Matcha cupcakes with coconut frosting are fluffy, moist, & 100% whole wheat! Using natural ingredients, these cupcakes are perfectly sweet and not bitter at all!
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and everything green, I give you one of the most flavorful and delicious dessert recipes you’ll ever make, matcha cupcakes with coconut buttercream.
They honestly remind me of my favorite matcha latte made with coconut milk, transformed into a delicious and moist dessert even my husband approved of. He hates green tea, so that’s a big deal!
These matcha cupcakes are insanely good, moist, and just the perfect green color for the upcoming holiday.
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What does it taste like?
Matcha green tea cupcakes taste just like a sweet, fluffy cupcake with a hint of green tea flavor. If you’ve never had matcha, it’s a little earthy, just like like a cup of green tea. There is no bitter flavor whatsoever, only sweetness to these green cupcakes!
When you frost them with the coconut buttercream frosting, they take on a whole new level of sweetness and flavor! Coconut and matcha pair so well together, I couldn’t resist making a coconut frosting for these green tea cupcakes!
RELATED: Coconut Matcha Protein Balls
Ingredients
Buttermilk – Adding buttermilk to your cupcake batter adds not only moisture, but a little bit of acidity to the batter. By making your batter more acidic, the matcha stays more green while baking.
Avocado oil – My favorite oil for just about everything! Avocado oil is heart healthy and has such a mild taste that it’s just perfect for baking!
Eggs – The eggs in these green tea cupcakes help to hold everything together and prevent them from becoming crumbly.
Pure vanilla extract – I only use pure vanilla extract and never buy the imitation stuff. That’s because the imitation vanilla is full of preservatives and isn’t all-natural like pure vanilla extract is.
Matcha Powder – You can use either culinary grade or ceremonial grade matcha in these cupcakes. I used a high-quality culinary grade matcha powder because it’s less expensive than ceremonial grade matcha.
Baking soda – Helps the cupcakes to rise, and is an essential ingredient!
Baking powder – This is the primary cake leavening agent, and helps to keep the batter acidic so your cupcakes stay green in the oven.
Organic cane sugar – I used this sugar to keep the cupcakes green instead of turning brown with maple syrup or coconut sugar. It’s probably the healthiest white sugar you can find. Although it’s not unprocessed, it’s much less so than regular white sugar. The nutrients that sugar does have, like riboflavin, remain intact in organic cane sugar.
Salt – Pairs well with the sweetness of the sugars, and makes the flavor of these matcha cupcakes stand out even more.
Whole wheat pastry flour – My go-to healthy flour when it comes to baking. Whole wheat pastry flour is higher in fiber and less processed than bleached white flour, making it a healthier alternative for baking.
Coconut buttercream frosting – Made with grass-fed unsalted butter, powdered sugar, coconut milk, and coconut extract. This frosting is really sweet and the coconut flavor is definitely present. If you want to bring it down the coconut flavor a notch, you can use about 1/2 tsp of the coconut extract instead of 3/4 tsp.
Instructions
- Start by preheating the oven and lining your cupcake pan with 12 liners.
- Combine the buttermilk, avocado oil, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
- Add in the matcha powder, baking soda, baking powder, organic cane sugar, and salt to the bowl. Whisk or stir until there are no more matcha lumps and everything is combined well.
- Add the whole wheat pastry flour to the bowl in batchs, stirring as you go so everything is well combined. Don’t overmix!
- Fill each cupcake liner ⅔ full of the matcha cupcake batter. Bake for 15-16 minutes in the preheat oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.
- While your matcha cupcakes are cooling, make your coconut frosting! Soften the room temperature butter by microwaving for about 8-10 seconds. Add to a mixing bowl, along with the powdered sugar, coconut milk and the coconut extract. Beat on medium high, until well combined and fluffy.
- Allow your cupcakes to cool, then frost!
- Sprinkle with more matcha powder, then enjoy!
Tips & FAQ
Matcha powder is a fine powder that has been ground up from green tea leaves. It doesn’t contain any of the stems or other parts of the green tea plant, so it’s a very pure powder!
There are 3 types of matcha powder available: Ceremonial grade, culinary grade, and latte mix. For baking you can use either ceremonial grade or culinary grade. However, ceremonial grade is more expensive and is usually best for drinking. A high quality culinary grade matcha powder is best for baking with.
Matcha pairs well with coconut, vanilla, almond, cinnamon, citrus, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and pistachios. I made a coconut frosting for these cupcakes, and it was probably the best choice I could have made. It’s so good!
1 teaspoon of matcha powder usually contains about 70 mg of caffeine. This batch of matcha cupcakes contains about 420 mg in the entire batch, or roughly 35 mg of caffeine per cupcake.
Nutritional Info
These green cupcakes are 100% whole wheat, and made with natural ingredients like avocado oil, grass-fed butter, pure vanilla extract, organic cane sugar, and matcha powder.
Although this matcha dessert isn’t exactly low calorie or low carb, it’s definitely a healthier version of traditional cupcakes!
Total nutritional content per cupcake is:
- Calories: 381 calories
- Protein: 4 grams
- Sodium: 153 mg
- Carbohydrates: 50 grams
- Fiber: 3 grams
- Caffeine: 35 mg
Pricing Info
This cupcake recipe is on the inexpensive side at just about $.36 per cupcake! Using culinary matcha powder instead of ceremonial matcha powder cuts the price quite a bit, but still gives the cupcakes their green tea flavor and color!
The whole batch comes out to be roughly $4.26. Very budget-friendly!
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Tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the comments below! I would really appreciate your feedback!
Recipe
Matcha Cupcakes w/Coconut Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup avocado oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp pure matcha powder (not matcha latte mix)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ⅔ cup organic cane sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
Coconut Buttercream Frosting:
- ½ cup grass-fed unsalted butter
- 1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp full fat coconut milk
- ¾ tsp coconut extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° and line a cupcake pan with 12 liners.
- In a large bowl, combine the buttermilk, avocado oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
- Add the matcha powder, baking soda, baking powder, cane sugar, and salt to the bowl, and stir until well combined and there are no matcha lumps.
- Slowly add the whole wheat pastry flour in batches, stirring as you go. Don't overmix, but stir until the batter is well combined.
- Fill each cupcake liner ⅔ full of the matcha cupcake batter. Bake for 15-16 minutes in the preheat oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.
- Make the frosting: In a small bowl, soften the room temperature butter by microwaving for about 8-10 seconds. Add to a mixing bowl, along with the powdered sugar, coconut milk and the coconut extract. Beat on medium high, until well combined and fluffy. Allow your cupcakes to cool, then frost.
- Sprinkle with more matcha powder, then enjoy!
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Matcha cupcakes with coconut buttercream frosting are one of my favorite cupcake recipes. Green cupcakes are so fun for St. Patrick’s Day, or even for the green tea lover in your life!
xoxo Megan
Tammie Fischer says
These were very yummy!
Megan Byrd, RD says
They really are delicious! 🙂