Bundt… what's matcha?

Matcha is what I used to make the marbled part of this bundt cake green. Matcha is a fine powdered green tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies or, in this case used to help me celebrate an Irish Holiday. (Happy St. Pat's everyone!) Makes sense to me. I mean it is green. I've actually been wanting to try this unusual ingredient ever since I saw this matcha loaf cake on Fresh From the Oven's website. The color was so beautiful and I had never seen anything like it. So, it went straight on my "to try" list. You can check out her recipe here or the one I used below.

First, I greased a 10-cup Bundt Pan. (But, based on the amount of batter I had, I really needed a 12-cup. I'll tell you why in a minute.)



After greasing with Crisco, I dusted it with cocoa. Using cocoa instead of flour helps to keep white specks from showing up on chocolate cakes when you remove them from the pan. You can also probably get away with Pam if you have a regular Bundt pan. However, this pan has so many grooves, the first time I made it, the cake just stuck to the sides. I was forced to dump it in a bowl and spoon feed myself chunks of cake. I know… terrible. Terribly good!



Below is the matcha I used. I found it at Whole Foods. YAY! I don't really know anything about matcha, so I am assuming it's okay. The cake tasted great, so it's good enough for me. But, if any matcha experts are out there, feel free to give me the lo-down.



Here it is next to the cocoa I used. It was Hershey's Special Dark cocoa and it was yummy.



Follow the recipe below to create the two batters and then drop alternating spoonfuls into the bundt pan.



And if you want it to look more "marbled," then take a knife and gently run it through the batter in a swirling motion. Just once or twice should be good enough.



Pretty! Now, take a good look at the above picture. I filled the pan with a little too much of the batter because it overflowed from the pan and then sank a little. Okay, it fell! Boo Hoo! So either use a 12-cup Bundt or use some of the batter and make a batch of cupcakes.

I managed to salvage it enough to get some pictures though.



The cake was really, really good. It was dense and moist. It's especially good still warm. So good, that it didn't even need frosting.



Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake

Chocolate Mixture
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Matcha mixture
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-3 Tbsp matcha powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients
3 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
1 3/4 cup milk, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Grease and flour (or cocoa) a 10 or 12 cup Bundt pan. (If using a 10-cup pan, you can reserve any extra batter for cupcakes.)
• With a wire whisk, mix the dry ingredients for the chocolate mixture in a small bowl and set aside.
• In another small bowl, do the same for the matcha mixture.
• Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.
• Divide the creamed mixture evenly in two separate bowls.
• Slowly add the chocolate mixture to one half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Then, add the matcha mixture to the other half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Drop alternating spoonfuls of each mixture into the bundt pan until it's about 3/4 full.
• For a marbled effect, gently run a knife through the two batters in a swirling motion. (Once or twice will do the trick.)
• Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Also, here's a bunch of Bundt pans and my favorite Bundt Classics Cookbook.
And here's some other brands of matcha.