Baking With Green Tea: The Shortcut

When my sister came to visit for the Holidays this year, she confessed an addiction to green tea.  For a snack, she went to the local Japanese grocery store and purchased three different items made of green tea: green tea candy, green tea cookies, and green tea poky sticks.  When I told her Art of Tea carries the beautifully vibrant ceremonial matcha tea and I could easily whip up some green tea desserts for her, she was ecstatic.

I started with a quick search on the internet to reference the different recipes there are available.  There were green tea tiramisu, cookies, cakes, and countless others. Out of pure laziness and for the sake of time, I only used the recipes as a reference as to how much matcha powder to add to a baking mix I'd just purchased at the store.

The first thing I made was Green Tea-Lemon Cupcakes. I added the ceremonial matcha I'd told my sister about (about 4TBSP) to a lemon cake mix. All recipes I used called for about 2tsp of green tea powder, but my sister the green tea lover was standing next to me the whole time and kept prompting me to put more in. I then made a frosting with matcha powder, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and butter.

For the second batch of green tea goodies, I worked with a spiced cookie mix. I added about 1 TBSP of matcha to a small batch of a mix (for about 12 cookies).  I shaped the cookies into leaves and used a butter knife to make the veins. I finished with a green tea drizzle on top.

Finally, I added ceremonial matcha powder (4 TBSP) to a yellow cake mix and made it into cupcakes. l just followed the directions printed on the box to back my modified little green creations, and then made frosting for them.  This time, though, I mixed it up and made a frosting out of cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  On top of that, I added the green tea drizzle (sugar, ceremonial matcha powder, hot water).

And how was everything received once I was finished?  The lemon cupcakes I brought to a party, and every single one vanished in no time. My friends loved them, though of course my sister, the green tea lover, commented that there wasn’t enough green tea flavor to them. The cookies were also a favorite.

As for the cupcakes were with the yellow cake mix, they had a buttery green tea flavor that my sister just loved.  It gave her a green tea caffeine boost and satisfied her sweet tooth at the same time.

Browse all the treats you can make here and find your next favorite recipe!