Green Tea Marble Chiffon Cake

As an avid green tea lover, I love all things green tea. Green tea candy, green tea drinks, green tea sweets, green tea! I decided to make this cake on a whim and loved it so much that I made the same cake in two consecutive days. It is so good that the first one was devoured within 24 hours. The original recipe of this cake came from Cosy Bake, however I ended up tweaking the recipe because it was extremely difficult to combine matcha paste homogeneously with batter. During the first attempt, there was pretty much huge undissolved chunks of matcha. I tried to combine it as best I could but the over mixing just destroyed the fluffiness of the whipped egg whites. In an effort to curb that problem I decided to go with a dual batter approach. Although it is a little more work, I can assure you that the resulting cake is beautiful, super moist, super soft, and delicious! Again, I recommend using a high quality matcha powder for a stronger and tastier green tea flavor.

Green Tea Marble Chiffon Cake
Note: We will be making two different batters to combine to create the marble effect.

Plain Batter:
90 grams cake flour
1 tablespoon matcha powder, high quality preferred
2/3 teaspoon baking powder
4 egg yolks
40 grams vegetable oil
40 grams sugar
90 milliliters water

Green Tea Batter:
90 grams cake flour
1 tablespoon matcha powder, high quality preferred
2/3 teaspoon baking powder
4 egg yolks
40 grams vegetable oil
40 grams sugar
90 milliliters water

8 egg whites
80 grams sugar

1. Preheat oven to 356°F.
2. Sift the cake flour and baking powder together. (Sift the matcha powder along with the flour and baking powder in the green tea batter.)
3. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, water and oil together until combined. Add the sugar into the mixture and mix well. Then in small additions, add the flour to the mixture until combined into a batter. Repeat for the green tea batter.
4. Whip egg whites until foamy and then slowly add in sugar. Continue whipping egg whites until stiff peaks form. Divide the whipped egg whites into two equal portions.
5.  Add 1/3 of the egg whites with the batter and mix to combine. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites into the batter. Repeat the same process with the other half of the egg whites in the green tea batter.
6. Fill the chiffon tin with plain batter and then layer with matcha batter in between. (You can combine the batter in any fashion you like. Play around with it to get a design you like! )
7. Bake cake for 10 minutes at 356°F. Reduce heat to 320°F and bake for another 40 minutes. To check if the cake is fully cooked, take a skewer and poke the cake from the top of the cake to the bottom of the pan. If the skewer comes out clean, it is finished! Remove the cake from the oven, invert the pan immediately and allow to cool.
8. Slice, serve and enjoy!

Matcha Castella or カステラ (Green Tea Japanese Sponge Cake)

Although Caucasian sweets are tasty, I've always been more partial to Asian  sweets because of it's simplicity both in flavors and appearance. For example, Asian cake is much lighter and less sweet than it's Western counterpart. Castella cake is a prime example of that. The ingredients are simple and there's even no butter in it, however I think quality ingredients are essential. I don't know if you've ever had home harvested honey, but the difference between store bought honey and home harvested is huge. No comparison. No contest. Home harvested honey is amazing. I must say that I'm extremely lucky that my family are home beekeepers. (Thanks mom and grandpa!) Not only do I have access to this epic stuff, but I have the opportunity to enjoy the different varieties of honey as the seasons change. Right now, orange blossoms are in full bloom in Southern California so I have orange blossom honey. Light golden, floral in scent, it's delicious. However, beekeeping is not for the faint of heart.

Additionally, a high quality matcha powder is also important but can get pretty expensive. Obviously you get what you pay for and I've used both low end and high end matcha before. The lower end ones do not have as strong of a green tea flavor and the color of the end product is usually not as vibrant so I say go for the higher end one! Maeda-en brand is pretty darn good. I'm a green tea snob so you have to trust me on this one. Here's some proof:

The recipe I used in this post was adapted from My Kitchen Snippets. I reduced the sugar down a bit more and it was perfect for my taste. One problem I came across was that it wasn't as light and fluffy as I anticipated? The cake was still good but I think I just need to try this again.

Matcha Castella
5 large eggs
150 grams granulated sugar
200 grams all purpose flour
100 milliliters milk
4 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons matcha powder
6 tablespoons oil (I used grape seed oil in this recipe)


1. Prepare a 8 x 8" square baking pan. Line sides and bottom with parchment paper and grease it well. Preheat oven to 350° and place a rack in the middle of the oven. 
2. In a mixer whip eggs and sugar on high speed for about 5 minutes or until mixture forms a ribbon when the wire whip is lifted, the color should be pale yellow.
3. Meanwhile, add the matcha powder to the flour and sift twice to get rid of lumps. 
4. Turn down the mixer to medium speed and slowly add in the flour. Next add the milk until combined, then the honey until combined, and last the oil; the resulting mix should be smooth.
5. Pour the batter into a prepared pan. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake for 10 minutes in  350°. Afterwards, lower the temperature to 325° and bake for another 45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. 
6. When it is cool enough to handle but still warm, lift the cake out of the pan, paper and all, and place it in a plastic bag. Seal the bag and place in the refrigerator for several hours. (I included this step from just hungry to give it that extra moistness.)