Lemon and Matcha Bundt Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I got sent a tin of Mighty Matcha green tea to review. I've been a fan of this stuff for ages, and have tried a few different brands over the years. Forget what you know about green tea which comes in a bag, this stuff is a potent green powder which will kick tiredness to the kerb, and fill you will free-radial fighting antioxidents. Rather than dried tea, this is ground up leaves which you tend to drink cold with water or juice, or you can add it to food; definitely not a standard brew.

Because I've done the whole drinks review thing before, this time I wanted to show you the versatility of the product by baking with it. Now I've had a Matcha cake before, and found it quite bitter and very dry, so I decided to counteract this by mixing it with a lemon base. Bundts are always beautifully moist, but I didn't want that distinctive tea taste to become overpowering. It had to be a ripple; a lime green ripple created by nothing but the tea.

It certainly got people asking a lot of questions when they saw that green streak! Feedback from the willing guinea pigs was pretty good indeed. They all agreed the tea taste came through, but was quite subtle. The sweetness of the lemon cake was the more dominant flavour. Apparently Matcha is also excellent for boosting concentration, however I think they focused on eating rather than than work...

 Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 350g Homepride plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200ml lemon yoghurt 
• Juice and zest of 1 medium lemon
• 2 tbsp Matcha green tea
• 300g Icing sugar
• Lemon juice
• More Matcha to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with Cake Release spray and dust with flour. 
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
6. Pour the yoghurt into a jug and stir in the lemon juice and zest.
7. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt mix. Repeat this until everything is combined.
8. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
9. Remove 5 heaped tablespoons of batter, and pop into a small bowl. 
10. Stir the Matcha into this smaller bowl. It'll be very green... 
11. Add half of the cake mix to your prepared tin, followed by the green batter.
12. Spread the green batter into an even layer, and cover with the remaining 'standard' batter.
13. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
14. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
15. When the cake is fully cool, mix the icing sugar with enough lemon juice (or water) to make a runny icing. Tip over the cake and decorate with a dusting of Matcha.

Where to buy this stuff:
Cake Release
Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt
Mighty Matcha


A 30g tin (30 cups) is £12.50 from Mighty Matcha, which is very reasonable when compared to other products on the market.

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.