Matcha Clementine Cupcakes

I’ve been curious about the combination of matcha green tea and citrus flavors for some time now.

These matcha clementine cupcakes are made with part almond flour, and decorated with clementine curd and chocolate buttercream.

The combination is fantastic! Chocolate hits first, then clementine, then the kick of matcha right at the end. What a party on your tongue. 🙂

I’m also working on my decorating skills, which is the most nerve-wracking part of the whole thing.

This is part of the signature challenge for the second season of the Great British Bakeoff Cake Week. The assignment was to bake 24 beautifully decorated cupcakes where the sponge and the icing had complementary flavors.

We’re allowed to make up to 2 different kinds of cupcakes, so I did. The other cupcake flavor I made is pistachio and rasberry.

I hope you enjoy them!

Great British Bakeoff Vegan: Season 2, Episode 1, Signature Bake

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Ingredients

Matcha Almond Cupcakes

• 2 tsp matcha
• 2 Tbsp hot water
• ¾ cup soy milk
• ⅔ cup sugar or monkfruit sugar
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup ground almonds
• 1 tsp tapioca flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt

Clementine Curd

• ½ of a 260g jar clementine marmalade
• 1 can coconut milk (just use the 1/4 can of cream from the top of the can, don’t shake it or use the watery part)
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch

Decorations

• The other ½ of a 260g jar clementine marmalade
• Chocolate buttercream – recipe at https://maitri.recipes/2022/09/25/triple-threat-chocolate-brownie-surprise-cupcakes/

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Directions

Make the cupcakes
Let the matcha sit in the hot water for 5 minutes to steep, then blend in a blender with the soy milk, sugar, olive oil, and vanilla.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, ground almonds, tapioca flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Divide the batter into 12 lined muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 18 minutes or until a chopstick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Make the curd
In a small pot, mix the curd ingredients together and bring just to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat as soon as it starts to boil, and continue to stir for 1 minute as it thickens. Cover and set aside to cool.

Decorate!
Once the cupcakes have cooled, scoop a 1/2 teaspoon-sized amount out of the top of each cupcake and fill in the gap with clementine marmalade.

Spread a layer of cooled clementine curd on top of each filled cupcake. Decorate the top with a swirl or wavy stripe of chocolate buttercream. Enjoy!