Matcha Cupcakes

Friend wanted to get a DSLR, so we went to the IT Show during the weekend. It was a crowd pushing frenzy. There were a few moments where the crowd literally got stuck in the human traffic where we couldn't even move an inch for a good 10 seconds or so. Thankfully the Canon booth was situated outside the show itself.

Photoshoot-loving friends were psycho-ing me to get a better camera too but I chickened out in the end haha. Think I'll pass for the time being. I don't even know how to fully maximise the capabilities of my current point-and-shoot camera, needless to handle a professional camera. Clicking a DSLR in auto mode is such a shame, and that's what's gonna happen if I own one.

So we went to the Barrage and the photographers played with their cameras.

Light painting!

Cool. I feel like a super hero now.

Made matcha cupcakes the next morning. I thought the green looks pretty mutant-ish as I didn't use the best quality matcha powder. But ahh well. Love the earthy green tea fragrance emitting from these little cakes. If you're a fan of green tea, you'll love these little bite sized darlings.

Matcha Cupcakes (modified from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
(makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

Matcha Cream Cheese Frosting:
300g icing sugar (Used 115g)
50g unsalted butter, room temperature (Used 40g)
1 1/2 tsp matcha powder
125g cream cheese, cold

Method:

1. Beat the icing sugar, butter and matcha powder in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
2. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.

Cupcakes:
110g all purpose flour
120g caster sugar
10g matcha powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, room temperature
120ml whole milk
1 egg

Method:

1. Line a 12-tin cupcake tray with paper cases. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Put the flour, sugar, matcha powder, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
3. Pour in the milk and beat on medium speed until all the ingredients are well mixed (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).
4. Add the egg and beat well for a few mins.
5. Spoon the cupcake mixture on top until 2/3 full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or until light golden and the cake come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. When the cupcakes are cold, pipe the matcha cream cheese frosting on top and decorate as desired.

Green Tea Sablés

The closure to my can of almost-expiring matcha powder went to this recipe. I've never eaten nor seen a sablé before but that seems like a good recipe to burn my matcha powder, and the reviews for this particular recipe are good. Sablés is a classic French butter cookie which originates from Normandy, France. The name "Sablés" is French for "sand", describing the sandy texture of the cookie.

Googled for its pronunciation - we know how French words always sound so different from the spelling - it's pronounced as 'Sah-Bleh", sounds classy LOL. I can imagine myself going around offering the green cookies to everyone, and they gonna ask, "What are these?" And I'll take a deep breath and look oh-so-poetic and go, "Sah-Bleeeeh~"The thought of that intrigues me.

True to its name, the cookie is sandy and crumbly, enriched with the smoothness of butter. The granulated sugar rolled onto the side also contributed to the sandiness. The green tea fragrance is intense enough for me, make sure you use good quality matcha powder though. As you can see, I don't have the best rolling and slicing skills in the world, but they still look cute enough to be given away as little gifts for people :D

Green Tea Sablés (adapted from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
240g pastry flour, chilled
15g matcha powder
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
130g icing sugar (I use 122g because that's all I've left :Þ)
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
Granulated sugar for rolling on

Method:

1. Sift flour and matcha powder twice and set aside
2. Beat butter, icing sugar and salt until soft and creamy
3. Add in egg yolks and mix well
4. Fold in flour mixture with a spatula
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for about 15mins
6. Divide dough into 2 and shape them into logs about 3.5cm in diameter
7. Wrap the logs with parchment paper and refrigerate them until firm (I use shrink wrap instead and placed them in the freezer instead as I was running short of time)
8. Preheat oven to 150°C
9. Cut logs into 7mm thick slices and dip the edges into granulated sugar
10. Bake for about 25 mins and transfer to rack to cool completely

P.S. Damn I had a colleague went, "What are these?! Wasabi cookies?!" xD

Green Tea Pound Cake

I don't know why I always get myself into fixes like competing against expiry dates of my ingredients. So there I have this can of good quality matcha powder expiring in a week's time, so I had to make something out of it. You see how my bakes are mainly due to practical reasons instead of inspirations. /snorts

I knew Nick Malgeiri because I'm a fame snob by surfing online for pastry chefs. Am currently awaiting for reviews on his new book Bake! Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking before I can call myself a proud owner of his baking books. His previous books are good, but I guess I would want something newer, on the assumption that bakers improvise on their old recipes?

The pound cake tastes pleasant with just the right amount of sweetness and floral blend fragrance from the matcha powder. However, the texture is relatively dry, instead of the ideal melt-in-your-mouth kind of pound cake and I know why...because I was nosey enough to open the oven door halfway, letting cool air rushed into the oven and my oven temperature took a drastic plunge. In attempt to save the cake, I turned the oven high and it went too high hahahahhahh!! Faiiilllllll Lesson learnt. :(

Green Tea Pound Cake (adapted from Nick Malgeiri's Perfect Cakes)

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour
2 tbsp matcha powder
2 tsp baking powder
226g unsalted butter
230g icing sugar
5 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C and prepare a 9" x 5" loaf pan
2. Combine flour, matcha powder and baking powder and stir well
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light in color
4. Beat in yolks one at a time until well combined
5. Fold in flour mixture into yolk mixture and set aside
6. In a separate bowl, combine salt and egg whites and beat until soft peak
7. Add the meringue into batter mixture and fold in lightly until no more whites can be seen
8. Pour the batter into pan, smoothen the top and let it bake for 45 mins
9. Let the pan cool on rack for 10 mins before un-molding the cake and let it cool completely

Matcha Chiffon Cake

First try at making chiffon cake. Bought Keiko Ishida's Okashi and have yet to try out the recipes despite reading it religiously. Have good quality matcha powder that's expiring in September, so I picked this recipe. I didn't know you need to invert the pan for cooling so that the cake wouldn't sink. Was snapping pictures of the cake when I took it out from the oven. Mom saw me and screamed, Invert the pan...NOW!!!! The sinking starts the moment the pan is out from the oven, she says.

Really impressed with the texture. It is soft and cottony, gives the almost-melt-in-your-mouth kind of texture. The right amount of sweetness coupled with green tea fragrance. The only thing I'm disappointed is, I was overzealous in the meringue beating, resulting in curding. Now I know when to stop beating. Thankfully no one notices the extra white specks of meringue in the cake when they eat it, or maybe they're just polite hahahhh

My guinea pigs happened to be a pretty big sample size of aunties including my mom and her work place buddies, bf's mom and her mahjong kakis. Everyone loves it. I guess aunties really like chiffon cakes heehee. Gonna venture and try out all sorts of flavors!

Matcha Chiffon Cake (adapted from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
70g cake flour
10g matcha powder
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g water
60g canola oil

180g egg whites (abt 5 eggs)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour and matcha powder twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add water and canola oil to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the yolk mixture and fold until well combined (I did not follow this and pour yolk mixture into meringue for folding instead)
11. Pour the batter into a 20-cm chiffon tin and bake for 40-50 mins
12. Invert (NOWW!!) the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Matcha Azuki Muffins

Part 2 of baking weekend - Matcha muffins! Bought a can of azuki beans waiting to be nom-ed more than a month ago. Finally open ceremony it today. Modified my chocolate muffins recipe to matcha one with some adjustments. Love the results. The green tea taste is significant as I got generous with the matcha powder. Everyone who tried it smelt the matcha. Mom said the green looks pretty though I think it looks mutant-ish heehee.

Packed them in a box with encouragement on top as it's meant for a zadankai anyway. She said everyone was excited (probably due to the box) and love the muffins. Yayness for me!

Matcha Azuki Muffins

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour, sifted
100g caster sugar
120g unsalted butter, melted
300ml milk
2 eggs
6 tsp matcha powder
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g azuki beans

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Add flour, matcha powder, sugar, baking powder & salt into a bowl and mix well
3. Lightly heat up milk and egg in a saucepan
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture
5. Pour in milk mixture and melted butter into the well
6. Fold batter quickly until just combined
7. Fill up half of each muffin cup with the muffin batter
8. Add a spoonful of azuki beans on top of the half filled cups
9. Cover the muffin cups with the remaining batter
10. Bake for 20 mins
11. Leave muffins in baking tray to sit for 5 mins before cooling them on a wire rack