Constant Comment Tea Cupcake With Tea Bag Proverb

I wanted to make one of those super-trendy tea cupcakes - but I wanted to do it my way!  I like Constant Comment Tea - a black tea flavored with orange and cloves, so that was my starting point

Step 1: Make the Cupcakes

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease teacups with butter. 
2)  In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup of milk until almost boiling.   Remove from heat, add 2 black tea bags and 2 Constant Comment tea bags.  Cover and let stand for about 10 minutes.  Wring out the tea bags into the milk and then discard the tea bags.
3) In a mixing bowl, whisk together the tea-milk, 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup canola oil, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract.
4) In a separate mixing bowl, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, pinch of salt and some orange zest.
5) Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well-blended.  Pour into prepared tea cups to half-way.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Yields 6 tea cups (each tea cup is two servings).

Step 2: Frosting

Prepare any buttercream frosting.  I used the one on the side of the box of confectioner's sugar. 

In a large bowl, with mixer at low speed, combine 3.75 cups of confectioner's sugar, 1/2 cup softened butter, 3 to 4 T. mik and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Beat at medium speed 1 to 2 minutes until creamy. 

Resist the temptation to use exotic flavors in the frosting.   It will overpower the delicate taste of the tea muffins. 

Step 3: Make the Tea Bag Proverbs

1) Remove teabag strings from existing tea bags to use for your proverbs. 
2) Write proverbs on plain sticky address labels creased in the middle
3) Stick your proverbs over the old tea bag label

Step 4: Decorate

Frost your cupcakes and add the tea-bag proverb.  I tried two different ways:  leave some of the cake showing so the frosting looks like a dollop of cream on a cup of tea, OR cover the whole cupcake with frosting so that it looks like a cup of tea with a frothy topping of cream.  Garnish with a little orange zest.