Green Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

So... this weekend is a super long weekend for me. I'll have Friday to Monday off, thanks to Labor Day (and my company's new policy). And what else would I rather do on a Friday off than to spend the whole day in my kitchen baking?! Well, I actually started some baking Thursday night when I get home from work. :p

I played around with chocolate decorations, experimenting with bread making (with the help of a tip from a Hany), made these cute little cupcakes, and many other things that you will see in my next posts. I also experimented with my little cameras after the cupcakes are done. :p

So these little darlings are green tea cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I'm starting to think that I need to create short names for my baked goods instead of just putting the descriptions as names. Well, anyways...

The cupcakes are actually green tea sponge cake baked in cupcake forms. I usually bake my sponge cakes for 15-20 minutes in 8" pans but I'm thankful that I checked these cupcakes after 7 minutes because they were already done by then. The tops were already browning and when I inserted a skewer, it came out clean. The texture of these cupcakes are light with small, soft crumbs.

The frosting was also quite delish! But it has to be cold, otherwise, the frosting doesn't taste very good. When it's cold, the frosting has a creamy texture and the taste of the white chocolate and cream cheese really complimented together. But when it's warm and melting, it's just not quite as yummy.

Here's the recipe for these mini cupcakes:

For the green tea sponge cakes

5 egg yolks, at room temperature
3 egg whites, at room temperature
60 g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilli powder or vanilla extract
45 g all purpose flour
10 g powdered milk
5 g green tea powder
3 g baking powder
a pinch of salt
40 g butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 325F and line the mini cupcake pans with liners. Sift the flour, milk, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

Using a mixer at medium speed, mix the egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, and vanilli together until ribbon-y thick and pale yellow in color (about 5 minutes). Then fold in the sifted dry ingredients into the batter using a spatula, being careful not to over mix the batter. Last, fold in the melted butter.

Fill in each cavity with the batter until abut 3/4 full and bake for 7 minutes, or until the tops are slightly brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. When done, let cool on a rack.

For the white chocolate cream cheese frosting

225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225 g cream cheese, at room temperature
175 g white chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light (about 2-3 minutes). Mix in the salt and vanilla extract. Then pour in the melted white chocolate into the cream cheese mixture and mix at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). The frosting should look smooth and satiny.

Use the frosting immediately or if it's too soft, cool it in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes before using it.

It's been super fun playing around with the photographs this time. Alvin is working that day and so I'm left on my own to take pictures of these mini cupcakes. And since I have the time that day for a splurge, I took some time to put backgrounds into the pictures. :) What do you think?