Cupcake of the Week: BubbleTea CupCakes || Week 16

** That's annoying... Blogger, thanks for deleting my post! **

After stumbling across a bag of rainbow tapioca pearls, I wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite drinks, the infamous bubble-tea or Boba.  Generally consisting of a nice creamy milk tea paired with a delicate & chewy collection of tapioca balls, this drink brings back many memories of sneaking off-campus in high school, and holding all out boba wars in the student union apres school.  (hint, a sticky bubble tea ball makes a nice alternative to a spit-ball)

BubbleTea CupCakes
yield 2 dozen mini cupcakes || 20 minutes prep; 25 minutes cook

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk-tea
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 bag of black tea leaves

pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. in a bowl mix together all of the ingredients, except the black tea leaves.  to make the milk-tea, combine equal parts whole milk with strongly brewed black tea. line your mini cupcake tray and fill each cupcake 2/3 of the way full.  sprinkle a pinch of black tea leaves on top of each cupcake. bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. this recipe will yield 2 dozen minis.

Milky Frosting + Boba Garnish

• 1/2 cup (one stick) of butter
• 1 box of powdered sugar
• 2-3 tbsp whole milk
• 1/2 cup tapioca pearls

in a bowl whip the softened butter until it's nice and smooth. slowly incorporate the powdered sugar & milk, alternating until you've reached your desired consistency. set aside &

first off there are two options for buying tapioca pearls, the first are the traditional brown ones that you find in most bubbletea drinks.  those involve carefully heating to a certain temperature, and delicately monitoring the bubbles to ensure that they reach the desired texture & consistency in what sounds like a lot of work.  the other option are the rainbow pearls, which take all of 5 minutes to prepare.  boil water. dump a handful into the boiling water.  they're done when they've floated to the top!  voila!  plus they look a lot prettier on top of the cupcakes!