My first strawberries picking

The strawberries season at the south has officially began a few weeks ago. Like a child going to Disneyland for the very first time,I was very excited about my first strawberries picking. On the first weekend that the closest farm opened its door for U-Pick, I was ready to jump into the car. With a picnic basket full of macarons and homemade croissants.

Except that the extremely bad weather left us no choice but to postpone our plan for another week.

Sometime in the middle of the week, a bakery that I have applied called and asked me to go in for an interview on Saturday.

"Do you have anything going on this Saturday?" The head baker asked.
"I was planning to go for strawberries picking, but I guess I should still have time to get to the farm after the interview" I replied.

It was a grey and cloudy Saturday morning, my interview went well. I was asked to stage, which was the last step in landing the job. I was happy and relieved at the possibility of working at a place I like. Until the head baker mentioned the hours. The shift starts at 2 a.m till noon.

I told him that I needed time to consider that. Meanwhile, I needed to make a move before all the strawberries were picked by others.

He looked a little amused at this crazy Asian girl, who has her mind set at strawberries picking on the same day. Nothing could stop her.

At its peak season, the picking was easy.Ripe and red berries were everywhere. I tugged one and tentatively bite into it. Like a sunshile. I couldn't help smiling. This was how strawberries should taste!

I remembered those flats of big red strawberries the hotel got during winter months. They tasted as if water has been pumped to make them so big and yet so tasteless! Not these jewels I was holding on my hand. They were the sweetest berries I had tasted.

It didn't take us long to fill up both our buckets with ripe and beautiful strawberries. At which point I was a little sad at the prospect of leaving. I wish I could continue picking, but I knew the 2 buckets we picked would be more than enough for all my baking projects.

I freeze most of the strawberries after making a strawberry cake to bring to a friend's party. I have plans to turn them into strawberry sorbet and strawberry jam soon!

These strawberry cupcakes were made on a whim to use up the buttermilk and strawberry buttercream I had from another baking project. Although they tasted lovely, I could only imagine how great it would taste when I make them again with my homemade strawberry jam!

I promise myself that I will make the jam soon. Perhaps I will make some macarons with the jam too. Wouldn't that be a tasty idea!

Buttermilk Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

For the cake
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks(10 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

To make the cake,
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one by one, and then the yolk, beating for one minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alernately with the buttermilk. adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Fill the cupcake liners till they are 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes,rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry Buttercream
adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
make 5 cups (you dont need this much for the cupcakes, so either half the recipe or keep the rest for another baking project)
4 large eggwhites
1 1/4 cupgranulated sugar
3 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) strawberry jam

In a heatproof bowl of the stand mixer, set over a sauce pan of simmering water, combine egg whites and granulated sugar. Whisk constantly until the sugar has completely dissolve and the mixture is warm to touch. ( about 160F).

Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk under medium high speed till the mixture hold stiff peak. Lower the speed and continue to beat until the mixture is cool.

Switch to paddle attachment. With the mixer on medium low speed, beat in the butter, a few tablespoons at a time. Making sure all butter has been incorporated before adding more. If the mixture separates after all butter has been added, beat on medium high speed for a few more minutes, the buttercream will become glossy and smooth again. Beat in vanilla and strawberry jam in low speed to eliminate air bubbles.

If you want the buttercream to have a darker color, add red food coloring. The recipe makes a big batch of buttercream, keep the leftover in an airtight container and chill in cooler.

When ready to use, bring the buttercream to room temperature and rewhisk it either by hand or a mixer to bring it to pipe-able consistency.

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Chocolate Matcha Cupcakes

Blame it on the heat, I find it hard to sit still in front of the laptop to write you a coherent post about the chocolate matcha cupcakes I made last week.

30 minutes has passed and I am struck after the first sentence. I think I am not going to try too hard for now. Let us just get straight to the cupcakes, shall we?

The chocolate cake base is from my favorite author Alice Medrich's book- Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts . The batter doesn't rise much, but it is moist and chocolatey. Everything you can hope for in a chocolate cake. Most importantly no one can tell that it's low fat.

The matcha cream cheese frosting, is adopted from chockylit. I use the Philly 1/3 Less Fat Neufchtel to cut down on the fat content, although I believe one could substitute the fat free cream cheese here with no problem. My tasters love the chocolate cake, but find the frosting slightly too sweet for their tastes. That can be easily adjusted by reducing the amount of confectioner's sugar used. Because I am aiming for a deep matcha flavor, I used a heaping 2 tablespoons of matcha powder in the frosting. You can certainly taste and adjust the amount according to your liking.

Tip: If you are looking for matcha powder, try the Asian grocery stores. They are usually shelved with the rest of the tea products. I paid between $4.99-$6.99 for the 1.1 oz tin. Note that matcha powder is different from green tea powder, which the color and flavor is not as intense as the former.

When I couldn't find an Asian grocery store that stock matcha powder in St Louis, I bought mine at Teavana for $16.00!Extortion, I know.

Chocolate Matcha Cupcakes
adapted from Alice Medrich's "Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts" and here

cupcakes:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted all purpose flour (4.5 oz)
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder
scant 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, at room temperature
2 egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon instant espresso or coffee powder dissolve in 1.5 tablespoon of hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon buttermilk,at room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
Matcha Cream cheese frosting:
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces or 1/2 package of Neuftachel 1/3 less fat Philedephia cream cheese
1.5 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons matcha powder

Position the rack in the lower third of the oven and prehear ro 350F. Line the muffin pan with paper liners.

Combine and sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside. Whisk the whole egg and eggwhites in a small bowl and set aside. Combine the vanilla, espresso mixture and buttermilk in another small bowl, set aside.

Cut the butter into chunks and place in the electric mixer bowl. Beat to softenend, about 1 minutes. Add the sugar gradually, beating constantly for about 3 minutes, until the color of the butter turns pale. Dribble the egg mixture gradually, beating at high speed for 2-3 minutes. On low speed, add in a third of the flour mixture. On medium speed, dribble in half of the buttermilk mixture, scrapping the bowl when necessary. On low speed, add in a third of the flour, followed by the rest of the buttermilk mixture. Beat in the remaining flour until well combined. The batter may look slightly cuddled.

Scoop the batter into muffin cups and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out barely clean. Cool cake on a rack.

To make matcha cream cheese frosting:
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.

Sift 1.5 cups of confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon of matcha powder into the butter/cream cheese mixture and beat to combine.

Taste and add more matcha if desired. I like the matcha flavor, so I used 2 tablespoons in total.

Other matcha recipes on Fresh From The Oven:
Chocolate Matcha Loaf Cake
Matcha Cookies
Chocolate Matcha Brownies
Mini Matcha Cheese Tarts

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