Matcha Layer Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting

A green tea flavoured cake covered in sweet vanilla bean frosting. :)

I'm submitting this cake for the SCS Butter Challenge! I didn't manage to take awesome photos but I guess they're fine. The cake has a subtle matcha flavour and the frosting is a tad bit sweet for my taste, but they work well together.

I love the little ruffles on the top of this cake! It was done using a petal tip, and layered around the top of the cake. As you can see, I didn't do a really good job with the frosting. I didn't cover a whole cake property and you can still see bits of the matcha cake on top.

(ft. SCS butter, which isn't very obvious but oh well)

The cake is nice and moist. Make sure you use a good quality matcha powder. You can get the best quality ones at Japanese supermarkets (I usually get mine at ISETAN). They are usually a little expensive but it's worth the money because you get lots of matcha flavour in just a little bit of matcha powder.

I'm not a big fan of American Buttercream Frostings. They are usually too sweet for my taste and a little too buttery and rich. If you prefer a less sweet frosting, try out cooked flour frosting ore imbue based ones like Swiss meringue buttercream or Italian meringue buttercream. Or dark chocolate frosting, since you usually replace some of the icing sugar with cocoa powder so the frosting is less sweet. :)

I used vanilla bean paste in this frosting, and I love how you can see the little speckles of vanilla bean in the frosting. Vanilla is always good!

Matcha Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Matcha Cake

Adapted from http://buildingbuttercream.blogspot.sg/2012/03/green-tea-layer-cake-with-lemon-honey.html

Ingredients
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cake flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons powdered green tea
½ cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1½ eggs
½ cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line two 6" round cake pans with parchment paper. Grease and flour.
Sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes before turning out of the pans.

Vanilla Bean Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla bean paste/ vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp milk (optional, if necessary)

1. Beat the room temperature butter until fluffy and pale.

2. Add in the confectioner's sugar a cup at a time, until fully incorporated.

3. Continue beating for 2-3 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean paste.

4. Adjust the consistency of the frosting by adding more confectioners sugar to make it stiffer or adding milk to make it less stiff.