Heavenly Healthy Matcha Green Tea Cake
This is, I believe, my third official experiment using Matcha Green Powder.
Right, this is it. I have, thus far, come up with 3 recipes using this magical ingredient.
First, there were pancakes! Also known as breakfast bliss!
Then, this yummy parfait… Makes for a magnificent post work-out snack!
And now, this sublime, this divine, this purely heavenly cake.
Oh boy!
It’s quite simply a decadent, marvelous, delicious and completely guilt free dessert.
I am really getting hooked on Matcha Green Tea.
It would seem that everything I use it into turns into something absolutely celestial, plain out of this world delicious.
Well, if you are a fan of green tea like I am, I guess.
Did I ever tell you that I drink A LOT of green tea? Well, I do. I must drink AT LEAST 6 to 8 cups per day. I am a total fan. I might even say I’m a total green tea junkie! I simply cannot be without my green tea.
When I first discovered it, it was like love at first sip, but had no idea at the time that it was actually good for me. I had to research it, because I was a bit concerned that I might have to somewhat restrict my intake, just like I do with coffee. One to two cups per day, max.
What a lovely surprise it was for me to find out that, not only I did not have to hold back on my green tea consumption, but I should in fact make it a habit to drink at least 4 to 5 cups a day. OH BLISS!
Gee, I wish it were like that for all those things that I love so much! Like, couldn’t eating at least a pound of dark chocolate per day be good for me? And of course, consuming at the very minimum, a good cup and a half of nut butter?
Yeah, I know… I’m asking for A LOT here.
But hey, at least, I have my green tea.
And now, I have Matcha to cook with! I mean, this stuff is seriously good! It simply gives life to the most amazing food creations ever.
This cake, I have no words to describe it, other than “Oh-My-God!”. So I guess you’re gonna have to try it for yourself. 😉
While it may be a little heavy on the calorie side, it’s actually so good for you that you can, and should, have it for breakfast. That way, it becomes a full meal, instead of an addition to an existing meal, and this allows you to eat a decent size piece (because trust me, you’re gonna want a VERY DECENT size piece!) without feeling guilty about it in the least!
That’s what I’ve been doing all week… and I’ve been loving it.
Hey, I’m making a habit out of eating cake for breakfast, aren’t I?
Well, the good thing is I can honestly say “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that!”
Heavenly Healthy Matcha Green Tea Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
Part I
- 150 g almond meal
- 100 g coconut flour
- 100 g oats flour
- 1½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1½ tbsp Matcha green tea powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Part II
- 3 whole eggs, beaten
- ¾ cup 6 egg whites
- ¼ cup unpasteurized honey
Part III
- ½ cup cooked black soy beans, you could also use canned
For the icing
- 300 g soft tofu, strained overnight
- 1 cup 0% fat plain Greek yogurt, strained overnight
- 1½ cup 1% fat cottage cheese, strained overnight
- ¼ cup unpasteurized honey
- ½ cup coconut butter, softened
- 2 scoops, 75g unflavored whey protein powder
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 1½ tsp matcha green tea powder
Instructions
The previous night
- Add soft tofu, yogurt and cottage cheese to a fine mesh sieve or colander lined with cheesecloth. Top with paper towel or cheese cloth and weigh this down with a light weight, such as a small can.
- Strain overnight, or at least 6 hours.
For the cake
- Preheat the oven to 375F and spray a 12 x 18 baking sheet with cooking spray, then line with parchment paper. (The cooking spray will help the parchment paper adhere to the baking sheet, which is really important, so you don’t want to skip this step. If you don’t have cooking spray, brush very lightly with oil.)
- Using a stand or electric mixer, beat the eggs and egg whites until very foamy, about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the almond meal, coconut and oat flour, matcha green tea powder and salt to your food processor and process until well combined.
- Transfer to a large mixing bowl and add applesauce, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Mix delicately with a rubber spatula until very well combined. Set aside.
- Bring honey to a boil and slowly pour it into the egg mixture, without stopping the mixer. The best way to do this is to pour the honey as close as possible to the side of the bowl, so that it doesn’t come in contact with the beater.
- Continue whisking the eggs for another 3-4 minutes
- Using a rubber spatula, delicately fold in this egg mixture into the previously reserved batter and mix until well incorporated. Very gingerly fold in the black beans.
- Spread that cake batter as evenly as possible onto the prepared baking sheet and cook in a 375F oven for about 25 minutes, or until top is nice and golden brown.
- Take out of the oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes, then flip sheet cake over a clean tea towel. Do not remove parchment paper at this point. Allow to cool completely.
For the icing
- Add strained tofu, cottage cheese and yogurt to your food processor and process until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Pop coconut butter in the microwave for a few seconds just to soften it a little bit.
- Add it to the cheese mixture, along with honey, matcha powder, whey protein powder, and coconut flour and process again for about a minute.
- Transfer the icing to the refrigerator to firm up for at least 20-30 minutes
Assembly
- Remove the parchment paper from the cake sheet and cut out the edges, then cut the sheet into three equal rectangles.
- Lay one of the rectangles on a cake board or plate and spread about one third of the icing evenly over its entire surface. Make sure you go all the way to the edge.
- Top with a second cake rectangle and spread another third of the icing. Repeat with the last layer of cake.
- Sprinkle unsweetened shredded coconut over the cake.
If you’ve tried this recipe, please take a minute to rate the recipe and let me know how things went for you in the comments below. It’s always such a pleasure to hear from you!
You can also FOLLOW ME on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and TWITTER for more delicious, healthy recipes!
24 Comments on “Heavenly Healthy Matcha Green Tea Cake”
Wow this looks amazing….you are so creative with food! I actually have some Matcha tea powder that I bought ages ago and treated it like powder gold…it is so expensive. I have actually not used it in a long time but you are giving me very very good ideas, like those magical pancakes you mentioned at the beginning of the post! My kids would think is the greatest thing in the world to have green pancakes 🙂
This looks SO GOOD! But I’m afraid to ask what “a little heavy on the calorie side” means… this cake looks so amazing, I doubt I could stop at one piece. 🙂
Well, if you look at the list of ingredients, you can see that a lot of them are the “calorie dense” type, such as almond meal and coconut… I haven’t really crunched in all the numbers, but based on 10 servings, you’re looking at probably somewhere around 450-500 calories per piece. It’s not that much compared to a lot of the “traditional” desserts that are out there, but when you eat 5-6 times a day and try to keep your main meals at around 500 to 750 calories per, let’s say that a piece of this cake makes a huge dent in the calorie allowance of said meals! 😉 And you are quite right, it’s hard to stop at one piece!
Gorgeous! I have to get some more of that powder 🙂
I don’t know about a pound a day but dark chocolate is actually good for you. I’m convinced it’s why my bad cholesterol levels are so low…because I eat a LOT of cheese, try to get eggs into my meals to make up for the fact that I don’t eat a lot of meat and for years when my eating habits were not so great I enjoyed high fat, fried foods (I have to admit that I still do occasionally). Since you’re from Quebec you probably know what poutine is – one of my favorite things (I know it’s absolutely horrible for you). Fortunately where I live I can’t get fresh cheese curd easily (and I will only eat it fresh). But one of my other favorite things is dark chocolate and it’s the only thing that can explain why I don’t have to be on some cholesterol pill (okay maybe it’s not the only thing that can explain it – but it’s the one I choose to believe!) It also has antioxidants and is said to lower blood pressure (which I don’t have to worry about because mine is usually around 90/60 – maybe I have the dark chocolate to thank for that too!) So go ahead and enjoy some dark chocolate every once in a while, it might not be as good for you as green tea but it still has health benefits in moderation. This cake looks delicious by the way. All your pics of your creations are amazing…whenever I try to take a pic of a meal it never comes out.
Oh, I know that dark chocolate is good for me and I do eat my fair share of it. Only, you have to eat it in moderation. That’s the part that I wish wasn’t true! I wish I could eat as much as I actually wanted and have it be good for me! 😉
Thank you for your great comment, Joann! I truly appreciate. Glad you like my pictures. And keep practicing taking pictures of your food… overtime, they will improve. Remember what they say, practice makes perfect! 😀
Beautiful cake! You’re really making me crave green tea! And as usual the ingredients list for your cake looks incredible 😀 Growing up, we used to go out to little hole-in-the-wall Chinese places quite frequently and that’s where my love of green tea started. I couldn’t make it at home for the longest time, until I learned not to steep it so long. Now I love it 🙂
Hehe! Glad I could make you crave green tea! That stuff is so good and so good for you too! I agree though, let it steep too long and it becomes incredibly bitter. NOT so very good! 😉
What a lovely and gorgeous cake! It’s gluten free too if you use GF oats – woooooohooooooo! I REALLY need to find me some matcha green tea powder – you’re killing me over here!!!!
Thanks Nora! Glad I came up with a recipe that you can try! I haven’t used gluten free oats, but I’m sure you will! I might have to keep an eye out for it, though. I like the idea of cutting back on gluten. I might not be ready to go entirely gluten free, but cutting back a little surely can’t be a bad thing now, can it? And I agree. You definitely need to get your hands on some of that amazing powder. I’m sure you’ll love it and you too, will come up with amazing creations that will have me drooling! 😉
As a very recent green tea matcha powder convert.. (is that even a sentence..lol) I love, love that cake and I love it even more that you’re basically telling me that it is ok to have this for breakfast. But since you’re the matcha expert; have you made pannacotta matcha before? I’ve done them yesterday and had the odd thing happening that the mixture split. It’s still very tasty but looks a bit odd. I sort of have the feeling that it is something to do with the matcha but not sure. It’s not up on my blog yet but will be posted on the 9th… 🙂
I have never made matcha pannacotta before, but now that you have put the idea in my mind, you can be certain that I will be giving it a try! OMG, it sounds heavenly! I seriously don’t know what would make the mixture split though… I don’t see how the matcha powder would be responsible for that. Can’t wait to see your post on the subject. Now I have to start thinking of how to make a healthy panna cotta… no cream, no sugar. Hmpft. Quite the challenge! 😉
Do you find all that green tea affects your sleep? I drink 2 cups of green tea a day and I’m certain that one sip more would turn me into an insomniac. 2 cups worth is enough caffeine for me for the day.
No, not at all… but then again, I’m the kind of person who could very well have 5 cups of coffee right before to hit the sack and still fall asleep in a matter of minutes. Of course, I’d probably have to get up 2 or 3 times in the middle of the night to erm… evacuate said coffee, but that’s a whole ‘nother story! 😉 Also, green tea has a lot less caffeine than coffee… 5 times less if I remember correctly, so it would definitely not be an issue for me. Sorry to hear it’s a problem for you, though. 🙁
This looks amazing! I could happily eat it for breakfast too and easily convince myself that all that green tea must mean it’s healthy 🙂
You don’t actually need to convince yourself. Everything about that cake is healthy, not only the green tea! In fact, it makes for a much healthier breakfast than most of the foods we’re so used to having for breakfast. So you wouldn’t even have to think twice about it, you could sink your teeth right in! 🙂
i love baking with matcha! your photos are amazing, and the cake looks mouthwatering-ly delicious.
Thank you so much Erin! I really appreciate that! 🙂
Okay, so I wanted to make a green tea cake for my coffee shop based in Thailand, and I decided go try your recipe first. We do try to bake healthier cakes (but also more REAL ones, comparing to the sugary crap you get in most Thai bakeries). Unfortunately, there were some issues from the start… First, in a country were there are multiple types of tofu, “soft” was not very telling – and even when I got hold of the softest one, it still seemed a bit too hard – crumbling rather than creaming when whisking (my Thai friend thinks that you used Japanese tofu for the cake). Some of the ingredients I could not get but that’s fine. In the end though, the sponge came out a bit tougher than your usual cake, and tasting a bit tangy, too. On top of that, Thais who are used to soft bakes, seem not too happy about it either. Pity, because it looks really nice.
I’m really sorry to hear that, Kabir, but I guess it’s sort of hard to replicate a recipe when you can’t get your hands on the same ingredients. Not sure what you had to sub because you didn’t mention, but judging by the tofu issue, it would seem like your ingredients are very different from the ones I used. Soft tofu, also called silk or silken tofu, is really widely available here and truly lives up to its name. It is extremely creamy and super silky soft. No even close to being hard and crumbly.
Also, I think you were expecting to get more of a airy sponge cake but this is nowhere near the same texture and consistency…
I’m real sorry to hear the Thais didn’t care for it.
Thanks for reply 🙂
Well, Thais are quite specific in their taste. We do try to “educate” the local community here what an authentic REAL European cakes should be like. Most of the stuff you get in Thai bakeries are these gross sugary mousse-like cakes, whether carrot cake or cheesecake (I bet none of those have ever been close to a carrot or cheese), they pretty much taste the same – sugar. Some customers then complain that our cakes are too “hard” or “dry”, while others appreciate that our products are less sweet, but more tasteful. But I am sometimes close to giving up when nobody wants to buy a beautiful healthy pumpkin muffin, because it looks too “plain” for them, but they will go crazy for cupcakes when you put enough fancy stuff on top. Red Velvet is also a best-seller. So yeah, we need to somehow balance between our and Thais’ idea of a cake.
Ugh… I’m really surprised to read all this! I was under the impression that Asian cultures in general weren’t too big on sugar and didn’t do much dessert to start with, and that they would tend to mostly do fruit based desserts. I didn’t think they went for artificial and highly processed like that. But now that I think of it, some of the sweet stuff that I see in Asian food markets doesn’t look too heatlhy at all. In fact, I’m not quite sure what it looks like. All I know is I wouldn’t touch it! 😉
Looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you! Kudos to you for trying to educate and change their habits somewhat! You totally rock! 🙂
(oh, and you got me craving a nice spicy pumpkin muffin too… but that’s a whole ‘nother story!) 😉
This looks amazing! Could we omit the protein powder and substitute the soy beans for something else? Thanks