Green Tea Cupcakes w/ Lemon Frosting

It's only been 19 days into the New Year and I've already broken my resolution of baking every week. These cupcakes were from last week's kitchen adventure that I'm posting now. But to my defense - one of my friends let me borrowed the Sims 3 and all of the expansion packs, so I've been hooked to say the least. That is why I didn't get around to baking this week. Anywaysss, I have to say that I'm super suspicious of the Betty Crocker's "The Big Book of Cupcakes" at this point. Not to toot my own horn, but I would say I am a pretty competent baker. However, these last two cupcakes recipes I have tried from her book have not been as successful as I would have hoped. My greentea cupcake batter tasted nothing like greentea so I panicked and did the only thing I could think of at that moment - add lemon juice and just went full fledged on the lemon theme. Nonetheless, in the end they were tasty but not as delicious and greentea-ny as I would have wanted them to be.

Here is the big book of lies about cupcakes and the greentea packet I used. 

My frosting turned out runny again, but this is probably due to the extra lemon juice I squeezed in during my attempt to act like I wanted to make lemon cupcakes w/ lemon frosting. 

Final product posed and looking super delicious and sexy.

Greentea Cupcakes Recipes: (adapted from Betty Crocker)

- 2 greentea bags

- 3/4 cup of boiling water

- 2 1/3 cup flour

- 2½  tsp baking powder

- ½  tsp salt

- 1 cup butter, room temp

- 1¼ cup granulated sugar

- 3 eggs

- 2 tbsp lemon zest 

- 1 tsp vanilla

1. Heat oven to 400^o and line cupcake pan with liners.
2. Boil the 2 teabags with the 3/4 cup of water & let the teabags steep.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. 
4. In a separate bowl beat 1 cup of butter until creamy; add sugar and eggs into it as well. 
5. Add the lemon zest and vanilla; then alternately add the flour mixture and the 2/3 cup of tea into the wet mixture. 
6. Divide batter evenly among the cups about 2/3 full for both mini-cupcakes and standard-sized cupcakes.
7. For the mini-cupcakes, they should be in there for about 12 minutes to get the beautiful golden crust. For the standard-sized cupcakes, they should be in there for ~20-25 minutes. 

Frosting recipe:

- 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese

- 1/4 cup butter, room tempt

- 2 tsp lemon zest

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 2 cups of powdered sugar - the original recipe called for way more, but I'm always scared of diabetes and I don't like frosting that are too sweet ;)

- the rest of the greentea

1. Mix the cream cheese, butter, lemon zest, and vanilla together.
2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until it reaches desired consistency and/or taste.