green with ENVY :: ENVY {this}

Valentine's Day INspired! cupcakes as promised. YUM.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

Mother Goose is a great classic but lets hit the REFRESH button for 2012. Instead of baking something RED (i.e. red velvet), I decided to go with something else for the single ladies at work. [All the SINGLE ladies, put your hands up in the AIR. ha!]

Let's have everybody ENVY this...



do you prefer loaves or cupcakes?

Matcha Katsutera // Green Tea Sponge Cake

1 cup - AP flour
7 - large eggs, separated
3/4 cup, + 1 tbsp - granulated sugar
1/4 cup - honey
1 tsp - vanilla extract
1 tbsp - matcha powder
1/4 tsp - salt
1/8 tsp - cream of tartar

1st bowl: egg yolk mixture
Whisk [egg yolks, sugar, honey, vanilla, matcha powder, salt] until combine. Then place bowl in a larger pan of hot water. With electric mixer, whisk mixture for about 5 mins on med-high speed until volume doubles and becomes thicker and pale yellow in color. Fold in [flour] gently.

2nd bowl: egg white mixture
Whisk egg whites on low speed for 1 min until foamy. Sprinkle in 1 tbsp of [sugar] and [cream of tartar]. With electric mixer on med-high speed, beat mixture until stiff peaks form.

Fold egg yolk and egg white mixtures together. Pour mixture into parchment-lined pans.
Bake in 325F degrees oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

After cooling down the cake, I used a small heart shape cookie cutter to cut out the insides of the heart-filled cupcakes. I used another basic sponge cake recipe for the outer cupcake base.















After filling the cupcake liners half way with the basic sponge cake recipe, I anchor in the hearts upright. Remember to fill in more of the cupcake base on top to hide the heart. I wrote a note on the front of the cupcake liners so people will bite into the cupcakes from the proper direction to see the heart. ENJOY!




Green with ENVY:: Green to celebrate SPRING

Looking at these green hearts remind me how we're already halfway through February! Spring equinox (2012.03.20) here we come! Clothing stores are already stock in bright palette of colors after a muted Fall season. I'm looking forward to seeing more colorblocking and saturated Crayola-colored pants on the streets of SF.

Do you have some GREEN in your wardrobe?

                                                            

j.crew's head-to-magnifique blues & greens