Strawberry Matcha Bundt Cake Recipe
This green tea and honey cake is draped in a fresh- and tart-tasting strawberry icing.
Testing Status: IN PROGRESS
Initial Recipe Development
My cranberry bundt cake was my jumping point for this recipe. I knew I wanted the cake dense, just how I like my pound cakes in general, but I didn’t think “dense” and “matcha” necessarily go together. So, I added some cake flour in place of all-purpose to slightly decrease gluten formation. I like to clearly taste my matcha in baked goods, so I added more than most would to start: 3 tablespoons, instead of 2.
Something was drawing me towards honey and almonds, so I used honey for a large portion of the sugar. This would add acid and some moisture to the cake (hence the alkaline baking soda addition as a leavening agent). For half of the liquid ingredients, I used almond milk. This is in place of milk or more yogurt just to add another layer of flavor to the cake. For the icing, I was literally just shooting in the dark. I added powdered sugar and freeze-dried strawberry powder to a bowl and added heavy cream until it reached a consistency that was too thick for my liking. At that point, I used skim milk, since it was what I had on hand, and it thinned out the frosting nicely.
Next Steps
So, I thought I wanted a SUPER strong matcha taste. I have been proven wrong — I want just a touch, where it’s earthy and sweet but not so strong that it becomes almost minty. On that note (minty), I think the cake had too much of a twang on its own. Next time, I’ll ditch the Greek yogurt and maybe even the almond milk, in favor of whole dairy milk.
Upon trying a few slices of the cake over a span of days, I found the cake was moist, but it could still use something to break up all that dense cake. I’m going to try something like a honey simple syrup soak hot out of the oven, or I might add fresh strawberry bits into the cake batter. I think I could have taken the cake out of the oven a couple minutes earlier, too, so I’ll play around with baking time, too.
Recipe
Strawberry Matcha Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Bundt pan 10-cup capacity or larger
- Silicone spatula
Ingredients
Matcha Bundt Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour plus extra for flouring the pan 408 grams
- ½ cup cake flour 56 grams
- 3 tablespoons matcha powder 20 grams
- ½ teaspoon baking soda 3 grams
- ¾ teaspoon table salt 4.5 grams
- 1 cup room-temperature butter 226 grams, plus extra for greasing the pan
- 2 cups white granulated sugar 400 grams
- ½ cup + 2½ teaspoons honey 185 grams
- 5 large eggs 250 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 7 grams
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons almond milk 212 grams
- heaping ½ cup whole Greek yogurt 137 grams
Icing:
- 4 teaspoons freeze-dried strawberry powder 7 grams
- 1½ cup 10-X Confectioner’s sugar 180 grams
- 1/2 cup heavy cream 120 grams
- 2 tbsp skim milk 30 grams
- Pinch of salt 0.5 gram
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour the bundt pan.
- Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl: all-purpose flour, cake flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and table salt. Whisk together for at least 30 seconds.
- Fit your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. A hand mixer and beaters are also fine. Add butter, sugar, and honey to the bowl of the mixer. Beat on medium speed (4-5 on a KitchenAid) for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once halfway through and once at the end.
- Set the mixer to medium-low speed (2-3 on a KitchenAid). While the mixer is running, add one egg to the bowl and mix until completely incorporated into the buttercream mixture. Repeat this step until all 5 eggs are incorporated. Scrape the bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Beat the mixture just faster than medium speed (6 on a KitchenAid) for at least 5 minutes. This is a great time to use for cleanup.
- Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl to ensure all the batter is incorporated.
- Starting with the dry mixture, alternate adding the flour and remaining liquids to the mixer bowl. For all five additions, you'll add, mix on low (2-3) until mostly combined, stop the mixer, and repeat. First, ⅓ of the dry mixture. Second, the almond milk. Third, ⅓ of the dry mixture. Fourth, the Greek yogurt. Lastly, mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape the bowl again. Mix everything one last time on medium-low speed (3-4 on KitchenAid) for 30 seconds.
- Pour the batter into your greased and floured bundt pan. Smooth the top of the batter if needed. Place the pan in the oven and bake the cake for 85 minutes or until the top has risen, fluffy, browned, and broken at the center.
- Turn the oven off and remove the bundt pan from the oven. Allow it to cool for 10-15 minutes on the countertop or a trivet. Flip the cake onto a cake plate and allow it to cool uncovered for about 4 hours at room temperature, or until the cake is cool to the touch.
Strawberry Icing
- Add the freeze-dried strawberry powder and confectioner's sugar to a medium-sized bowl. Whisk until combined and uniformly light pink in color. Make a well in the center, and add the heavy cream, milk, and salt. Whisk this mixture until no more lumps are present.
- Carefully pour the icing over the top of the fully cooled cake. It should remain thick and fall down the sides like a cartoon ice cream scoop on a cone (for lack of better explanation).
- Slice and serve with a cup of milk!
