Ginger Lemongrass Cupcakes

So I have been toying around with the idea of taking two of my favorite flavors and scents and putting them together to make a cupcake. It may be such an "Asian" thing to do considering I am Asian right? Well whatever folks. I embrace the flavors and the scents that I love and if it goes well together why not use it right? The cupcake didn't come out as flavorful as I would have liked it. I am thinking of grating some ginger into the batter next time. The thing is to get more lemongrass flavor into the cake. 


What I did, since the recipe I use calls for 1 cup of milk, I took 3 stalks of lemongrass, sliced and smashed, 1 knob of ginger sliced and smashed. Threw them into the pot of milk, turn the stove on warm, and let it slowly steep and slowly heat up. When the mixture became steaming hot, I turn the heat off and let it sat there till it cool and let the flavors of the lemongrass and ginger steep into the milk. I also thought of making a lemongrass ginger syrup to brushed on the baked cupcakes. 

The batter all ready to be baked

All baked

I took a basic simple syrup recipe, added some smashed ginger and smashed lemongrass. I can tell you this, you will left over syrup. There are plenty of uses for this syrup. Tell you about that later. When the cupcakes are out of the oven, let it cool for about 5 minutes so it will still be warm. With a toothpick, poke a few holes in the cupcakes. Brush the syrup mixture over the cupcakes. After another 10 minutes, brush the cupcakes again. 

Lemongrass Ginger infusing it's flavor

Lemongrass Ginger syrup

For the frosting-it is a whipped butter powdered sugar frosting. This recipe calls for 1/2 cup of milk. So I use the same lemongrass ginger milk mixture from the cupcakes in the frosting also. I also use the syrup mixture in the frosting also. 

Whipped butter Sugar frosting

From my test taster, you can get the taste of the ginger but not so much of the lemongrass. I still have to figure out to get more lemongrass flavor in. The syrup helps a little bit but I think some grated ginger into the cake batter will make it more gingery. Now...the lemongrass....

The finished product