As I always do when I first get a new cookbook, I flipped through every page of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking after Tom gave it to me for Christmas, and I used Post-It flags to mark the recipes I wanted to try. I've already made it through a few (Sweet and Salty Cake, Root Beer Bundt Cake, Peanut Butter Crispy Bars, and the Baked Brownie), but today I finally got to try the recipe from the cookbook that I've been most eagerly anticipating. I've been itching to try the "Almond Green Tea Cucpakes" recipe since I saw the lovely photo of an almond-colored cupcake with large dollop of pale green frosting, topped with a fortune cookie. You can see the photo and the recipe in its entirety at the "Cupcakes Take The Cake" blog, here. Almond is my favorite flavor of all time, and green tea is pretty high up there on my list as well. I've had green tea flavored cakes and desserts before (and apparently this is a growing trend, because just a couple of weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times food section ran an article on green tea desserts), but I had never come across a recipe that paired almond and green tea together. I thought the flavor combination sounded fantastic.
I decided to make the almond green tea cupcakes this afternoon to take to a friend's backyard barbecue. The cupcake part of the recipe is pretty straightforward, and the batter did yield exactly 24 cupcakes. The cupcake batter was very white, and the cupcakes hardly colored at all in the oven. The frosting recipe took a little more work. I was able to make a sort of green tea custard by cooking a mixture of sugar, flour, matcha green tea powder, milk, and cream on the stove until it thickened and came to a boil. I strained the hot mixture and beat it in the stand mixer until it had cooled, and then added butter and vanilla. At that point, even though the frosting was at room temperature, it was a little too soupy to use. After about an hour in the refrigerator and another few turns in the stand mixer, the frosting was firm enough to pipe onto the cupcakes. I skipped the fortune cookie on top.
I used some scalloped-edge floral design cupcake liners that I bought on impulse when I was at Little Bitts shopping for sugar doves last month, and I thought they looked just lovely with the final color scheme. My frosting color was much darker than what was pictured in cookbook photo, but I thought that it was quite nice -- the color pretty much screamed "green tea!"
Unfortunately, my cupcakes were not able to withstand the D.C. weather. I had to pack up the cupcakes and take them to the barbecue right after I frosted them, and I didn't have time to put them back in the fridge for the frosting to set a little more firm. It was in the high 80s today, and before too long, I noticed that the frosting was melting on the cupcakes as they were outside at the barbecue. Also, while the cupcakes were definitely cooked, they were quite crumbly, and I noticed that people eating the cupcakes were were experiencing significant difficulty confronting the dual challenges of runny frosting and excess cupcake crumbs. Next time I will probably bake the cupcakes for a minute or two longer and definitely make sure that the frosting has time to set up hard in the fridge (or at the very least, I will not serve these outside on a hot day again!).
There definitely will be a next time. I really liked this cupcake. The flavors were subtle and not too sweet, and the texture of the cupcake was very light. It's an interesting and unusual flavor combination and a refreshing change of pace from the many dense and fudgy desserts that I often make.
Recipe: "Almond Green Tea Cupcakes" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Cupcakes Take The Cake.
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