After returning from Japan and Taiwan, I brought back a lot food souvenirs for my family, and one of them is matcha (green tea) powder. Even a month later, I still have so much green tea powder left. So, I decided to make vegan matcha cupcakes with chocolate avocado frosting today!
In Asia, you see a lot of green tea/matcha flavoured desserts, from ice cream to pancakes to breads. It has a unique earthy flavour, which is an acquired taste for some people. I, on the other hand, love matcha and everything matcha.
I found this recipe from Niner Bakes’ blog. However, I changed it to make 12 standard-sized cupcakes, rather than 10 cupcakes from the original recipe. I also added a few things, such as the flax egg, and frosted it with avocado chocolate frosting rather than the shortening-based frosting she used.
For the frosting, I opted to use a simple, avocado frosting rather than a vegan butter frosting. I never liked butter-based frostings, even when I was non-vegan. On the plus side, the avocado frosting is easy to make, tasty and healthier than the vegan butter frosting.
Honestly, this recipe is so easy and simple to make. For most of the cakes I make, I just use the simple muffin method, in which all the dry ingredients are mixed, all the wet ingredients are mixed, then just combine the two. Easy, simple and fast.
Other than eating out and drinking in cafes, I LOVE to cook and bake. Alberta is considered the beef capital of Canada, but it’s really not hard to live as a vegan here! Don’t forget to favourite/bookmark this website, where I’ll post more vegan recipes in the future! 🙂
Vegan Matcha Cupcakes with Chocolate Avocado Frosting
Ingredients
Matcha (green tea) cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (can sub all-purpose flour, if desired)
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp green tea powder (see recipe notes)
- 1 tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
- 3 tbsp water (optional)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (or any kind of sugar)
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 1/4 cups almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Avocado chocolate frosting
- 3 medium avocados
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp agave syrup (or to taste)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)
Instructions
Matcha (green tea) cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with liners.
- Mix the flax seed and water together in a small bowl, and allow to sit for ~5 minutes. If you have store-bought egg replacer, you can use it instead.
- In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, green tea powder) and whisk together. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (sugar, oil, non-dairy milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, flax seed mixture).
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix until about incorporated.
- Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full. Bake for 18 minutes until the cupcake springs back, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean/with a few crumbs.
Avocado chocolate frosting
- In a blender or food processor, add the avocados, agave syrup, salt, cocoa powder and non-dairy milk. Blend altogether and adjust for the consistency and sweetness.
Notes
Substitutions:
- You can substitute all-purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour. I used whole wheat to make it a healthier.
- Any kind of sugar for the cupcakes work: brown, raw cane, coconut, granulated (white).
- You can use store-bought egg replacer instead of flax egg.
- If you don't have agave syrup, substitute 1/4 cup sugar.
Green tea powder
A note about the green tea powder that you use. Depending on the strength and purity of the powder, you would need more or less. If you have pure matcha powder (in the small tin containers), you should use 1 1/2 tbsp. If you have the lower quality green tea powder, like the one I used, use 3 tbsp or more.
In Canada, you can buy green tea powder from T&T Supermarket, which is NOT pure matcha powder. However, you can still use this in this recipe come.
