Learn how to make this easy matcha cake recipe. The green tea cakes are made with matcha powder, which adds lots of flavour and colour. You can serve them plain but I like to top these matcha cakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting for a simple yet elegant green tea dessert.
These easy matcha cakes can be served plain, but I made them into an elegant green tea dessert by frosting them with this thick white chocolate cream cheese frosting made without powdered sugar.
Ingredients
- flour—bleached all-purpose flour is used in this recipe. Unbleached should work fine too!
- green tea—use fine matcha powder
- leavening agents—use baking powder, not baking soda in this recipe. Please read about baking soda versus baking powder if you aren't sure the difference.
- salt— use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt or if using table salt, add half the suggested amount because it's saltier.
- butter— use unsalted butter or reduce the salt in the recipe if you are going to bake with salted butter
- sugar—use regular white granulated sugar to avoid adding any taste or colour to the matcha cake so that the green tea flavour will shine
- eggs—use large eggs, not smaller
- vanilla—I used pure vanilla extract. It's optional but I find vanilla and matcha are a nice flavour pairing
- milk—I've tested this recipe with low-fat milk (1 % fat) and whole milk (3.25 % fat). Both work!
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Matcha Cake
This easy matcha cake recipe works as a single loaf, mini loaves, or even a layer cake. Here's how to make the cake recipe:
Step 1: Sift the green tea powder over the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (image 1). Whisk the dry ingredients together to make sure they are evenly incorporated.
Step 2: Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed with a spatula. Add the vanilla with the last egg (image 3).
Step 3: Add the whisked dry ingredients (image 4) alternately with the milk (image 5), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Step 4: Transfer the green tea cake batter to the prepared loaf pan(s) (image 6) and bake until set (image 7).
Please note that you can bake this easy matcha cake recipe is a regular loaf pan or in mini pans. The baking time will vary according to the size of the pan. Baked in a single loaf pan, this cake may take 45 minutes to 1 hour to bake.
Step 5: Transfer the loaf cakes to a wire rack to cool completely (image 8). You can top them with a thick layer of classic cream cheese frosting or this white chocolate cream cheese frosting (image 9).
Please note that if you choose to decorate the cakes as I have done, you will need a half batch of either of the frostings mentioned above (about 400–450 grams of frosting) and a St-Honoré piping tip (either Matfer brand or Ateco will work).
Matcha Cake Baking FAQs
Because matcha powder has caffeine, green tea cakes made with matcha powder will also have caffeine.
Matcha pairs beautifully with sweet, creamy white chocolate but also with bright flavours like passion fruit and cream cheese. This is why pairing this easy matcha cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting is so brilliant!
Berries are also great with matcha. You could serve these with raspberries, for example.
The colour of matcha powder will change over time, but also when exposed to heat or air. The colour of the green tea powder will darken and become brown after opening the container, and when you bake with it, the edges will brown (also because of Maillard browning).
An open container of matcha powder will oxidize, most notably on the surface of the powder, changing the colour from bright green to dark green or even brownish. Unfortunately, it's difficult to avoid oxidation upon storage, and the colour change will affect the colour of the matcha cake.
Other Green Tea Desserts
If you love baking with tea, especially green tea as much as me, here are a few other recipes to try:
- Matcha gingerbread cookies
- Matcha tarts filled with passion fruit curd
- Matcha crêpes served with black sesame pastry cream
If you tried this recipe for easy matcha cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Easy Matcha Cakes
Ingredients
- 190 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 19 grams matcha green tea powder
- 7.5 mL baking powder
- 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 175 grams unsalted butter softened
- 200 grams granulated sugar
- 3 large egg(s)
- 5 mL pure vanilla extract
- 90 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (165 °C). Grease 9 mini loaf pans (I used this pan from Amazon. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, matcha, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed with a spatula. Add the vanilla and beat the mixture again.
- Add the whisked dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Give the mixture a couple more stirs with the spatula to make sure everything is evenly incorporated, then divide the batter among the prepared loaf pans.
- Bake the cakes until a cake tester inserted in the middle of one comes out clean and the edges begin to pull away from the sides. This takes about 20 or so minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely.
Notes
- This cake can be baked in mini loaf pans (up to 9, depending on dimensions), a standard 9x5-inch loaf pan or even better, a smaller 8.5x4.5-inch loaf pan. Baking the recipe as one cake as a large loaf cake will mean a longer baking time, at least 45–60 minutes. Use visual cues and tests to determine when the cake is done baking.
- Use high quality fine matcha powder. The colour may vary according to the brand of green tea powder, the type, and also the age of it, so the green colour of the cake will vary.
- I garnished these matcha cakes with this thick cream cheese frosting without powdered sugar.
Nutrition
La Table De Nana says
McGill..I went there:) Just 1 semester though.. many many many moons ago..
I have Matcha powder..Thank you.
Baking IS therapy:)
Good luck..with anything you chose..It usually works out..the career area:)
Janice Lawandi says
Thanks! I hope so 😉
Medeja says
The color looks so cute!