I am sure I have said this many times before, but I will say it again: Strawberries, matcha and white chocolate make a great combination. Which is why I thought it was only obvious that I had to combine the three in a cupcake at some point.
Ingredients:
Batter:
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cups caster sugar
- 2 tbsp matcha powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup white chocolate
- 1/2 tsp salt
Buttercream:
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3/4-1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1/2 tsp salt
Yields ~12 cupcakes
Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a paddle mixer attachment, slowly start adding in the sugar, eggs and vegetable oil until well-combined. Melt the white chocolate in a water bath or in the microwave, then let it cool down for a bit.
In the meantime, heat the buttermilk in the microwave until warm and start sifting the matcha powder into the buttermilk until it is fully dissolved. Don't skip this step as the warm buttermilk is critical for avoiding clumps of matcha powder in your batter.
Add the matcha mixture and white chocolate to the other ingredients, then distribute the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes.
For the buttercream, start whipping the butter with a paddle attachment at medium speed. Do this for approximately 5-10 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape the butter off the sides of the bowl. You want the butter to turn a very pale yellow and get really fluffy.
While the butter is whipping, put your frozen strawberries into a food processor or mixer. Since we are working with frozen berries, the mixed berries will look kind of crystallised rather than like a smooth paste. Heating the crushed berries on the stove at medium heat in a sauce pan for a few minutes will fix this problem. Give the berries some time to cool down (as we do not want to melt our butter by adding hot berries), then sift the berries and make sure to really press the berries into the mesh with a spoon to get the most liquid out of your berries.
Slowly start adding sifted powdered sugar to your butter one cup at a time, mixing in between. Once combined, keep mixing for another few minutes to get a really airy buttercream. Add salt and start adding the strawberry juice one tablespoon at a time. You will probably want to aim for around 4-6 tablespoons, but this can be adjusted depending on the desired consistency and flavour. While I use a similar process to make raspberry-flavoured buttercream, strawberries tend to be more watery so you will need more tablespoons in order to be able to taste the strawberry.
Lastly, you get to go crazy with the piping. I used Wilton 1M, 6B and 104 tips for the cupcakes shown above. Personally, the 1M and 6B are my favourites. On their own, they can either create hydrangeas and rose-shaped swirls (1M) or multi-ridged stars and swirls (6B). Enjoy! :)
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