Matcha cake – a Matcha made in heaven!

I love matcha. In ice cream, creme brûlée, cookies, and also the traditional way – as foamy tea in handmade bowls in serene tea houses in Japan. To me this powdered green tea is the Asian vanilla. It is a little grassy, but round and full in the mouth. It’s wonderful in my spongy matcha cake below, which are also gluten free!

Gluten Free Matcha teacake

Matcha tea cakes

Matcha tea cakes (gluten free)

Makes 12 individual matcha cakes. These can be made with regular flour, substitute for the gluten free flour and omit the xanthan gum.

ingredients

1 1/4 cups gluten free flour (I used Orgran)
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3 tsp baking powder
15g matcha tea powder
2/3 cups sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
drop of lemon oil
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup ground almonds

mixing

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat on high speed for 4 minutes, until the mixture starts to look pale and billowy – a little like meringue. Spoon into prepared tins (either cupcake tins lined with cupcake cases which have been sprayed with canola spray, or greased and floured individual cake tins). Bake at 160 degrees C for 25 minutes. The lower temperature is needed to prevent the beautiful green tops of these cakes from over browning.

When cool, frost with a 2/3 recipe of butter roux frosting which has been made with gluten free flour and flavoured with 1 tbsp + 2tsp matcha powder and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Pipe frosting over cakes – in the photo below I used a Wilton 408 ribbon tip. Decorate as desired, for example by dusting with cocoa powder or more matcha powder.

Enjoy! xxx