Matcha Cupcakes with Cream Cheese (or Whipped Cream) Frosting

 My daughter turned 9 today and she loves everything matcha flavored! I was going to make her these matcha cupcakes with red bean frosting, but then I didn’t have any sour cream at home. Instead, I found this new recipe and decorated with cream cheese frosting that I had leftover from pumpkin bars.

 Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes with Whipped Cream (~from Wild Wild Whisk)

 Ingredients

Matcha Cake

·        1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (175 g)

·        2 tablespoon matcha powder (11 g)

·        ½ teaspoon baking soda

·        1 teaspoon baking powder

·        ¾ cup granulated sugar (141 g)

·        ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

·        ¾ cup buttermilk (175 g)

·        ½ cup vegetable oil (105 g)

·        1 large egg

·        ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 

Whipped cream

·        1 cup heavy whipping cream (236 g)

·        ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

·        ¼ cup granulated sugar (47 g)

·        ½ - 1 teaspoon matcha powder

 

Instructions

·        Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup standard size muffin pan with cupcake paper and set aside.

·        In a large mixing bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.

·        Sift flour, matcha powder, baking soda, baking powder in another bowl, add salt and sugar and whisk until evenly distributed. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredient mixture and stir until a smooth batter forms.

·        Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups using a large cookie scoop and bake for 17 minutes (baked for 20 min) until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached.

·        Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 - 15 minutes until cool to the touch before removing them from the pan and setting them on a wire rack to cool completely.

·        To make the whipped cream, beat together heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract and sugar until stiff peaks form. (did not do next 2 steps. Decorated with cream cheese frosting and matcha flavored sprinkles)

·        Transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with your favorite tip and pipe a swirl on top of the cupcakes. Dust some matcha powder on top. Keep refrigerated.

 

Notes

·        Use culinary matcha powder for baking, make sure your matcha powder is pure tea powder and not a matcha powder mix used to make matcha latte.

·        The whipped cream will last as long as the cupcakes without any stabilizing agent, but make sure you beat until stiff peaks.

·        You can stabilize the whipped cream using ½ - 1 teaspoon of gelatin powder, bloom it in a tablespoon of water, microwave until completely dissolved, and mix this in with the whipped cream while it is at soft peak stage and continue beating until stiff peaks.