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Tag Archive: cake

Non-dairy Moist Green Tea Pound Cake Recipe

February 14th, 2011

We had an on-off internet problem throughout the weekend and I am finally able to post this!

My mum used to make French style quatre-quarts when I was very small. Recently I tried to recreate the same thing but was horrified to see the amount of butter and sugar used! So you can guess that I changed the recipe completely and added maccha powder (green tea powder). The result is a light and relatively healthy pound cake. I have been eating this every day while perfecting it.

Green tea light pound cake

Super sweet cakes are not my cup of tea. This cake is something that is mild and nice to eat with something. But you can definitely add a little more sugar to increase it’s sweetness (see the recipe below).

A nice tea break.

The tip of this cake is to keep on whisking using an electric mixer. Very slowly drizzle the sunflower oil and soya milk mixture in order to prevent the nice bubbles bursting.

Ingredients:

3 medium eggs
100g cane sugar (I used Tate & Lyle Light Cane sugar)
140 g sunflower oil
40 g soya milk (I used alpro soya)
180 g self-raising flour
2 tsp maccha powder

Equipment:

Cake tin (mine is a very old cake tin 20 cm length, (12.5 cm width & 9 cm depth))
Electric mixer (either hand or something like kitchen aid type mixer are suitable)

Preparation:

Turn on and pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Line the cake pan with grease proof paper (for some reason I get much better result with using a sheet of grease proof paper than grease the pan and flouring it).
Sift the flour and maccha mixture once.

Flour and maccha powder to be sifted.

Step 1: Mix the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, whisk for 10 min until white and flully (pic 1).
Step 2: In a small jug, mix the sunflower oil and soya milk using a spoon so that you get a nice emulsion (pics 2 & 3).
Step 3: Very slowly drizzle the oil and soya milk mixture to the batter made in step 1. If possible keep on whisking (if not, add a little, then mix – repeat this process).
Step 4: When you get a nice fluffy even mixture of eggs, sugar, oil and soya milk (wet ingredient), stop mixing. Sift the flour and maccha powder (dry ingredient) into the batter. Carefully mix using a scraper not to burst any air bubbles.
Step 5: When you have mixed the dry and the wet ingredients so that there are no powder to be seen in the mixture, pour the mixture into the cake tin.
Step 6: Even out the surface by lightly tapping the bottom of the cake.
Step 7: Bake at 180C for the first 8 min then reduce the temperature to 170C and bake for further 25-30 min or until the skewer comes out with small crumbs of cake (if it doesn’t then it is definitely cooked so take it out of the oven quickly to prevent it from drying)

Pic 1. Mix until the batter is white and fluffy

Pic 2. Soy and sunflower oil mix. I thought it looked pretty.

Pic 3. Mix it to make into an emulsion so that it is easier to mix later.

According to my husband, it tastes great with strawberries and blueberries on the side. Perfect for a gift when you visit your friends and families. A nice Japanese-style tea break. Enjoy!

Im addicted to so mant things. This is one of them.

I'm addicted to so many things. This is one of them.

This is how I eat it.

This is how Wesley eats it.

18 comments

Moist Banana Honey Cake – So Easy & So Yummy

July 21st, 2010

Danger! This cake is SERIOUSLY GOOD. I have made so many now and literally finished them before I give away to friends.

How are you all? It’s so hot in London. All my food goes off quickly. I don’t like it. This includes my bananas. I buy new bananas every week but the “fume” of the old ones ripen the new ones so it’s a bad cycle.

So, in the past couple of months I have been researching and improving on my banana cake recipe and I think I got it.

Moist Banana Honey Cake

The memory of banana cake goes back to when I was 13. This was when I first came to the UK and stayed in a boarding school. On of my friend who was a day girl at the time (i.e. she did not board but came to school from home every day) and her grandma baked banana cake for her to take to the class. The cake was so yummy with sweet banana with a tinge of caramel. So yummy that I used to look forward to it all the time. At the same time missed my family not being around.

Now I am a grown-up girl. I can make my own. So here is the recipe. As you have read above, it really is good so I do recommend making it when there are people around so that you don’t finish all of it by yourself.

This one is a pecan nut version. Really nice.

Ingredients:

150g self-raising flour
70g castor sugar (I used 20g light cane and 5g Splenda and it works really well)
2 medium eggs (chilled would be better)
100ml vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon (tsp) bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
50g runny honey (use a good quality one as it makes a huge difference!)
2 ripe banana (approx 240-245g when mushed) mash them and sprinkle 1/2 lemon juice

Optional: 20g nuts blitzed to sprinkle over the cake to decorate (I have used pecan and pistacchio on separate occasions)

Any left over nuts can be used for this cake. Pistacchio add nice colour to the cake.

Preparation:

Preheat the oven (mine is a fan assisted oven) to 160C. Make sure you do this a bit before you start. This is because the cake is so easy to make and you want the oven to be at the right temperature when the batter is ready.
Grease the cake pan (20cm) and line with baking parchment (if it’s non stick, there is no need – I am often too lazy to line the tin..!)

Step 1: Mix flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon and leave it aside (dry ingredients).
Step 2: Put sugar and eggs in a bowl. Use an electric whisk until white and fluffy (about 5-10 min whisk at medium speed).
Step 3: Slowly drizzle the honey followed by vegetable oil while whisking into the batter.
Step 4: Sift the dry ingredients over the batter and mix carefully not to disturb the bubbles in the batter.
Step 5: When the dry ingredient is almost mixed, add the mushed banana. Again, mix carefully.
Step 6: Pour into the cake tin (optional: sprinkle with blitzed nuts) and bake for 35-40min or until the skewer comes out with small crumbs of cake.

I lined the whole pecan nuts to decorate...