I LOVE Royal T in Culver City. They have the most amazing art installations, great food and a pretty awesome gift shop that stocks some great items…if I do say so myself.

The Royal T iced milk tea is the bomb. Sometimes I drive thru Culver City JUST to get one. So when I got a bag of their loose leaf tea, I knew I wanted to make a cupcake out it with infused milk for my huge New Year’s Day party (here). Perfection!

ingredients:
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup whole milk
2 Tablespoons Royal T tea

Mascarpone frosting (recipe, here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a small saucepan, warm the milk – careful not to scald it. Take it off the heat and put the loose tea in an infuser and let the tea steep in the hot milk. Set aside. You want this good and overly saturated so that the cupcake will get the full flavor of the tea.

In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and the sugar until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla.

Alternate the dry ingredients with the tea infused milk until the batter is nice and smooth. Divide the batter into the liners – you will get 24 cupcakes out of this.

Bake for 14-16 minutes depending on your oven, checking with a toothpick. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, top with the mascarpone frosting and serve!

Royal T’s tea is so lovely, the milk tea taste really comes through with hints of rose and lots of flavor which pairs really nicely with the creamy, light mascarpone frosting. A perfect cupcake for a tea party!