My failed attempt to bake Matcha Green Tea Cupcake

This Matcha green tea cupcake is among the very first recipes that I've tried when I started baking 3 months ago.  I was a newbie, still is now. It was a failed attempt but a fun one nonetheless. My recipe is from BakingMad.


Ingredients for the cupcakes:

175g unsalted butter
175g self raising flour
175g caster sugar (feel free to halve this if you don't like overly sweet cupcake)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 vanilla extract
1 tbs matcha powder
3 eggs 

But as you can see here, I cut the ingredients to suit my needs. Which later I found out is a big mistake.

It is a must to sieve the dry ingredients especially the flour because it helps your cupcake to rise when baked.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. This took roughly around 5 minutes at medium speed.

This is my another mistake. Adding the egg and dry ingredients at the same time.

Although the recipe says adding the rest of the ingredients together into the butter and sugar batter, I suggest that adding the egg first and whisking it together until it is well incorporated. Only then you can add in the dry ingredients little by little while whisking at slow speed to avoid the flour creating mess. 

Once your batter is ready, scoop into the cupcake case and bake for 20 mins at 180 degree Celcius.

Ingredients for the icing:

300g icing sugar (I halved this)
175g butter
1 tbsp water
1tsp matcha powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until smooth and add the icing sugar little by little. Lastly, add in the rest of the ingredients. And there you have it.

Lucky I have the buttercream icing to cover my ugly cupcakes. I didn't beat the cupcake batter well and it ended up crack and rupture in the middle. So I covered it generously with buttercream. Taste wise it was okay but I could have done better.

I once read that baking is different from cooking. In baking, you have to follow the ingredients closely if compared to just wing it in cooking. Well I learnt my lesson through my failed cupcakes. Now that I have enough practice, my cupcake is close to perfect, if I may say so myself. Next I have to work on my buttercream and piping skill obviously.