White Chocolate Cupcakes with Green Tea Frosting.
I was inspired to make this cupcake by my recent trip to Japan and the amazing taste of the Green Tea Kit Kat Bars. He fell in love with the unique Kit Kat Bars that I decided to turn them into a cupcake for his birthday. Its basically a regular Kit Kat Bar but instead of milk chocolate, they use white chocolate green tea. I came back with a load of powdered green tea so I made these absolutely delicious white chocolate cupcakes with Green Tea Frosting…as follows:
For the cupcake:
Ingredients:
9 oz. white chocolate chips (just buy a regular 12 oz. bag and estimate a little more than half the bag)
1 Tbs. Butter flavored shortening
1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tsp. baking powder
1/2 Tsp. salt
1 1/2 Sticks unsalted butter (Room Temperature)
1 Cup sugar
1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
1/2 Cup unsweetened coconut milk
5 large egg whites
Pinch of Cream of Tartar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cupcake tins in two 12 cup cupcake pans.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In the electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachement: cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Using a double boiler, melt white chocolate chips and shortening. When it is relatively all melted (some clumps of white chocolate is okay!), add to the butter mixture and mix on low until combined. (See details on melting white chocolate at the very bottom!)
5. Continue mixing on low and alternate flour mixture and coconut milk in 3-4 batches.
6. Transfer batter to a separate large bowl and clean and dry the electric mixing bowl.
7. Fitted with the whisk attachement, whisk egg whites and a pinch of cream of tartar until soft peaks. (Soft peaks = when you lift up the whisk and turn it upside down, the peak that forms falls over - like into a hook shape)
8. Fold the egg whites in the batter until just combined. Don’t overfold! This will make for a fluffy yet extremely moist cupcake!
9. Using an ice cream scoop (I found this to be the easiest ever!) fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 the way up. Bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserts in and out cleanly. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
For the Green Tea Frosting:
Ingredients:
3 Tbs. Green Tea powder or 2 Tbs. Matcha Powder
2 1/2 Tbs. Half and Half
1 stick salted butter (room temperature)
3 Cups powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Mix the green tea powder with half and half to create thin paste.
2. Cream the butter with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachement.
3. Add powdered sugar and green tea paste. Mix until it is smooth. The icing will seem a little thick but you want this consistency because once you start piping with a piping bag, your hands will warm up the icing and it will result in the perfect consistency for cupcake icing!
Viola!
These cupcakes are so delicious - the consistency is perfect - fluffy but moist. The white chocolate and green tea icing really complement each other. I like using green tea powder instead of matcha because matcha will have a stronger green tea taste and I like the subtle taste, but if you like the strong green tea taste then use matcha instead! I decorated with white chocolate designs - to do this just melt the white chocolate over a double boiler with a little shortening. Temper with a few unmelted white chocolate chips after you remove it from the heat. Use a zip log bag with a tiny part of the tip cut out and just make squiggles on wax paper. Refrigerate for 15 minutes and peel the designs off. I also sprinkled some powdered sugar on top.
The coconut in this recipe is extremely subtle and is used to enhance the white chocolate taste. My friend absolutely despises coconut and she didn’t even know I put coconut in it until I told her. So feel free to serve it to the coconut haters - they won’t taste a thing!
White chocolate is hard to melt - keep an eye on it because it will melt at a lower temperature than normal chocolate and curdle WAY faster than normal chocolate. After you get the water to a boil, turn the flame down to medium low to keep the water from hitting the bottom of the double boiler bowl. Let the white chocolate chips melt for about a minute and a half without touching them and then start to stir it slowly. The shortening should help and once most of it is melted, remove it from the heat and continue to mix off the heat - the remaining heat from the bowl will suffice. The shortening is key here - I have never been successful melting white chocolate without shortening.
