Black Sesame Cupcakes with Green Tea Buttercream Frosting

Made a cupcake-cake in the shape of a dress for a bridal shower! Used black fondant and white pearl sprinkles for the belt since I had so much black fondant left from one of my daughter's bday parties where we made sushi candy. 

I had most of the ingredients at home except tahini, black sesame seeds and matcha powder

tahini reminds me of peanut butter. When I opened the can of tahini, the liquid had completely separated out so needed to mix it well before using. had purchased Earth Fair organic tahini before and that didn't taste very good...this one (which I bought at Ingles) tasted a little better

Was playing with some piping tips! 

This is the first recipe that I've tried from food blogger, Molly Yeh, who according to Bon Appetit has become of the most popular food bloggers. She has a very interesting background- half Chinese/half Jewish, trained as a percussionist at Julliard in NYC and now lives on a sugar beet farm in North Dakota! I made these black sesame cupcakes with green tea frosting from her blog. Then I made them into a shape of a dress for a bridal shower so had fun with that!  Want to try more of her recipes! like her Matcha cake with black sesame buttercream and olive oil cupcake and berry buttercream.

I doubled the recipe, and made the cupcakes a little smaller (filling the cupcake liners about half full) to get about 30 cupcakes. Enough cupcakes for my dress cupcake-cake, and some extra for a dinner party later! I bought the tahini and black sesame seeds from Ingles, and then the green tea powder form H-mart.

black sesamecupcakes (~from Molly Yeh, in red are the measurements with the recipe doubled)

makes 12

ingredients

·        1 1/4 c all-purpose flour (2.5 cups)
1 tsp baking powder (2 tspn)
1/2 tsp kosher salt (1 teaspoon kosher salt)
1 tb unsweetened cocoa (2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa)
6 tb black sesame seeds, toasted and ground in a spice grinder to a fine crumb (12 tablespoons black sesame)
1/2 c unsalted buter, softened (1 cup unsalted butter)
1/4 c tahini (1/2 cup tahini)
3/4 c sugar (1.5 cups sugar)
2 large eggs (4 large eggs)
2 tsp vanilla extract (4 teaspoons vanilla extract)
2/3 c milk (1 and 1/3 cup milk)

clues

1.      Preheat oven to 350ºf. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

2.      Whisk together all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

3.      In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together butter, tahini, and sugar until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and then gradually mix in the dry ingredients and then beat in the milk. Scoop into the cupcake tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes. 

4.      Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

5.      frost as desired with matcha buttercream (this recipe makes enough for 24 cupcakes, so you only need half!) or vanilla buttercream. enjoy!

matcha green tea frosting  (~from Molly Yeh)

ingredients

1 batch of my favorite chocolate cupcakes

4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3 c powdered sugar

2 tsp matcha green tea powder- (used 2 tablespoons)

1 tsp vanilla extract

clues

once cakes are baked and cooled, beat together the butter, sugar, matcha powder, and vanilla. taste and add more sugar and/or matcha if desired.

frost away! (i have been having so much fun practicing these frosting techniques)

enjoy for breakfast :)