Reciplace

Hummingbird Bakery Green Tea Cupcakes

I'm enormously addicted to Japanese matcha (green tea) flavoured desserts.  I'm not hugely into desserts (much to my chocoholic mother's astonishment), but matcha really appeals to me.  I think it's because it's sort of sweet and bitter at the same time, and tastes chalky and powdery like delicious Pepto-Bismol.  

While in Japan, we ate matcha candy, matcha rice balls, matcha cake, LOTS of matcha ice cream, and even matcha pancakes.  This crazy bright green powder actually tastes nothing like green tea - but when whipped up into a dessert, it becomes a totally bonkers taste sensation.

These cupcakes are from my new cake-porn book, The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. They were totally moist and yummy - and the frosting on top was a matcha fueled explosion.  I took the leftovers into work, and they were a hit!  Even with the people who weren't sure about the taste of green tea in a cupcake.

My only complaint about them would be that they might have a bit too much matcha powder in them.  Matcha desserts in Japan are usually a more subtle shade of green - and these look a little like Oscar the Grouch green.   And at £7 for a tin of matcha powder to make 12 cupcakes, I'm not sure I'll be rushing to make them again any time soon.  But I think the dozens of other recipes in the Hummingbird book will keep me plenty occupied until the next time!

Autumnal Pumpkin Sponge Cake

Blimey!  What a fun day today was at work!  The Food Team put on a cake baking competition for all the staff.  Of course I entered...someone had to represent our nerdy team of web developers. 

So I entered my favourite cake:  Autumnal Pumpkin Sponge Cake that I created for thanksgiving a few years ago.  I came up with it the first year that I moved here from Canada.  It's a combination of the classic Victoria Sponge, with a Canadian Thanksgiving twist!

Celebrity chef Sophie Grigson and our our own Roopa Gulati were the judges.  There were some absolutley amazing entries.  I reckoned I needed a bit of an edge - I knew my cake would taste great, but it needed to look a bit better!

So I commissioned my colleague and friend, the lovely Sammi Richardson, graphic designer extraordinare to art direct the topping of my cake!  She insisted on putting some of the cream on the top, in addition to the inside - a bold but successful move.  She also created lots of fancy swirly shapes with the Dulce de leche, and sprinkled walnuts with panache.   Thank you Sammi!!! 

Tension was high.... I could see the judges tasting the cakes from my desk, and it was hard to concentrate on work!  My mates who had been over for thanksgiving and tried this cake in the past were emailing me and cheering me on!  I had such butterflies!!!

I wasn't expecting a prize with the tight competition I was up against, but lo and behold!!!   I won a bottle of champagne and some truffles, and got to tell the whole company the story of Canadian Thanksgiving with a microphone.  (eeek!)    My other lovely friend Amanda won for her delectible Lemon and Raspberry Friands, which she actually thought weren't cooked in the middle!  She thought wrong:  they were lush.  There were also some winners for 'biggest disaster' (heartbreaking!) and 'most beautiful'.

After the winners were announced, the entire company descended on the cake judging room to devour the entries.  By the time I got in, my little pumpkin cake was nothing but a lonely little corner, which I shared with Amanda.   I comforted myself by taking 5 pieces of other peoples' cake to try.  (I ate tofu all weekend - surely it balances out?)    I fell in love with a lemon drizzle, which I'm going to try to recreate this weekend.   Watch this space for news on my ever expanding waistline.....

(Award Winning) Atumnal Pumpkin Sponge Cake 

Ingredients
170g soft margarine
170g caster sugar
170g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

For the filling:
300ml double cream, whipped
150g pureed pumpkin

For the topping:
Banoffee Toffee or toffee sauce
Crumbled Walnuts

Preheat oven to 170C. Mix all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixture until smooth. Divide the mixture between two equal 18cm round baking tins (lined with greaseproof paper if not nonstick) and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cakes from the tins and let cool on a wire rack.

Stir the pumpkin puree into the whipped cream.

When almost cool, spread the bottom (flat) side of one cake with the whipped cream mixture. Sandwich the two cakes together and drizzle toffee over the top. Sprinkle walnuts over the toffee to finish.