In our family, food is one of our love languages.
Eating well is important and I love experimenting, but when it comes to baking, I’m no Martha Stewart, and Betty Crocker used to be my best friend for special occasions :P
It’s been a long time since I’ve last baked a proper cake or cookies, so it was time to put on those kitchen gloves to bake a birthday cake from scratch. That’s my promise to K (and my personal goal) – to bake him a yearly birthday cake. I’ve already skipped that twice (Sigh. Don’t ask.), so I’d better stop that IOU list from getting longer.
Here’s sharing my simple homemade Matcha Adzuki Butter Cake Recipe – Happy Birthday and Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary to us! This is a truly belated post :P
Matcha & Adzuki Yogurt Butter Cake
adapted from Happy Home Baking
Ingredients:
250g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon matcha powder (I used the Osulloc Premium Green Tea Powder that we bought from our Jeju holiday!)
70g butter, soften at room temperature
120g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (250ml) plain yogurt
3 tablespoons red bean paste (Adjust as you like – I used the whole can of Adzuki paste!)
Method:
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius. Lightly grease the side of an 8″ (20cm) pan with butter and dust it evenly with flour. Tap away any excess flour and line the base with parchment paper. (Note: I didn’t have parchment paper, so the greasing and dusting were done directly on the pan)
- Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, green tea powder and salt. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat butter for about 1 min. Gradually add in sugar and beat until light and creamy.
- Dribble in eggs gradually, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beat constantly for about 2 mins.
- With a spatula, fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Then, fold in 1/2 of the yogurt, followed by half of the remaining flour mixture. Fold in the remaining yogurt and then the rest of the flour mixture. Stir well after each addition.
- Stir in the red bean paste, mix well.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35~45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 mins. Unmold and cool completely.
And…… TA-DAH!!!
After the cake is done, that’s just half the battle won. Decorating is another art mountain to climb – and the fastest way is to adorn with berries, which I usually do *oops* But this matcha cake has adzuki paste and yogurt in it, so I went for a simpler decor to keep the palates clean when we eat, and consume the rich green tea flavour as is.
So buttercream frosting, here we go! I’ve reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe – is it just me? The amount of sugar used in these recipes can probably trigger a sugar high party.
How to Make Buttercream frosting
adapted from Mycakedecorating
Ingredients:
100g good quality unsalted butter (I used salted though, so the buttercream had a slight saltish tinge)
100g icing sugar
A little milk
Method:
- Sift the icing sugar well into a bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, add the butter roughly chopped into several chunks.
- Use a hand whisk or use the electric mixer, and beat the butter until it has the appearance of whipped double cream, and looks almost white.
- Add the icing sugar two tablespoons at a time. Continue with the icing sugar until it has all been used.
- Carefully add a teaspoon of milk, and beat well.
Glad it was a success on my first try! And no one had the runs after eating! :P Would I make this again? Yes, because it had a healthy dollop of yogurt in cake which made it less sinful, and we loveeeeeee matcha and adzuki pairing!
Tips:
- Cake texture is unlike the usual butter cake – it’s more dense and “heavy” due to the yogurt, but tasted yummy!
- Feel free to use almonds or walnuts instead of adzuki – I think that would give it extra crunch if you prefer more bite.
- Green tea fans, you’ll love this! Green tea powder and Adzuki red bean paste are available at our local supermakets, Japanese supermarkets such as Meidi-Ya,or, Daiso too!
Till the next bake-out!
Do you enjoy baking your own cakes too? Do try this Matcha Adzuki Yogurt Butter Cake recipe and tell me how it went!
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My MIL recently baked a macha marble pound cake and it was surprisingly yummy. (The surprise bit was the macha, not her ability to bake!) I don’t usually bake but I will pass on your recipe with yogurt to her. I think yogurt replaces some of the butter, so it’s healthier! :)