Tartelette

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Polka Dot Matcha Tea Cake

Meet the most wonderful little tea cake, snack cake, perfect middle of the day break cake...that almost never got posted! Despite the fact that I have made it three times since last week, it is so popular among food bloggers that it seemed redundant to add my own version to the mix. When I cut into it and served to B. with a cup of tea Sunday afternoon, he exclaimed "It is so good you have to post it...and I don't really like Matcha". I told him it had been around the blogging block quite a bit and I was just interested in trying a different cake recipe for our little afternoon pick me ups. "Did you make it exactly the same way?" he asked. "Ugh, no...completely different actually, the designs and ingredients have changed, only the concept remains" I replied. I knew where he was heading...

A couple of weeks ago, a friend mentioned she wanted to try Matcha but everytime she smelled it she was turned off by the strong grassy scent. I thought of making cupcakes or or a cake with some small amount of the powder so she could get acclimated. While reading one of my favorite blogs, 80 Breakfasts, I read Joey's post about a marbled matcha tea and white chocolate loaf and I thought that might be the one cake to introduce a novice to the wonders of matcha tea. This recipe has been traveling quite a bit, and for good reason, the cake looks scrumptious and from a previous concoction of matcha and white chocolate (ice cream), I know the combo works very well.

Except....I wanted to put my own stamp on it (read, insane love for polka dots versus marbling) and I did not have white chocolate at the house, and a small amount of rice flour left in a big jar that was taking to much space in the cupboard. I knew that by taking out the white chocolate part, I would have to replace it with something as equally creamy and mellow. While yogurt could be a way to go, I went with cream cheese to keep up with the fat content and consistency the white chocolate would have. It is probably less sweet witout the white chocolate and I did not increase the sugar content but that suits me just fine at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I don't bathe in butter and sugar all week long for those of you who have asked. I replaced half the all purpose flour with rice flour which gave fine tight crumbs to the cake, perfect for dunking it into hot tea and avoid "disintegration upon dunking" as it is commonly called at our house. To make the dots, I divided the batter into 2/3rds vanilla and 1/3rd matcha. I poured the vanilla batter into a 9x9 square inch pan, filled a pastry bag with a large tip (Ateco #809) with the matcha one and pushed it through the cake batter in the pan as I squeezed on the bag to make dots in a random pattern.

Peeps, if you're still on the fence about matcha, this cake is the way to go! It's cake, it's subtle and yet you get to acclimate to its grassy and mellow tea flavor, it's dunkable in tea, milk or coffee, it goes well with a touch of lemon curd or strawberry jam (trust us on that). Next time I am thinking of making the vanilla batter lemon or orange...Now, if you'll excuse me...I have got a cake to bake!

Polka Dot Matcha Tea Cake

Printable Recipe

3 large eggs (2 oz each)
90 grams all-purpose flour
90 grams rice flour
80 grams cream cheese, softened
115 grams butter, melted (1 stick)
150 grams sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tb vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsps matcha powder

With a stand mixer (paddle attachment) or a hand held one, whip the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of your bowl with a spatula in between each addition. Sift the flours with the baking powder and add it to the cream cheese mixture, whip for a few seconds. Add the salt and butter and mix a few more seconds. Divide the batter in 2/3 and 1/3, add the vanilla extract to the 2/3 batter and the matcha tea to the 1/3 batter.
Preheat your oven at 350F. Grease a 9x9 inch square cake pan and pour the 2/3 rd vanilla batter into the pan. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large tip with the matcha batter and squeeze dots throughout the cake, pushing the tip all the way down the cake batter. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle is free of cake batter. Let cool 15 minutes before unmolding. Keeps well covered up to 3-4 days. Remove 45 minutes from the fridge before serving so the crumbs can relax and the flavor develop.

A huge thank you to Rachael for the lovely chopsticks I used in the picture as well as for the rest of her wonderful package from Japan: cotton candy (watagashi), sponge designed as a cake, yuzu koshou (condiment), sichimi togarashi (7 spice blend), cute pastry cutters and cherry blossom extract. I will upload a proper picture later on and hope that my box reaches her safely in return!