Green Tea "Matcha" Cupcakes

So, for those of you that don't know I really enjoy cooking and baking. It is not something I can do everyday but I do find fulfillment in baking and cooking new things. I have quite a few dinner parties where I invite some of my "gal pals" over and cook for them or I take things to work just because. Well I came across green tea cupcakes and became immediately curious. So, I looked up a recipe to bake them myself and I must say...they were AAAMMMMAAAAZZZIIING! I wanted to share my wealth of knowledge with all of you so I posted the recipe and some pictures of the process along the way for those who like visual effects when cooking something new to make sure that you are doing it right, like myself. Enjoy! 


Ingredients

• 24 cupcake papers or 1/2 sheet pan / 350 degree oven
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons matcha tea

Process

1. Beat unsalted butter until soft, for about 30 seconds.

2. Add sugar and beat until butter and sugar are well blended and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 

3. Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time and beat for 30 seconds each. 

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and add batter to mix well. 

TIP: Whisking helps prevents large clumps from forming in your batter. 

4. Mix Matcha with milk (I use soy milk) and combine.

Fact: Matcha is a finely-milled and ground green tea, which is most popular in Japan. Matcha is used for making green tea ice cream and other green tea inspired recipes. 

Tip: You can buy a bag of Matcha this size from Jungle Jim's. You can also add it to smoothies. It is very high in protein. 

Tip: How I make my cupcakes and cakes so moist is that I beat them very well until all lumps are out of the matter. 

6. Now scoop batter into a prepared cupcake pan with papers already in tact. 

7. Bake for about 20-22 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. 

Tip: Another practice I use to make sure that my cakes and cookies are moist is never cook them to the maximum time that is suggested unless the good is not completely finished. For instance, I hardly ever let my cookies bake completely through. I don't know the science behind it, but they are still cooked thoroughly. 

8. Once the cupcakes are finished. Let cool and ice as necessary. 

Tip: For icing, I use a sandwich bag and place my icing in the bag. At the tip of the bag, cut open a small hole to allow the icing to be squeezed through. This cause less mess. You can use this method if you do not have a professional decorative icing bag. 

Place the sandwich bag inside of a cup to avoid access mess. 

I added green food coloring to go with recipe. There is a Matcha butter cream icing recipe to go along with this recipe if you would like to use that instead ( I will next time. I was tired). 

The icing will come out of the end of bag as you squeeze. You can also make designs if you wish. 

There you have it folks! Green Tea cupcakes!

These treats definitely Tickle My Fancy.

Enjoy!!

For a printed version of the recipe, go to:

http://www.matchasource.com/matcha-cupcakes-s/41.htm