by Tara
I have used a vanilla cupcake recipe infused with the tea, and I have also added some ground tea to the mixture. The Rose Buttercream goes very well with the French Earl Grey Tea, which is flavoured with peach, hibiscus flowers, sunflowers and rose petals.
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Thank you for all your entries! Good luck!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mel Roddam and Mel Roddam, jamieanne. jamieanne said: The voting poll is now open for the first ever Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge! http://bit.ly/986U59 [...]
Thanks for getting this up so quickly! I can’t wait to look through everyone’s entries, snag a few new recipes to try, and of course vote.
I voted! I can’t wait to participate next month! I found out about the challenge a little too late this month!
Orange Cupcakesicle Cupcakes are the best ever!!!! No other compare.
Except they’re barely on theme… They could have been made with orange zest or extract. How an orange creamsickle has anything to do with tea is puzzling to me.
It looks like she made them with tea (orange Tazo), which I thought was the only requirement for qualifying. I’m very curious to see her recipe, though, and actually asked for it in the comments on her blog. She said she’ll be posting it today if you want to check it out.
I guess it depends how strict you want to be with the theme? Technically, fruit and rooibos teas are herbal infusions, since they don’t contain leaves of Camellia sinensis. But the theme didn’t specify that they had to be present in the recipe?
The only rule to the competition’s theme ingredient is that it must be used in some part of the cupcake. She used tea in the cupcake, so it definitely qualifies. The technicality doesn’t matter, as long as what is used is generally considered tea – ANY kind of tea will do. I won’t be that strict about it!
Amanda, your cupcake looks beautiful.
[...] 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment **Please don’t forget to vote for the ORANGE CUPCAKESICLE** Voting ends July [...]
I whipped up a batch of Jessie’s Orange Cupcakesicle Cupcakes this weekend and loved ‘em! Made some changes to the frosting portion of the recipe but that’s totally down to my personal preference for consuming as much sugar as possible in a cupcake-sized portion. I plan to make several others from the contest and can’t wait to try more!
My blog post about the orange cupcakes is here:
http://sourkrautkrafts.blogspot.com/2010/07/orange-cupcakesicle-cupcakes.html
That’s great, Lina! Thanks for sharing with us!
[...] slammed so didn’t get a chance to post about this early. Voting ends today for July’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge, in which bakers had to bake cupcakes using tea, with names like Thai Tea Cupcakes and Caramel [...]