Green Tea Pound Cake

[zarhooie]

First, the back-story: My best friend hates tea, and my best friend hates cake. Therefore, his wife decided that the best present for his birthday would be a tea-flavored cake. She told me about this, and I thought it was hilarious. Time passed, and her thoughts turned to other things, but the tea cake stayed stuck in the back of my mind.

Fast forward to a few days ago. My boyfriend decides he wants to go to the asian grocery store. I say ok. While we are there, we pick up some matcha, or ground powered green tea. There were two kinds: one which was in a little tin and one which was in a big bag. Jacob said that the bulk stuff was for baking, so I grabbed that. It was around $6 or so. Having procured the main ingredient, I set off to make the cake.

My initial thought was to use a boxed white cake mix and just add the matcha to that, but I decided against that because, hey, boxed cake mix is gross. I found out later that the matcha needs more sugar than the boxed cake mix provides to cut the bitterness of the tea. I had purchased some plain yoghurt earlier and wanted to use it up somehow, so I chose to go with a recipe which featured yoghurt. At the time, I was also working on an egg shortage, so that informed my decision as well.

I poked around on the internet for a while, and came upon this recipe. It looked promising, so that's what I went with! My modifications reproduced behind the cut.


2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cups butter, softened
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cups PLAIN yoghurt
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
3 Tbl matcha green tea powder

ALSO WILL NEED:
non-stick spray or grease
bundt pan (I like my Nordic Ware bundt pan but you can use whatever you've got around.)

WHAT TO DO!

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10 inch bundt pan.
Mix the matcha and the yoghurt together until mostly lump-free. It should be a really bright green color.
In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and beat well.
Add flour and remaining ingredients. At low speed, beat until mixed.
Increase speed to high and beat 4 minutes.
Pour batter into pan (it will be thick) and bake 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.
Cool in pan 10 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool completely.
Dust top with powdered sugar.

I served mine the morning after with butter, but you can do whipped cream or whatever. It makes a really good complement to a nice cuppa, and would work well for cultural gatherings (church potlucks or whatever). It is BRIGHT GREEN so totally appropriate for spring!

-Kat

Comments

[monanotlisa]

This looks like a great recipe! I have made matcha sponge cake rolls before, filling them with red bean paste: went like hotcakes. ;)

[feuervogel]

Oooh, I'd eat that.

[stultiloquentia]

I did not know one could do this! How fascinating! *plots*

[zarhooie]

I am the bringer of exquisite things.

[zillah975]

This sounds really cool! So um, I don't bake -- maybe if I did, this would be obvious, but, so, you mix the yogurt and tea together in one bowl, and the sugar, butter, and eggs in another bowl, and then, to that bowl, you add the flour and the rest of the ingredients - do you add the tea-and-yogurt mixture then too?

[zarhooie]

Yep! I added half the flour, then all the yoghurt and vanilla and stuff, and then the rest of the flour. It seemed to work pretty well that way.

[zillah975]

Awesome - thank you!!

[laughingrat]

IT IS OKAY I AM WEARING MY ANTI-CUT ARMOR

Damn, that recipe truly looks delicious!

[redsnake05]

That sounds delicious, and also quite a straightforward recipe.

[marahmarie]

And your best friend's reaction? Did he hate the cake?

[zarhooie]

He hasn't had any. I am in South Dakota and he is in New York, so it's a bit hard to get him over for coffee and crumpets, you know?