[recipe] black sesame cupcakes

black sesame cupcakes

makes 24 cupcakes
adapt'd from Ghirardelli's Grand Fudge Cake recipe on the cocoa powder container



- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup black sesame powder (original recipe uses 3/4 cup cocoa instead of black sesame. i bot the black sesame powder from the Chinese market, it's just ground black sesame seeds, costs around $2.50 for a brand from Taiwan w/ a cute cow on it)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks), soften'd (take out of fridge for 30 minutes or longer, or microwave both sticks together for 15 seconds right after you take out of the fridge)
- 1 cup sugar (original recipe takes 1 & 3/4 cups)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 1 & 1/3 cups milk (water is OK too; i use water whenever i don't have milk)

*Red Velvet cupcakes - i use this same recipe for red velvet cupcakes, but use only 1/4 cups cocoa & add 1T red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, black sesame powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed (using handmixer or standmixer) until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk (starting and ending with the flour mixture), while mixing on low speed. Only mix until everything's combined & smooth. DO NOT OVERMIX or the cake will be dense! Spoon mixture into cupcake pan lined with cupcake baking cups. Bake 25-30 minutes (for me, it always seem to take longer than the recipe says)

this cake is delicious on its own, but would go well w/ any vanilla, white chocolate, green tea, or black sesame frostings. i usually do swiss meringue buttercream (egg whites, butter & sugar) or cream cheese buttercream (cream cheese, butter & sugar).

ENJOY!!!