My friend makes one small mention of Rachel Zoe this morning and here I am, shoulders deep into a Rachel Zoe Project marathon.
Shameless.
I keep telling myself that I’ll just watch one more episode… one more… then I’ll think of something to write on my blog.
Five hours later… here I am, alone in my house, wearing heels and my chunky sweater. I may or may not have just shopped for a furry vest online… and I’m so invested in Rachel getting pregnant, it’s ridiculous.
I need a Rodg… or a psychiatrist… or a bottle of vodka… or just someone to come turn off this program. I’m not sure.
Swoon.
In other news… I made this really beautiful cake.
I’m so happy with this little darling. It’s marbled, green, flavorful and delicate.
Dreamboat situation.
Matcha.
The lemon portion of this pound cake is pretty simple. Lemon. Juice and zest. We all know what that is. Bright and delicious.
What’s Matcha?
Matcha is a finely milled green tea. When combined with hot water, it creates the most beautifully green, super flavorful, luxurious green tea. It’s the whole tea leaf, ground super fine so you get all the goodness of green tea in a super powerful way. Fancy.
Matcha is used as a ceremonial tea so there are often fancy whisks and bowls to accompany the tea. I forgo those items and manage to make myself a beautiful cup of matcha with just the powder almost every morning.
Besides a nice morning cup of matcha (with milk and honey), the green powder is great in ice creams, custards and cakes.
Matcha is a really lovely ingredient in baking. Green secret weapon.
But! Matcha is a tad bit more expensive than regular old green tea.
I use The Art of Tea Matcha… it’s really lovely.
Splurge a little. I think you’ll really like it.
But maybe I’m just saying that because I really want you to make this cake.
I mean really… look how pretty this is!
The brightness of the lemon. The earthiness of the green tea. Eggs, butter and sugar. This cake is delicate and impressive. See, I just used food words.
But be prepared to get stray powder on your shoes and your jeans. And please pay no mind to the gravy stain I also have on my shoes.
That’s just embarrassing… but seriously, who doesn’t love gravy?
You get the idea, right?
I’m sorry to leave you like this… it’s just that I have a few more episodes of Zoe to go.
Lemon and Matcha Marble Pound Cake
makes one 9x5x4-inch pound cake, plus 12 mini muffins (see… I had a little extra batter and I didn’t want to overflow my baking pan)
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon
1 Tablespoon matcha powder
1 stick plus 7 Tablespoons (15 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the loaf pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Also butter a mini muffin pan or line a regular muffin tin with cupcakes papers for the small amount of excess batter. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk the eggs into the sugar. You can use a large bowl with a whisk for this. You don’t really need a big mixer for this recipe. Beat until the eggs and sugar are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract, then whisk in the sour cream. Continuing with the whisk, or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions.
Divide the batter in half (just eyeball it) into two separate bowls. In one bowl add the zest and lemon juice. In the other bowl, fold in the matcha tea powder.
Pour some of the lemon batter into the pan. Top it with a portion of the green tea batter. Add more lemon and top with more green tea batter. Fill the loaf pan, leaving at least 1-inch of room at the top of the pan for the cake to rise. Swirl gently and minimally with a butter knife to get a good swirl effect. With the remaining batter, make mini muffins or cupcakes.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. The mini muffins will take about 15 minutes and the cupcakes will take about 18-20 minutes.
Once removed from the oven, allow the loaf to rest in the pan for 20 minutes before running a knife along the edges of the pan and inverting the cake onto a cooling rack.
Jenna
Joy! I totally made this and blogged about it! Of course I gave you all the cred. You rock.
https://www.jennalaughs.com/2010/10/green-tea-pound-cake.html
Jenny
This uses so much butter! Any ideas on how to cut back on it a little? And would Greek yogurt would well for sour cream? I’m not a sour cream fan so yogurt is all I have on hand. If there’s no way to cut back on the butter I’m probably still gonna try and make this. It looks way too good!!
Genivere
I often use coconut oil to replace some or all of the butter in recipes. Yes coconut oil has saturated fat but it is has a different composition than animal-based saturated fat :) the medium-chain triglycerides even help your body metabolize fat more efficiently. The oil adds a slight coconut flavor which can be enjoyable. Another thing you can do is replace the butter with earth balance or non-hydrogenated shortening. Or you could probably get away with replacing half the butter with yogurt. Also if you want to cut the animal-based saturated fat you could do half yogurt and half earth balance :)
Sarah Maizland
Joy that looks soooo yummy to me. Where would one purchase this tea?
Secret Recipes Exposed
How can you say that it looks nice it’s green it looks moldy but prob. tastes good? ;)
joythebaker
moldy? no.
Jennifer
Made this for an office party and turned out great!!!
the Yellow and Green was beautiful!!!
Moldy? dont know why someone would think that AND write that.
It was Pretty and Yummy!
Xara
Hey Joy! Thanks a lot! I made this and it came out DELICIOUS!
Cheers from Greece ! I love your blog!
PS. My name means “joy” in greek :)
joythebaker
xara! pretty!
Tina
Just made this and I’m eating it right this moment. It’s sweet, tangy, and really yummy! Mine didn’t turn out as green and pretty as yours …I used cheap matcha. Just starting to blog myself…no posts yet, but maybe I’ll post my results there :)
PeaSoup
How have I never heard of this stuff – I’m crazy about all things green tea! Just about to buy a load from ebay – thankyou for bringing matcha into my life:)
Christina
Hi Joy, do you think this would keep for a couple of days? I’ve got a work party on Monday afternoon, but no time to bake on Sunday. If I made this Saturday night do you think it would still be yummy and OK to serve on Monday? The recipe looks STUNNING and I would love to make it!
Avanika (Yumsilicious Bakes)
Wow.. that’s green!! I never tried matcha, so cant imagine how it would be!
Anita
I am looking forward to trying this. I looked at your blog and have become entranced by your recipes.
Anyway, for those that want a somewhat cheaper place to get matcha tea, the english tea store sells 2oz (roughly 57 grams) for $8.29:
https://www.englishteastore.com/loose-leaf-tea-matcha.html
I’m not sure on the quality, but it might be something to look into.
~A
Betsy Barron
Step away from the Rachel.. before she kills anymore of your brain cells!! I am guilty as well, that show is like a train wreck.. you cannot look away!
Lovely cake, even lovelier photograph of said cake! Love ya PW!
Chris
I made this yesterday, it came out perfect, I used a bundt pan, drizzled with a lemon glaze and topped with crushed pistachios to play up the colors of the cake, it looked great, tasted even better! Thanks Joy, I was never a baker before (the extent of my baking was pillsbury chocolate chip cookies in the package that you cut up and bake, LOL!), but your recipes are simply yet delicious, and your sense of humor, LOVE IT!
joythebaker
high five!! teamwork!
Rachel
I think maybe I did something wrong… I made this cake and it came out tasting like play dough. It wasn’t great.
Max
Oh Girl!!! Those colours! Those pics!! and that combination!!… If I knew where to get the matcha powder, here in Utrecht, I swear I would spend the whole weekend try out this recipe!! What wonderful shapes and figures can come out of this combination!… Thanks!