[Recipe] Matcha (Green Tea) Cupcake

Click here for Bahasa Indonesia version. 

A year ago, me and some friends set up a small bakeshop in Pasar Santa, South Jakarta. This market, gained a lot of attention because it went from zero (for the longest time, it was almost dead) to be the hippest place in town, literally overnight. Call it a gentrification or whatever, but hoards of young (a lot of time stylish) business owners flowed in and enlivened the market in matters of weeks. For us, we jumped in because it was very cheap; the cheapest rent in the city, especially for upscale South Jakarta, hence the only type of rent we could afford. 

To cut the story real short, Pasar Santa was short-lived (the hype lasted for less than a year), but lots of lessons were learned. One of which is, the kind of cupcakes that young Jakartans love the most. In our case, it was the Mini Matcha Cupcakes. 

I tried a bunch of popular green tea cupcake recipes from the internet, but in the end came up with this version I'm about to share. I think this recipe yields an extra moist green tea cupcake which frosting can also hold up to the Jakarta heat, without sacrificing the taste. Although really, you can just sift in matcha powder to any of your favourite vanilla cupcake. But, the thing is, I don't actually have one! I guess I am still in the look for a favourite cupcake recipe? 

One thing that can make or break your matcha cupcake is the matcha powder. Make sure you get a really good one, which is almost always from Japan. It is a little bit more pricey, but a little bit of this beautiful green powder really goes a long way. The good kind of matcha powder will give your green tea cupcake that distinct bitterness, characteristic to powdered green tea.

Enjoy! 

Matcha powder my sister brought from her trip to Japan. I'm not totally sure what does the packaging say. LOL. But, this is better than most of the kind I found around here, so in it goes to my cupcakes! 

Matcha Cupcake 

2 cups (256 grams) of All Purpose flour 

1/2 tablespoon Baking Powder 

1/4 tsp salt 

170 grams butter 

200 grams sugar 

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk

167 ml milk 

2 tablespoon matcha powder 

Matcha cream cheese frosting:

6 tbsp (85 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature.* 

226 grams cream cheese, softened. 

512 grams powdered sugar 

1 tablespoon milk, for consistency. 

2 tbsp matcha powder 

*room temperature here is mere lingo for me, as it refers to around 22-25 degree celsius, which is NOT the temperature of rooms in where I live. For humidity bakers like myself, this means around 10-15 minutes of letting the cold butter sit outside the fridge. 

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 180 celsius 

2. Sift the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, matcha powder, add salt. 

3. Cream butter and sugar until pale

4. Add in eggs one by one

5. Alternate dry ingredients with milk in three batches. 

6. Pour in to cupcake liners, I like to make mini ones, which makes around 2 dozens with this recipe. 

7. Bake for 20-30 minutes. (longer if making bigger cupcakes)

8. Let cool completely before frosting. 

Frosting: 

1. Mix unsalted butter and cream cheese separately before combining them together. I like to do this for a more clump free mixture, which is why I find hand mixers to be more practical. 

2. Sift in the powdered sugar and matcha powder, mix well.

3. If the mixture is too dry, add a little bit of milk.
4. Frost on top of your cupcakes using regular round tip.