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This is my third and final entry into Iron Cupcake: Earth this month. This is also my favorite entry, matcha strawberry cupcakes.
I loved this cupcake! It is one of the best I’ve made in ages. The cake is a basic vanilla cake, borrowed from Billy’s Bakery, flavored with matcha, or green tea, powder. Inside the cupcake is a filling of strawberry preserves, for a big strawberry taste. Swirled on top is fresh strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream, which is really lovely. It also does actually taste like strawberries, unlike my first strawberry cupcake entry, which used heaps of strawberry puree but did not taste like strawberry.
This cupcake, however, did taste like strawberries and matcha. With one bite you will first taste the strawberry. After that bite is swallowed, the flavor of the matcha hits. I really really love this cupcake, but I think I’ve already said that!
I used Billy’s vanilla cupcake recipe because this is my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe. They always come out moist and soft and were perfect for the addition of matcha – I just added the powder to the dry ingredients.
The buttercream comes from Martha Stewart. It takes a lot of mixing to make this particular buttercream, so a stand mixer is a necessity. The buttercream came out perfectly and the softness of it matched well with the moist cake.
I divided both of these recipes in half, which is why some of the ingredient amounts in the recipe may look a bit funny.
Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
- A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH
- A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS
- A sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery
- PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS; HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson; JESSIE STEELE APRONS ; TASTE OF HOME books; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.
- Cupcakes:
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons cake flour, not self-rising
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh matcha powder
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Strawberry jam or preserves
- Buttercream:
- 2 large egg whites
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1½ sticks unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
- ¾ cup fresh strawberries, pureed
- For the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and matcha powder; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until the cubes of butter are peanut-sized or a little smaller.
- In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
- Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about ⅔ full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes have cooled completely, using the cone method, fill cupcakes with strawberry jam or preserves.
- For the buttercream: Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.
- Remove from heat, and attach bowl to a mixer. Whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking well after each addition.
- Switch to a paddle attachment. With mixer on low, add strawberry puree, and beat until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.
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You couldn’t have found a better matched cupcake liner!
These do look and sound insanely delicious! I love your pic of the guts. What brand/size stand mixer do you use? I’m on the market for one and wondering what’s the best.
Amanda, these red swirl liners are quite popular for this month’s challenge, a few people have used them. They’re very summery and match well with strawberries!
Little Miss Cupcake, thank you! And I actually have 2 stand mixers in 2 different countries! The one I’ve used the most is the KitchenAid that I have here in the U.S. and I LOVE! It’s an Artisan model with a 5 quart bowl, and looks like this: http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/2008/09/cupcake-talk/
My addition of the Beater Blade has been extremely helpful – I don’t have keep scraping the bowl, so I’d definitely recommend one of those while I’m at it – http://www.beaterblade.com
My other stand mixer, which is awaiting my return in Sydney, Australia, is a Breville. It’s very similar to my KitchenAid, it is this one – http://www.breville.com.au/products_detail.asp?prod=310
What I don’t like about it is that the bowl doesn’t have a handle!, but otherwise from what I remember of it, it works just as well as the KitchenAid.
We’re going to be having another matcha green tea powder recipe contest. Your matcha cupcake recipe would make a great entry! Let us know if you would like to enter the contest.
These are so precious! I’m glad I spotted them on Food Gawker cause now I’ll be coming back for more sweet treats.
These are adorable! I love the bright colors of the pink and green. I bet they taste great too!
These are beautiful! I saw your photo on Tastespotting, they look delicious. Great flavor combination and gorgeous colors!
This one is just too pretty to pass up. There were so many entries this month but yours is definitely in my top 3 so you got my vote!!
Thanks everyone, and thank you especially for your vote, Deanna!
The Green Tea Powder recipe contest page is up!
http://www.greenteapowder.com/index.php?page=contest
Good luck!
I’m helping the folks at Matcha Source Green Tea (www.matchasource.com) introduce their products to bloggers. I really enjoyed your post, which is why I contacted you. If you send us an email at lewis@matchasource.com or info@matchasource.com, we can consider sending some complimentary products. A blog post about us would really be much appreciated. Thanks again for all your help
–Lewis
Hi –
I’d love to draw your matcha strawberry cupcakes and include it on my blog this month. Please let me know if that would be okay. Here is my blog:
http://www.lunchboxproject.com
Here are my submission guidelines:
lbptidbits.blogspot.com/2010/02/submission-gu idelines.html
You can contact me directly here: lisaorgler@huxcomm.net
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!
Lisa
Really great post….I do like Matcha Tea and know that it is very good for health…..love it
Hi Jamieanne,
Your Matcha Strawberry Cupcake look so great. l will put your website link on my blog. Thank you for sharing!
Annie
+1
I went and followed this recipe tonight and surprised my family with them as an after dinner treat. Everyone loved them, and I enjoyed making them. I’m afraid my buttercream didn’t turn out as smooth as it appears in the picture, perhaps I was a little timid about making a mess. Very tasty and I will be making them again for friends soon in the future.
Thanks for your recipe. I accidentally added double the amt of matcha powder instead and it tasted surprisingly well! However, I can’t seem to make the frosting. It was curdled after I added the puree. ):
Michelle, have you made Swiss meringue buttercream before? It often curdles, leading people less familiar with this particular type of frosting to just toss it out. However, you need to just keep mixing and eventually it will come back together into a smooth frosting. I threw out my first ever batch because I didn’t know this! 🙂
Nope I threw mine away too >: but when I tried the second time it was curdled as well. I took out half of the frosting and put it in the microwave oven for a few seconds, put it back into the mixer and the frosting became smooth after that! :>
What size decorating tip did you use?
Hi Claudia, I can’t actually remember which it was, but relatively certain it was the Wilton 1M tip.