Matcha Butter Cake

Published: Dec 15, 2016 · by Sree · This post may contain affiliate links · 6 Comments

Jump to Recipe

This scrumptious Grinch-inspired Matcha Butter Cake is moist, subtly sweet, light, fluffy and spongy - perfect for your holiday baking.But you don'thave to make it only for holidays, it is simple enough to be baked for any special occasion. This is a simple butter cake with Matcha Green Tea swirls. Yummy Matcha marbled cake. Easy holiday cake recipe.

Every year, for Christmas, my neighbor sets up a "Grinch who stole the Christmas" scene in his front yard. It is a very well planned scene, there is Grinch, a sleigh with presents, a Christmas tree, lights.... the whole nine yards. It is a beautiful Christmas scene to watch and it is my favorite one from our entire neighborhood. Every year, we go around our neighborhood and enjoy the Christmas scenes put up. It is a fun tradition that we do at our home. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

This year, I wanted to bake something Christmas-y, I wanted it to be Grinch inspired.

Thinking of Grinch made me want to bake something Green.

I wanted to bake a cake - a green colored cake.

I decided to go with my trusted Saffron butter cake recipe and modify it to incorporate green. If you have not tried the saffron butter cake recipe, I highly recommend you bookmark the recipe to try it as soon as you finish the Matcha Butter Cake. It is seriously yummy.

To bake a green cake, my first thought was to blend some green food color with the batter.

But Nah!

I try to avoid food colors as much as I can. So, the alternative for me was to use the Green tea Powder or Matcha tea powder.

So, there you have it - the soft, spongy, sweet, Grinch-inspired Matcha Butter cake.

Now, for those who are not familiar with Matcha tea powder, it is green tea powder, but not the green tea that comes in tea bags or loose leaf tea. This is a special, finely ground tea leaves that are specially grown in shade and finely milled. It has a nice chlorophyll-y aroma and such abeautiful green color. Take a look at the first image in the blog post, you will definitely understand what I am talking about.

Everything worked out perfectly. I was super thrilled with the taste. And the swirls; every time, something different turned up. I tried a layer cake - onesimple vanilla layer and on top, the matcha layer. The taste was awesome, but I loved the swirl effect more.

Matcha Butter Cake Recipe - Notes

This cake uses dairy and eggs and I have not made this without eggs.
I usually weigh the ingredients rather than measure by volume. I find this gives me the ideal texture. But I have included the measurements by volume too.
New to baking? Do read our Baker's Dozen Baking Tips - tips shared by my cousin, who is a professional baker.
The actual swirl effectchanges every time you bake 🙂 .
Swirl cakes are so much fun. I am planning to try out Chocolate swirl, Nutella swirl and of course, for my coffee loving friends, a coffee swirl cake. So, stay tuned for more baked delicacies.
I have used 1 tablespoon Matcha green tea powder to make this Matcha Butter Cake. I like the very subtle taste of green tea. You can go up to 1.5 tablespoon green tea powder if you want a stronger taste. Use additional few drops of milk (if required), to mix the matcha green tea powder with the batter.
Oven temperatures (and hence baking time) vary considerably depending on the type of the oven, so please your discretion.
1 cup= 240 ml.

Recipe for Matcha Butter Cake

Let's learn how to make this delicious Matcha Butter Cake.

Print RecipeSave

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

225 grams 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (plus a little extra for greasing)
200 grams approx. 1.5 cups all purpose flour/maida
200 grams 1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs each egg weighed about 50-60 grams
4 tbsp fresh milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp Matcha Green Tea powder

Instructions

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit (190 degree Celsius).
Grease a 9 inch round cake tin with butter (optional: line with parchment paper).
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, baking powder & salt and sieve.

Prepare the batter for Matcha Butter Cake

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar till fluffy and pale in color.
Add one egg at a time and beat until the egg is well incorporated and the mixture looks creamy; scraping down the sides while mixing. When you add the egg, start at a low speed to mix and then increase it to medium.
Add vanilla essence and milk and mix well.
Sprinkle ⅓ of the (sieved) flour gently and fold into the mixture until well combined. Repeat with the rest of the flour.
Transfer about a quarter cup of the prepared batter into a small bowl. Pour the remaining batter into the prepared cake pan and spread evenly.
Sieve the Matcha Green tea powder into the small bowl with the quarter cup of the prepared batter. Mix well (make sure there are no lumps) to make the green colored Matcha tea batter.
Drop the Matcha Green tea batter by spoonfuls onto the batter in the cake pan.
Make swirl designs using a butter knife or a skewer.

Baking

Gently tap the sides of the cake tin to remove any air bubbles trapped.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top of the cake is browned. You can also test the doneness by inserting a tooth pick and if it comes out clean, the cake is baked right. (In case the top of the cake is browining too fast, use an Aluminum foil dome to cover the cake towards the last 15 minutes of baking)
Remove the cake from the oven, let it rest in the cake tin for 5 minutes or so. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Notes

1. Always use clean and dry utensils to prepare the cake.

2. Preheat the oven for at least 15 minutes for best results.

3. When adding the eggs, if your batter looks curdled, do not worry. The flour will even it out.

4. Break the egg into a small bowl before adding to the batter. This will help remove any bad eggs from spoiling your batter (you can follow this tip for all your cakes, not just this one).

5. You can make this cake with an 8 inch square tin as well. But in my experience the cake domed a little and had a cracked top. 9 inch round tin gave me the best results (a small dome was still present).

6. If you find it hard to remove the cake from the tin, gently run a knife around the edges of the cake tin to loosen it up a bit.

7. Save the leftover cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Microwave it for a few seconds just before serving.

8. Grating the butter softens it pretty quick.

9. Oven temperatures (and hence baking time) vary considerably depending on the type of the oven, so please your discretion.

10. 1 cup= 240 ml.

11. For baking, I generally rely on weighing the ingredients rather than measuring it in cups. I have seen that I get more reliable results when I weigh the ingredients.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Raven says
February 09, 2022 at 8:17 am
If I half the recipe, at what temperature do I bake it at?
Reply
Emma says
November 13, 2020 at 11:26 pm
I'm a bit confused about fresh milk - is it just regular milk?
Reply
- Framed Recipes says
  December 17, 2020 at 2:36 pm
  Yes, Emma. Just regular milk. Thank you for your question.
  Reply
Rob says
December 30, 2016 at 8:58 am
What a beautiful cake! I think it would make anyone's heart grow three sizes larger. : )
Reply
Suneetha gr says
December 17, 2016 at 7:12 pm
Hi, lovely bake, I haven't come across using tea in cakes, since I love tea I will give it a try! Thanks again, all the best
Reply
- Framed Recipes says
  December 18, 2016 at 11:18 am
  Thank you Suneetha. Try to find good quality Matcha green tea. let me know how you liked it when you bake the cake.
  Reply

If you tried this recipe, please consider giving us a star rating and feedback. Reviewing, leaving feedback, and star rating a recipe, not only helps me grow as a food blogger but also helps others discover my blog. I L-O-V-E to hear from you! :) Your email address will not be published. Thank you for your support! When leaving a comment on framedrecipes, you will be asked to enter your name and email address. This is to help prevent spam comments. Your name will be displayed with the comment, but your email address will not. If you prefer not to display your real name, using a nickname or pseudonyms is perfectly OK. You will also see an option to save your information for future comments – this function uses a cookie to store the information on your browser.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.