Have you ever wanted a dirty chai latte in cupcake form? No, just me? Well let me convince you why you should! If you didn't know, dirty chai just means chai mixed with espresso. These dirty chai cupcakes have a chai spiced brown butter cupcake base with brewed espresso. Then they're topped with brown butter chai spice buttercream frosting. All the warming spices make them the perfect fall cupcakes!
You might also like these chai spice macarons or these espresso cupcakes!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients (and lots of spices) to make these chai spice cupcakes!
Cake Flour - I always use cake flour in my baked goods because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Almond Flour - I love substituting a portion of the flour for almond flour in all my baked goods! It helps keep the cupcakes super moist and tender! It's totally optional, but if you keep almond flour on hand it's a must.
Brewed Coffee - I love adding brewed coffee or espresso to the cupcakes for a richer coffee flavor! However, if you don't want to brew just ½ cup of coffee, you can swap it out for water or milk.
Chai Spice - I love using my homemade chai spice mix, but you could also use pumpkin pie spice instead!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
I recommend making the brown butter the night before you make the chai cupcakes, so that it has time to fully cool to room temperature!
Since both the cupcakes and the buttercream call for brown butter, I find it easier to just make one large batch and then weigh out the difference using a kitchen scale (½ cup of butter weighs about 113 grams).
However, if you don't have a scale you can just make two separate batches of brown butter!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Chai Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the chai spice mix and set aside.
Whisk the cake flour, almond flour, 1 tablespoon of chai spice mix, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk the melted brown butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until combined.
Stir in about half of the flour mixture then stir in the brewed espresso. Next add in the remaining flour mixture and mix until fully combined.
Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Frost cooled dirty chai cupcakes and top with a sprinkle of the chai spice mix and enjoy!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Cupcake Decorating Tips
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!!
For these big beautiful chai frosting swirls I use the 9FT tip from this decorating kit. The tips are much larger than standard sizes and so fun for decorating cupcakes!
Sprinkle a little bit of the extra chai spice blend on top for extra flavor and texture!
I topped these dirty chai cupcakes with some pretty star anise, but you can decorate however you like!
Recipe FAQ's
These cupcakes will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Of course not! You can absolutely substitute regular unsalted butter. I just love the flavor that brown butter adds.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Brown Butter Dirty Chai Cupcakes
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Chai Spice Mix
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
Cupcakes
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, melted
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ¼ cup almond flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon chai spice mix
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup brewed espresso or coffee, substitute whole milk
Chai Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons chai spice mix
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons milk, as needed
Instructions
- I highly recommend making the brown butter for the buttercream the night before so that it has plenty of time to fully cool!
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the chai spice mix and set aside.
- Whisk the cake flour, almond flour, 1 tablespoon of chai spice mix, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the melted brown butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until combined.
- Stir in about half of the flour mixture then stir in the brewed espresso. Next add in the remaining flour mixture and mix until fully combined.
- Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
- Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Chai Buttercream
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Add in the 2 teaspoons of chai spice mix and vanilla extract and mix until creamy.
- Add in milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Then beat the frosting on high speed for 4-5 minutes until super light and fluffy.
- Frost cooled cupcakes. I used an open star piping tip for these photos.
- Top with a sprinkle of the chai spice mix and enjoy!
- These cupcakes will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Casey says
I will definitely be making these! Could I use one teaspoon of ground ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon to get the chai flavor and have 1 tablespoon of spices? Do you think I'd get the same flavor profile? Thanks!
Kyleigh Sage says
Yeah you can absolutely change up the spices if needed. It would be very similar!
Amy says
It says 1/2 cup of espresso that’s a ton of shots. Is it one shot or 1/2 cup coffee? Wouldn’t that also change the consistency of the batter?
Kyleigh Sage says
You need 1/2 cup of total liquid. You can do espresso, coffee, milk or a combination as long as there’s 1/2 cup total. I like to use espresso because it is quite strong but across all the cupcakes it’s actually not that much per cupcake, and I just prefer the stronger flavor. But I’ve also done just brewed coffee and that works fine too! It’s up to you!
Colette says
Amazing flavor from the brown butter and chai spices. Some of my friends have even said they are the best cupcakes they've ever had!
Sara says
This recipe is surprisingly easy as my 14 year old daughter made them and my only job was to brown the butter. They are extremely decadent and taste as if they came from a fancy bakery here in Belgium!!! She said they taste cozy and spicy! We ate them with tea and watched Hocus Pocus 2!!!
Amenah says
Hello! If I were to weigh out the flour what’s the grams I’d need? I do have a kitchen scale so I’d rather weigh out flour then use measuring cups!
Kyleigh Sage says
If you go to the top of the recipe card, there’s a button to change the measurements to metric!
Katie says
Could I replace the espresso with cold brew?
Kyleigh Sage says
Yeah that should work fine!
Michelle says
Any differences to make a cake rather than cupcakes?
Kyleigh Sage says
This recipe should make roughly 2 six inch round layers or 1 eight inch round layer. Or one square pan but if you want to use a large 9x13 you’ll need to double it.
And increase the baking time to 25-35 minutes!
ASTA says
Is brown butter the same as ghee? Can it be changed to it?
Kyleigh Sage says
Brown butter is when you cook the butter to caramelize the milk solids, but ghee is when the milk solids have been removed. So if you don't want to use brown butter, I'd just substitute with regular unsalted butter!
Gabe says
I would like to try it with another flavors combination like adding chocolate To the buttercream, is that a good idea? And what other combinations would you recommend?
Laura says
Hi! These look amazing and I'm really excited to try out this recipe! I'm planning on making it into a cake for my friend's birthday, instead of cupcakes (we'll be doing cupcakes for another party of hers). Are there any tweaks or suggestions you have for making it into cake rather than cupcakes?
K Rai says
These turned out so well! The buttercream held its shape perfectly which is something I always look for in a recipe. Absolutely love the spice blend too. I will certainly be making these again!
Mohini says
Hi! These look amazing!! Would like to substitute the eggs so that it’s eggless.. any suggestions?
Kyleigh Sage says
Hi! Unfortunately I haven’t tested it without eggs so I’m not sure. I know that mashed banana or applesauce are common substitutions for eggs, but they would definitely change the flavor. I’m sorry!
Katie says
These taste just like a chai latte! So good!