delicate cupcakes made with green tea and a dash of almond. Feel free to use the full fat/full sugar versions of the items if you choose; this recipe uses part Splenda® and light margarine.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 cupcakes |
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup vegetable oil butter spread (such as Smart Balance®)
- ½ cup granular no-calorie sucralose sweetener (such as Splenda®)
- ½ cup white sugar
- 3 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)
- ½ cup nonfat milk
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners.
- Beat the butter, vegetable oil butter spread, sweetener, and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature egg whites one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts with the last egg. Combine cake flour, baking powder, and green tea powder in a small bowl. Pour in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 168 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 23 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 174 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve never been a fan of green tea, the beverage, but I love green tea flavoured things. I thought I would give this recipe a shot anyway. Like another reviewer, I used all fatty options, but I used 1/2c oil and 1/2c applesauce. I also took the advice of another reviewer and cut the sugar to 3/4c and used 1/4c of honey, as well as cut the almond extract completely (I happen to not have any on hand). They turned out great! I decided to make a honey glaze with vanilla almond milk on top and it added just a little more hint of sweetness, but I think they could have done without either way. Great recipe – thanks for sharing!
Loooooove these cupcakes! So easy, fun, and tastey to make! I just frost it with a little whip cream and it makes a light refreshing dessert.
maybe i did it wrong but my cupcakes did not turn out well
After reading the other reviews I addressed the dryness by using 2 whole eggs instead of just the whites, I used full fat ingredients, and I added a dollop of sour cream. I halved the almond extract and used 3 tablespoons of matka powder. I also used 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup raw honey. There’s nothing better than green tea with honey! Cupcakes are moist and delicious, and full of antioxidants and calcium. For frosting I used cream cheese, honey, powdered sugar and a splash of milk. These aren’t going to last long around here! Thanks for the recipe and the reviews. One more thing – it took me under an hour not the 2 hours it states.
i used all fatty options (butter, whole egg, sugar) and reduced almond extract (1/2 tsp instead of 1tsp). The color is an awesome green (reminds me oscar from sesame st in an affectionate way) but the green tea flavor just doesn’t come out. almond is wayyy to strong of an extract to go with such a gentle flavor. i think i’ll omit the almond all together next time so i dont’ just have a fluffy, green almond cake.
These colorful cupcakes are so fun, and the almond flavor is really nice. Thanks!
Even though I only had regular all purpose flour, they turned out just lovely. I’m just slightly disappointed that I can’t taste the green tea flavor at all; the almond extract is a little overpowering. So I would cut that in half and cut the sugar a little (I’m not much of sweets lover) next time. My vanilla may be adding to the taste of the almond extract too much as well, it’s a slightly stronger flavoured (from the Dominican) than most. But we’ll see next time when I cut the almond. Oh I made an icing for them with 1/2 a cream cheese container, a little milk, a little butter, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and icing sugar -confectioners if that’s what u call it. Dipped all 11 cupcakes (one seemed to disappear) upside down in the bowl of icing and voila! Oh ya then I sprinkled a little matcha powder on top through a tea strainer. so puurrty. now i gotta do somethin with the left over icing hmm…
I made this for some green tea fans and it was well received. However, they were at bit dry after 20 min, so I tried them at 17 and 15 min, and 15 minutes was the winner. I foolishly bought matcha tea bags (which is powder plus tea leaves) instead of powder, but just used my coffee grinder to make my own powder. It gave a beautifully rustic green color to the cakes, although I’m sure it would have looked more “delicate” if I had started w/ the real powder. I made a simple glaze out of confectioner’s sugar, non fat milk, and lemon juice (to taste) and dyed it a pastel green. Adorned with some simple gum paste cut-out jasmine flowers and they looked a lot harder to make then they were 🙂 All in all a good recipe – thank you for posting it!