cupcake philosophising & chai spice mix recipe

apologies for wanky post title!

I just wanted to add something to my previous post. One of the things Chockylit says in her post with the Chocolate Chai Spice Cupcakes recipe is that if you've got a great base recipe, you can add all kinds of stuff to it and come up with something original.

I have to agree. I highly recommend people try out the chocolate-chai combination. Use the original recipe (see link in previous post) or use your own favourite chocolate cupcake recipe and add in the spices with the rest of the sifted dry ingredients. Here's how to make the chai spice mix. Recipe courtesy of Chockylit.

Chai Spice Mix
2 teaspoons fennel, whole
2 teaspoons cloves, whole
1 tablespoon cardomom, ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
2 teaspoons ginger, ground

1. Grind up the fennel and cloves. I used a mortar and pestle, which took about 40 minutes. If you have a small food processor, press the button and away you go! Try to get the fennel and cloves as finely ground as you can. It would suck to bite into a cupcake and chomp on a clove instead.
2. Add the cardomom, cinnamon and ginger and mix to combine.

When I made the mix I made a regular amount first, and then did it again with twice the spice quantities listed here. I put the chai mix into an empty Moccona glass coffee jar where I can readily use it again.