These Matcha Cupcakes are soft, moist and creamy with just the right amount of matcha flavor enough to make its buttery taste stands out. The texture is not crumbly at all and at the same time not too airy like chiffon or sponge cake. Almost like a white/yellow cake texture.

Although there’s quite a lot of matcha recipes online, there are still quite a lot of people who are not into matcha flavored desserts and drinks. I wouldn’t say that I am in love with matcha flavoured desserts, I like them to certain extent not in a crazy obsessive level. For instance, I like my matcha desserts to have only a very subtle matcha flavor, nothing too strong that it will taste like I’m drinking green tea or chewing on some combination of herbal leaves. Subtle is my way of enjoying matcha flavor, and that’s how it is in all of my matcha desserts in my blog, like my Matcha Chiffon Cake , yogurt based Matcha Cupcake  and Matcha Swiss Roll Cake. This Matcha Cupcake is no different from the three in terms of how subtle the flavor is. This is just my preference, if you like stronger flavor, you can always add more matcha. 

This Matcha Cupcake is different from my other yogurt based Matcha Cupcake because this doesn’t use yogurt in the recipe. It’s more generic and simple as yogurt is something that not everybody have most of the time. Also this yields 6 pieces as compared to 4 pieces, that is 2 extra pieces to enjoy. So if you’re looking for a small batch Matcha Cupcakes, I got you covered. It’s yours choice between with or without yogurt. One thing I can assure you, both version taste amazing.

Here are few tip on how achieve a soft and moist Matcha Cupcake.

Tips for a light and fluffy cupcakes:

• Room Temperature Ingredients: Please do not ignore the requirements for a room temperature ingredients because it will have a huge effect in the success and failure of the cupcake. The texture of the cupcake will depend heavily on how the ingredients are creamed and mix together, and room temperature ingredients mix well easily as compared to cold ingredients. Leave the butter at least 1 hour before using it until it is softened. Sometimes it could be less or more depending on the humidity and temperature on where you are. If the butter becomes slightly glossy (not oily and melting) and sticky and it breaks easily when mixed, then you are in a right track. You might need less time to reach the light and fluffy stage. If your batter remains almost solid and keeps on getting stuck to the paddle attachment then it is still cold. If this happen, you have to give it more time to soften, or continue but it will take longer than 8-10 minutes to reach the light and fluffy stage. As for the eggs, either leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes again depending on humidity and temperature of the kitchen or to short cut the process, submerge the egg in hot water (NOT boiling) for about 5 minutes.
• Creaming the Butter Properly: To keep it simple and straight to the point, the creaming process aims to make the butter light and fluffy thus resulting to a lighter and fluffier cupcakes as compared to heavy and dense. In the first few minutes of creaming, the butter and sugar texture is grainy. Pay close attention and you would noticed that the longer you cream the mixture, the texture becomes lighter and smoother almost like a butter frosting. That’s the stage that you want the butter and sugar to be. NO to grainy texture, YES to light and fluffy. The length of time it takes to cream the butter could vary depending on how soft the butter. In my case, it took me around 8 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes. Be patient and aim for the right texture, even if it means going beyond 8 minutes.

• Mix of Butter and Oil: I thought I should mention this so that you will know why I am using oil for this cupcakes. Butter gives the cupcake a creamy taste that we all like, this is why the more butter is used in baked products, the tastier it could be. In my personal experience, I found that there is a downside in using pure butter. The cupcake could get dry and hard easily when stored for a longer period of time. If you have it few hours after making it or the same day, the texture is fine. It is once it is stored in the fridge that the problem happens. It will get hard and it makes sense becomes there is a lot of butter in the cup cake. This is where oil comes in to help. I added oil in the batter to keep the texture of the cake moist while still retaining the buttery and creamy taste that is a must for me in a cupcake. Since there is no other flavoring other than vanilla extract, the cupcake taste relies heavily on the butter. So making the entire recipe to use oil is not advisable at all, it works for chocolate cupcakes but not for plain vanilla cupcakes.
• Do Not Over mix the Batter:  Over and over again you see this in a lot of recipes for cakes, cupcakes, bread and even cookies. Over mixing the batter could result to a tougher cake because of gluten in the flour. Think of a bread, the longer you knead the bread the more chewy and heavy it becomes. It is the same idea with the cake, we creamed the butter and sugar to a light and fluffy stage so that it builds up air, mixing the batter too much will knock down the air so all those mixing and creaming, say goodbye to your efforts. So once the dry ingredients is added, mix it only until combined. It’s fine to have few raw flour on the sides of the bowl, just manually scrape it as well as the bottom of the bowl. Believe me, this simple reminder makes a difference.

Now that we are equipped with this 4 simple tips, let us put them to use and let’s make some cupcakes, shall we?

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter – softened at room temperature
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp granulated white sugar
• 1 large egg – room temperature
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp flavorless oil
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour – measure then sift
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line a cupcake tray with 8 cupcake liners.
2. Wet Ingredients: Mix oil and milk. Set aside for later.
3. Dry Ingredients: Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside for later. 
4. Cream butter, sugar and egg: Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, beat the butter just enough to break it. If the butter is softened properly and is at room temperature, you will only need 30 seconds to 1 minute to do this. Add the sugar and mix for about 1-2 minutes. Add egg and continue mixing until light, fluffy and pale in color. More or less 3-5 minutes. Adjust as necessary. This is a very important step so take your time in making sure that the mixture is light and fluffy even if it means going beyond 5 minutes.
5. Add flavoring: Add vanilla extract and continue mixing until just combined.
6. Wet Ingredients + Dry Ingredients: Alternately, add 1/2 of the dry ingredients followed by 1/2 of the wet ingredients ending with the wet ingredients mixture. Mix until just fully incorporated, about 30 – 45 seconds. Do not over mix as the cupcake could end up being tough. If there are still some flour on the side or bottom of the bowl, manually scrape the sides and the bottom of the cake. You should have a light, runny batter like this.
   

   

7. Bake then remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before frosting.
   • Medium Liner: 13-15 minutes
   • Large Liner: 16-18 minutes

Makes 6 – 8 pieces depending on the liner size

If you are not feeling like a cupcake today, how about a real 6-inch cake? or a swiss roll cake? Check out my other Matcha desserts.

Related Posts:

• Matcha Swiss Roll Cake
• Small Batch Matcha Cupcakes
• Matcha Chiffon Cake

Enjoy! If you make this, share and tag me in Instagram #SweetNSpicyLiving. I would like to see your creations too.

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