Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon green tea powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, at room temperature
4 oz Vosges Black Pearl chips*
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour or spray one loaf pan. In a small bowl, whisk togher the egg, oil, and milk. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and green tea powder. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix to combine> Fold in chips. Pour into prepared pan and bake 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool briefly in pan, then remove to wire rack and cool completely.
*These are dark chocolate chips that contain black sesame seeds, wasabi and ginger. You can sub 4 oz semi sweet chips, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon black sesame seeds and wasabi to taste for a similar effect.
My thoughts:
I recently came in possession of both Japanese-inspired Black Pearl chips and matcha powder and I have been trying to think of a way to combine the two. The Black Pearl chips, while divine, only come in tiny 4 oz bags, which eliminated many old standbys like cookies and fudge. I finally arrived at the perfect solution: a simple loaf cake. Sweet and moist, it doesn’t need icing and the flavors of the delightful chips and the green tea shine through. I love the lurid green cake and the slightly gooey chips. It couldn’t have been a better choice.
I’m oddly attracted to this.. lol I’ve never had anything with green tea powder, so I don’t know if I like it or not..
I don’t like anything that’s hot, because I’m a wus when it comes to spice.. so if I had the opportunity to buy the chips, I probably wouldn’t.
BUT.. for some reason this lil cake looks SUPER GOOD! And now I want to try both elements. =)
Well, the chips actually are not very spicy at all. Slightly if you eat one out of the bag, but in things, it is just a hint of flavor. And the green tea, it is interesting sort of tea tasting but not exactly. I don’t even like tea and I like things made with green tea powder
Some people would be turned off by the colour, I like it though!
Rachel that is so beautiful! I love the combination and the colours!
I have never heard of those chips before. They sound so interesting and I love the combination of flavors you did.
What a fabulous combination of colour and flavour! Outstandingly lurid, which is always good in my books lol. I made blueberry panna cotta on my Pastry rotation in college last year, which turned out a wonderfully lurid blue. In my feedback I was told that blue is an “inedible” colour, but I don’t agree at all.
If it looks good on a plate, and contrasts with the other colours in the dish then I see no problem. I bet your green cake would provoke some great ideas for what to go with it, colourwise that is.
it is such an odd color combination – i love it! and i’ve seen those chips and wondered… what to do with them, now i know!
Oh my gosh, that cake looks so good. Brown and green are two of my favorite colors together.
I’m reaching for my matcha right now!
what an idea… you are always pushing to the limits! These chips are also great in a chocolate biscotti or in ginger muffins!
I am highly intrigued by this cake.Bravo.
I tried this, and the texture was more like a quick bread than a cake. It was quite dry and the chocolate was a little overwhelming (I only used 3oz to begin with, but still felt this way).
Josh: if it was dry, I bet you over baked it, it really wasn’t dry at all when I made it and there is a fair amount of milk and oil for such a tiny cake.
As for the chocolate, to each their own! You can certianly put in less if you prefer. Did you use the black pearl chips? They are very large and flat, so that might have made a difference.
Unless I screwed up one of the proportions in the chaos of making other dishes, the only thing I did differently was to use real green tea instead of the Matcha. I ground it up in my coffee grinder, but it still imparted a gritty texture, and more of a dull green color. But in general, I don’t think that would have affected the more general moistness of the cake. But you’re absolutely right. It doesn’t make sense that it would be dry, when taking into account all the oil and milk that went into it. I’m not sure about over baking, though. I cooked it for 35 minutes at first, stuck a knife in it, and it came out totally gooey in the middle. 10 minutes later it seemed done. But then again, my oven is so horrible that I wouldn’t be surprised if it screwed the cake up. So, basically, I apologize for writing my first post. I should have assumed that you wouldn’t knowingly give a recipe that wasn’t the best.
Josh: I bet the not using matcha is what did it. It is a powder, like sugar. Using the actual tea leaves probably sucked all the moisture out, as they absorb a lot of liquids-think about how much they expand in your cup after you add the water! A better alterative (if you really can’t find matcha) would be to soak the leaves in the milk, then strain them out before using it.
Can I substitute regular green tea powder for the angle food or this cake recipe? I’m not sure I can find Matcha… If I do use a regular, generic green tea powder, should it be sweetened or unsweetened?
I think unsweetened green tea powder would work fine.
i have never seen these chips before, but they sound AMAZING.. and i love green tea cake. do you think they have them somewhere like whole foods, or have you only ordered them online?
ReAnn: I’ve only seen them at Vosges stores. I’ve seen the candy bar version at high end shops but not the chips and never at Whole Foods.
Thanks, Rachel. I think I’ve seen the Ancho candy bars at Cost Plus World Market.. (I’m in Minneapolis.. lots of mom & mom chocolate shops, never seen this one in particular.) Thanks again for the introduction to such a cool idea & great product. I’m totally on a chocolate mission now (I finally found ground matcha this past weekend)
This looks SO delicious. I wish I could pick it up out of my computer screen and try a bite. Where can I find matcha powder?