This Matcha Raspberry Cake Parfait is not only pleasing to the eye, but it’s also satisfying and sinfully delicious. It has a nice moist matcha cake layered with Real Raspberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting and top with vanilla ice cream.   

Whether it’s Valentines Day or not, you deserve to treat yourself, so I say go and give in. Not everybody celebrates Valentines Day, but that doesn’t mean you cannot treat yourself to a nice evening with home cook meal and delicious dessert, like this dessert. 

This Matcha Parfait is a combination of my Matcha Cupcake and Raspberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting. A combination that when put together with some fresh Raspberry and generous scoop of vanilla ice cream ended up to be a must try dessert, any day of the year. Don’t get to hang-up with the Valentine’s theme, I make this even on a regular day because I believe we all need to some TLC (tender loving care) from time to time, Valentines’ Day or not.

The texture of the Match cupcake was perfect for this dessert. It’s soft and moist and slightly compact instead of airy so the cake did not get too soaked with frosting. The Raspberry Frosting itself is not too sweet so I get to enjoy every spoonful of this cake parfait, I did not scraped or removed any portion of the frosting which I normally do when I buy a commercialize cake. It’s not your usual dessert, unusual is good from time to time. I hope you’ll give it a try. If you do, I would really like to know how it goes so please do leave me a short note and let me know what you think of this recipe. Now, let me show you how I made this. Let’s get started! 

 Variations 

You can make this dessert using vanilla or chocolate cake and use a different frosting as well. Here’s a suggested combination 

• Vanilla Cupcake + Chocolate Buttercream Whipped Frosting
• Chocolate Cupcake + Chocolate Buttercream Whipped Frosting
• Chocolate Cupcake + White Chocolate Buttercream  Whipped Frosting 
• Vanilla Cupcake + Raspberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting
• Chocolate Cupcake + Cappuccino Buttercream Whipped Frosting
  

You would notice that all the suggested frosting combination above is the one that were “whipped”, this is because those frosting have a lighter softer texture than regular buttercream frosting. You want something lighter and less sweet for this cake parfait dessert. Using a classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting is going to be too sweet. If you really want to do that, add a layer of whipped cream so that you get to balance the sweetness. 

Here are few tips 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 tsp matcha powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• Raspberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting

Instructions:

1. Make the Raspberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting Cover and set aside at room temperature while you bake the cake.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease cupcake tray with oil or butter. No need to use cupcake liner since you will have to cut the cupcake into small pieces later. You can also bake it in a round or square pan, adjust baking time as needed.
3. Wet Ingredients: Mix oil and milk. Set aside for later.
4. Dry Ingredients: Sift flour, baking powder, matcha powder and salt. Set aside for later. 
5. 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.
6. Add flavoring: Add vanilla extract and continue mixing until just combined.
7. 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.
8. Bake at 350F for 15 – 17 minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before frosting.

Makes 6 cupcakes pieces

Assembly:

Cut the cupcakes into small cubes. In a small glass, layer cubed cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting and fresh Raspberry. Top with vanilla ice cream or any ice cream of your choice.

Makes 3 cake parfait with 2 cupcakes each parfait

Checkout my Frosting Video Recipes

• [VIDEO] Small Batch Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
• [VIDEO] How To Make Classic Chocolate Ganache & Tips on How To Use It
• [VIDEO] How to Make Chocolate Ganache Without Heavy Cream
• [VIDEO] How to Whip Cream Successfully

My Other Cupcake Recipes:

• Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting
• Small Batch Matcha Cupcakes
• Small Batch Cafe Mocha Cupcakes
• Small Batch Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
•  Chocolate Cupcake with Meringue Frosting
• Chocolate Cupcake with Meringue Frosting
• Matcha Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting
• Small Batch Cappuccino Buttercream Whipped Frosting
• REAL Strawberry Buttercream Whipped Frosting (No Artificial Coloring)
• [VIDEO] Small Batch Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
• [VIDEO] How to Whip Cream Successfully
• Mocha Buttercream Frosting – Italian Meringue Style

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