Help with cupcake recipe

[annabanana2000]

Hi Chowhounders:
I need help with the following recipe. I am a good baker in the sense that I can follow a recipe but I don't know how to tweek a recipe. I absolutely love the flavour in this green tea cupcakes recipe but I find it too dense. My girlfriend also made them and hers were dense too.
Thanks in advance for all your help!

http://www.matchasource.com/matcha-cu...

[annabanana2000]

I made the cupcakes yesterday. Based on your replies, I took out the 2 yolks and replaced all the AP flour with cake flour. Much lighter! Thanks again for all your help!!

[HillJ]

Thanks for reporting back annab. It's always good to hear when results improve.

[chowser]

Glad it worked out for you!

[HillJ]

http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/2009/0...

I suspect 3 cups of all purpose flour is the culprit. I've made this version dozens of times and they are wonderful. This one uses cake flour and is much lighter.

[chowser]

It's interesting that you posted this recipe as lighter because the biggest difference between this and the one annabanana posted, other than making half as much, is what TrishUntrapped said about using cake flour and what KSlink said about changing the egg yolk. Those were my thoughts, too I'd start with half cake, half AP and three eggs, no extra yolk.

[HillJ]

I don't agree about the eggs but I do agree that cake flour, not AP works better. I offered a recipe that uses that idea and works well for me rather than rewrite a recipe that didn't work for the OP. YMMV

[chowser]

I find egg yolks make a denser cake than whole eggs. There is also a matcha cupcake on that site that looks light. I like the magnolia cupcake recipe for a vanilla cupcake.

http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/2008/06/green-tea-cupcakes/#.T8dE7tXZ7me

I haven't seen that blog before but it's very nice and quite a few pictures caught my eye, especially this one for chewy peanut butter chocolate cookies:

http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/2012/0...

[HillJ]

I haven't spent much time on sweetestkitchen.com myself but I hope the OP has a few ideas now.

[KSlink]

I was kicking around the idea of three eggs, too, as well as the cake flour. Just came across a box of cupcake liners in the cupboard so I guess I've got a little experimenting to do.....

[KSlink]

My first instinct is to cut back on the yolks, they are pure fat weighing down the batter. I'd start with one, and if that batch still isn't satisfactory, lose the second one and see what happens. I know, it can get expensive and frustrating fiddling around with recipes...best of luck!

[TrishUntrapped]

The basic recipe is dense, almost like poundcake. You can try another recipe, using your tea for flavor. You can also substitute cake flour for the all purpose that should help a bit.