dumbass cooking

Last night I went to a birthday party where we were supposed to bring a dessert. Feeling a little harried, I didn't want to attempt anything overly ambitious, so I decided on these matcha cupcakes, recipe courtesy of Super Eggplant. I had recently picked up some instant iced green tea from Mitsuwa for cooking purposes, as I was too cheap to buy the matcha that they were selling. I'm not sure if that made a difference.

Anyhow, I read the recipe and thought, "Uh oh, the ingredients list has sugar before baking soda. I hope I don't try to sift the sugar together with the flour." It only hit me what I was doing when the sugar ran through the sifter with that crisp sprinkling sound that sugar makes.

Take two.

I didn't read the recipe through that clearly, because it was only when I was at the creaming stage that I realized the instructions didn't say anything about adding the eggs. Oh well, that wasn't a huge deal, but then I hadn't realized that the dry ingredients were to be added to the wet ones, which was still not a deal breaker. I went ahead and cooked the cupcakes, which puffed up nicely, but weren't as green as the ones on Super Eggplant. I thought it should be ok and I would just make some sort of green tea flavored whipped cream to add more matcha flavor when I got home.

Scrambling before the party, I started mixing the instant matcha into the cream. I started with the recommended amount from some other matcha dessert recipe, but it didn't seem to have enough flavor so I kept mixing more in. And more. And more. Then it seemed a little bitter, so I added some sugar. At that point, it was sweet, but still also bitter. I thought then that I would cut the bitterness by adding a little milk. It was still usable, just a little soft. I thought I would mix in a little softened butter for stability. I over-nuked the butter and had to put it in the freezer. Finally, I mixed it into the whipped cream mixture. It seemed ok, but the texture was a little grainy, so I whipped it more. The air deflated from the cream, the water separated out and it was a green tea disaster!!

I was totally distressed over the prospect of bringing naked cupcakes to a party. That just seems sad, especially since I wasn't over enthusiastic about the flavor of the cupcakes to begin with... I think their original title of "muffin" was more accurate. Nutella to the rescue. Fortunately, everything seems chocolatey (read: better) with Nutella spread on the top and my baking disaster was, if not averted, at least masked. There will be no photo documentation of this project.