Green Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing

I'm back! After a bit of an absence from my wee blog due to moving and dieting, I'm now settling into life in London as a postgraduate English Linguistics student, and I've joined my university's Baking Society which has made the cake making urges return tenfold! I attended their welcome meeting last week and had a jolly old time meeting fellow baking enthusiasts and sampling some scrumptious homemade goodies. The theme for the night was 'try something new' so I thought this'd be the perfect excuse to try out the matcha green tea powder my other half very kindly brought me back from California after I said I'd like to use some in my cooking. Fortunately the oven in my new flat is wonderful and these cakes turned out beautifully - despite turning the sponge a lurid swampy colour, the green tea powder gives them a lovely subtly fragrant twang which works well with white or milk chocolate icing. I'm proud to say they were the first tin of cakes to disappear!

I've since found out that matcha green tea powder is extremely expensive to buy here in the UK (I've seen prices from £20 to £50!!) so they may not be the most practical cupcakes to try. However, you could add the contents of regular green tea bags instead and still get the flavour, just without the distinctive eye-catching green sponge.

Like a moron I forgot to photograph the insides of the cakes but the sponge came out very green! I ran out of white chocolate icing for the last two cakes and was in a hurry so I slathered them in Nutella - they were also delicious!

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12-14

For the cakes:

• 6 oz self-raising flour
• 6 oz caster/granulated sugar
• 6 oz butter/margarine
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing (measurements very approximate, sorry!):

• 5 oz white chocolate
• 3 tbsp butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• Splash of milk
• A few pinches of matcha green tea powder
• 12 wafer daisies (optional)

METHOD

For the cakes:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Whisk the butter/margarine and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, green tea powder and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Drop the mixture into the cake cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
5. Pop in the oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
6. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the icing:

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 30-40 seconds (or 1 minute if using cooking chocolate - this tends to be more forgiving) until smooth.
2. Add the butter, icing sugar and milk and beat until the mixture is a spreadable consistency. If it's too runny add more icing sugar and if it's too stiff add more milk.
3. Spread onto the cakes using a palette knife - make sure you work quickly as this icing tends to stiffen rapidly!
4. Sprinkle a little matcha green tea powder onto the top of each cake and add a wafer daisy as a pretty finishing touch if you wish. Voila!

Maria's Ridiculously Good Best Ever Blondies

I normally find it quite arrogant when people put their names on recipes but I couldn't resist putting my stamp on this one as it's my definite favourite of all the baked creations I've made up myself so far, and their irresistible butterscotchy flavour really makes them ridiculously good!

I was reluctant to reveal my secret ingredient to my eager samplers but I shall share it here for the benefit of the baking community at large (ahem). And that secret ingredient is...*drum roll*...custard powder. This idea came about when I was simply too lazy to look up a blondie recipe and decided just to go by my fail safe brownie recipe (available here: http://cloudninepointone.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/best-ever-jack-daniels-brownies ) and substitute the milk chocolate for the white variety. It then dawned on me that I had no idea what to add in place of the cocoa powder. There's no such thing as white cocoa powder (to my knowledge?!) and I was worried that making up the cocoa quantity with more flour would affect the flavour and make them too plain so, in the absence of butterscotch Angel Delight, I reached for the vanilla scented custard powder. And hey presto! The rest is scrumptious cakey history.

The lovely golden blondies pictured with their darker chocolate bretherin, pre-cutting...

INGREDIENTS

• 200g granulated/caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 80g self-raising flour
• 120ml cooking oil
• 130g white cooking chocolate
• 4.5 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Few drops of Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (optional but really makes the butterscotchy flavour pop!)

METHOD

• Grease the baking tin with margarine/butter or line with baking parchment.
• Briefly whisk the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla extract and caramel flavouring together in a large mixing bowl.
• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 1 minute until smooth, then pour into the mixing bowl.
• Fold the flour and custard powder into the mixture and pour into the lined tin.
• Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the cake comes out pretty much clean then leave to cool.
• Cut the blondies into squares using a sharp knife and marvel at their deliciousness as you dive in.