Thursday, June 3, 2010

Basic Green tea cupcake recipe

A few weeks ago i came across this recipe, shortly after i had purchased my first ever bag of green tea powder a.k.a matcha powder. I had been invited to a birthday so thought two dozen pretty cupcakes would be a nice gift :)

The lovely Stella helped out, and it was her idea to dust these babies with cocoa powder & icing sugar to give them a little bit of prettiness. Personally, i think the icing sugar dusted ones looked a lot cuter!


Earlier this week, my workmate's Daughter was turning 4, so another excuse to bake :) Still having alot of matcha powder left (this recipe only uses two teaspoons), i decided to make some larger sized cupcakes, and to use my newly bought wilton paste colours, and also to use up some dessicated coconut i had in the pantry.

I highly recommend using wiltons colour pastes, i only needed a tiny dab of paste to get this lovely pastel looking purple, and because it is a paste, unlike the bottles of food colouring (that can thin out your icing), a small jar will surely last you quite a while. I bought a whole lot off ebay, but you can get them individually at certain stores like.. essential ingredient @ Rozelle?



Recipe for green tea cupcakes
(makes 24 babycakes, or 12 standard cupcakes)

90g butter at room temp
75g sugar
2 eggs
125g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
50ml milk
2 tsp matcha powder

Preheat oven to 180'C.

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Add the eggs and continue to beat. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, then the almonds.

Heat the milk in a saucepan, remove from the stove and add the matcha tea powder. Leave to soak for 3 minutes, then beat it all to remove any remaining clots. Add the matcha milk to the dough and incorporate well (do not over mix or your cupcake will be tough)

Distribute the mix between a 12 muffin tray or a 24 babycake tray.

Bake 13 minutes (for babycakes) or 18 minutes (for cupcakes).

- For raspberry topped cakes just pop one (or a couple raspberries on top before placing the trays in the oven. After baking, and once completely cooled, dust with icing sugar or cocoa powder (or even with vanilla bean dust if you have that!)



Recipe for pastel purple rosewater flavored frosting

135g butter
1.5 cups icing sugar
3 tsp milk
2 tsp rosewater essence

Beat the butter until fluffy and light in colour. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until sugar has dissolved and mixture is frosting-like texture. Add more milk if too dry, or more icing sugar if too wet.

I dusted the tops with desiccated coconut and shook off any excess, but you can decorate with anything that you have (or leave plain). Because of the strong coconut flavor, you couldn't really tell the rosewater flavoring, so you can use vanilla essence instead.


26 comments:

chocolatesuze said...

aw ive had the biggest craving for green tea this week! your cupcakes look fab!

Maria said...

Oh Betty, you are our Cupcake Queen!
And thanks for making me want to go back to Essential Ingredient...

Betty @ The Hungry Girl said...

That purple icing is so pretty! MMm I love all things green tea :)

missklicious said...

Wow, these look great! Love the pastel purple icing. I have a massive craving for cupcakes right now.

Amy @ cookbookmaniac said...

These are so pretty. The raspberry and icing sugar is a lovely touch.

Von said...

I love green tea flavour =] Although I've never made anything green tea flavoured......I can never find green tea powder =[ These look so good! I think the icing sugar ones look cuter too!

Beekeey said...

they look like little mochi balls!

Angie Lives to Eat (and Cook)! said...

Keep eating green tea flavoured desserts but yet to try and make my own. Cupcakes make cool gifts! =)

iga@thedelishdish said...

ive always wanted to try matcha...i love green tea and the color is so pretty! these are too cute!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

They look fantastic! What refined little cupcakes.

Cheers,

Rosa

Kristy Sayer-Jones @ Southern In Law said...

Awh these look super cute! What a great present

OohLookBel said...

Ooh, Betty, the cakes look amazing. I love green tea so I might get some matcha powder just to try out this brilliant cake.

Anh said...

That purpple color is amazing!

Anonymous said...

Love all your cupcake creations! I love matcha and this is definitely on my to do list!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

That last picture is so pretty! I bought my Wilton gels from ebay too :) Gorgeous cupcakes Betty :D

Stella said...

Hey Betty, this is just what I need! I've been meaning to make a green tea cake or cupcake. These look so delicious and pretty too...

Katie@Cozydelicious said...

These cupcakes are so pretty! I have never had matcha in cupckae before, so I'm so excited to try it!

Forager said...

Yum- green tea cupcakes sound great and your presentation is gorgeous!

Anna said...

Thanks for sharing, Betty. I have been looking for a good basic green tea cupcake recipe so I was glad to read your post.

Forgive my ignorance, but where can one buy matcha powder in Sydney?

MaryMoh said...

Beautiful cupcakes. Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe. I have to go and find matcha powder.

Trissa said...

Betty you sure know how to make great cupcakes. I love the idea of a rosewater cupcake. I thought i had seen all cupcakes already - but this one takes the cake... err.. the cupcake I mean.

Rose said...

mmm these sounds and look amazing!
Such pretty photos with the flowers too.

Rose

Anonymous said...

i lovelovelove the look of your cupcakes!!! And the flavours must be stunning too! Aww man, jealous!

mashi said...

YUM! The green tea ones look awesome (I have a weakness for green tea lol). I agree, I think the icing sugar dusting makes them look prettier.

mashi said...

Reporting back: these cupcakes are fantastic. So easy to make and very moist and yummy. Thanks for sharing your recipe =)

Y said...

They look so beautiful! I love baking with green tea - something about that wonderful flavour that seems to go so well in simple cakes and cookies.