MATCHA CUPCAKES
By Iron Chef Shellie
This recipe comes from our lovely friend Shellie Froidevaux aka Iron Chef Shellie – food stylist, photographer, graphic designer and cook. All the things we love rolled into one person! Her incredible talents make for some amazing matcha masterpieces like these beautiful matcha cupcakes iced to perfection with a delightful matcha buttercream.
Just like Matcha Maiden, Shellie is all about the food. She is dedicated to food, experienced in creativity, a lover of travel and obsessed with collecting styling props. Shellie is committed to working in the culinary world, to style and shoot her way through the most delicious and inspiring temptations of today. Although based in Melbourne, Australia; Shellie is free to travel worldwide for styling, photography and blogging. Lucky for us who can enjoy the results!
You can read more about her adventures and experiments on her beautiful website – click here. Her matcha cupcake recipe was also accompanied by an expert write up on matcha itself – click here for the recipe post on the Iron Chef Shellie website.
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INGREDIENTS
MATCHA CUPCAKES
- 150ml milk
- 4 green tea teabags
- 2½ tsp matcha (green tea) powder
- 110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 225g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, free-range or organic
- 125g self-raising flour
- 120g plain flour
MATCHA BUTTERCREAM ICING
- 115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 60ml milk
- 1 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
- 500g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp matcha (green tea) powder
TO MAKE THE ICING
- Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth. This will usually take a few minutes. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and the green tea powder to produce a buttercream with a creamy and smooth consistency. The green tea powder should be sufficient to achieve the desired green shade of icing so you won’t need to add any food colouring.
- The buttercream can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. Beat well again before reusing.
How To Prepare
- Heat the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the teabags. Cover with clingfilm and let the mixture steep for at least 30 minutes, or longer if possible. You could even leave this overnight in the fridge.
- When you are ready to make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with muffin cases. Remove the teabags from the milk and squeeze out any excess milk into the pan. Add the green tea powder, and stir.
- In a bowl cream the butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition. Sift the flours into a separate bowl and stir well. Add one-third of the flour mix to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk/tea mixture and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the fl our and milk has been added.
- Carefully spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases, to about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until raised and golden brown. The cakes will have a greenish tinge to them.
- Leave the cupcakes in their tin for 10 minutes or so before turning out onto a wire rack. When completely cool, ice with the green tea buttercream icing and sprinkle with a little green tea powder.
