Loepsie’s baking adventure continues… I’ve decided to venture out into the realm of cupcakes this time, and bring you a sweet treat that’s probably the most unhealthy thing I’ve shared so far (lol), but definitely super delicious. Behold strawberry matcha cupcakes! They feature dried strawberries in the batter and green tea powder (matcha) which gives the frosting that fun green colour.
There’s a video going up on my YouTube channel tomorrow (you’ll find it here as well) which includes a few recipes that feature matcha as a key ingredient. As I was looking for ways to incorporate matcha into food I decided I wanted to bake cupcakes, so I looked online for a vegan cupcake recipe. I’ve had great results with this one from Alison over at Loving It Vegan, so that’s the one I’ve chosen to tweak and adapt into today’s recipe. The result: deliciously sweet, fluffy strawberry cupcakes with a dollop of matcha frosting on top.
Ingredients
Cupcakes
1 1/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup freeze dried strawberries
1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
100g (1/2 cup) vegan butter
300g (2 1/2 cups) powdered sugar
1 tsp matcha powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp soy milk
Makes 12 cupcakes
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
For the cupcakes, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Chop the freeze dried strawberries into medium to small sized pieces, and add them to the bowl. Stir everything together before adding the soy milk, vegetable oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Whisk the mixture until it forms a uniform batter, making sure to get rid of any clumps. Divide the batter between 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake tray, and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When they’re done, allow the cupcakes to cool down completely.
Meanwhile, make your frosting by combining the vegan butter, powdered sugar, matcha, vanilla extract and soy milk in a mixer. Mix until it forms a smooth frosting, and pipe onto the cupcakes.
I’ve adapted this recipe from an American original, and in my experience baked goods are much sweeter in the USA then they are over here. If you find the frosting a bit too much, feel free to cut the frosting recipe in half: that’s the perfect amount of frosting in my personal opinion. If you’re looking for pretty peaks of frosting though, you’re going to need a little bit more :)
I’m using freeze dried strawberries because I’m not too keen on the texture of baked strawberries, but you could definitely use fresh ones as well.
Bon appétit!
Less sugary sweet? Sounds good to me! Do you think coconut milk would work in place of the soy? And freeze dried blueberries in place of strawberries? I’m very sadly allergic, though used to love strawberries.
I abandoned the thought of being vegan long ago. I can’t stomach processed soy or peanuts products. Eggplants are off limits due to allergy as well.
I personally wouldn’t use coconut milk as I don’t like the taste but if you don’t mind that I don’t see why it shouldn’t work, give it a go! Blueberries instead of strawberries would definitely work 😁
Do you watch the Great British Bake-Off? I’m addicted! :-)
Aah I love it when you do recipe videos/what you eat in a day/anything that involves daily routines! :-) This looks so delicious! I’m not vegan but the simplicity of the ingredients in vegan baking/food draws me in. I’ve used this vegan muffin recipe to bake muffins for my boyfriend’s mum for our first metting. It’s not overly sweet like most recipes, you can check it out if you’d like! (https://www.mydarlingvegan.com/vegan-blueberry-muffins/)
OMG, yes! Desserts are very sweet here in the U.S.!!
Lucy, I am not a vegan or vegetarian, but I try to eat vegetarian as much as I can. I don’t like tofu or faux meat or meat substitutes. But, I do sometimes like to use either eggplant or Portobello mushrooms as a main ingredient. Do you have any good recipes that you’ve tried with either of those ingredients?
I don’t like mushrooms personally, but I do have a few recipes with eggplant on my blog :) If you type eggplant in the search bar you should find some!
Great, thank you! I will check them out.