Monday, October 08, 2007

Where have I been?

Chocolate and Matcha Cupcakehey friends, I am so sorry to leave you without a word for such a long time. I had shamelessly tagged OCT along on his interview trip to Seattle. And since we made a trip there, we decided to spend a couple more days in that wonderful city. You know, sipping lattes and eating as much as we could, especially croissant, which we are seriously deprived of, here in St Louis. Well I hope I would plucker up enough courage to tackle that recipe when the weather gets cooler. Anyone wants to do this together? It's one of my to do list, along with losing weights. What an irony. ha!

So, that explained part of the reason of my absense and lack of entry. Another part was because I was down with flu. I call it the full package covering each and every spectrum of flu symptoms. Certainly that includes fever, sore throat, runny nose, coughing and lethargy. I spent a week having a good time in Seattle and another week a dreadful time, mostly on bed. And with this, I hope you will forgive me for not being able to visit and leave comments on your blogs and response promptly on the comments you left here.

Although I have not fully recovered, I am happy to inform that I am 90% there. And by Wednesday, I expect a full recovery. I HAVE to. Because I am tagging along for ANOTHER interview trip. This time, we are going to Atlanta. Even though it's a short trip. Hopefully we get to see, or rather, EAT as many yummy local cuisine as possible.

Chocolate and Matcha CupcakeBut I digress. The purpose of this post is to share with you another variation of my favorite low fat marble cake. I marbled two of my favorite ingredients: matcha and cocoa to produce these green and brown cupcakes. The matcha powder that I used was potent, so a teaspoon for a cup of batter (see recipe below) produced my desired color and taste. It has a clean green tea flavor without overpowering, in perfect harmony with its chocolate marbled half.

I have bought another 2 tiny tins of matcha powder from Seattle, enough to experiment with more ideas I have in mind!

Chocolate Matcha Marble Cake/Cupcake


2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg white
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup low fat yogurt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5 teaspoons matcha powder

Have all ingredients at room temp. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the lower third of the oven. Spray 8-10 cup tube pan with cooking spray.

Use a whisk to combine four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift together. Set aside. In a small bowl combine the espresso powder, cocoa and 1/3 cup of the sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Whisk until smooth. Set aside. In another small bowl, whisk whole egg with egg white. Set aside.

Cut the butter into pieces and place in an electric mixing bowl. Beat for 1 minute to soften. Gradually add remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat at high speed for about 3 minutes. Dribble eggs in slowly, about 1 T at a time, beating constantly for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in a third of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in half of the yogurt. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour. On high speed, beat in the rest of the yogurt and the vanilla. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups of yogurt batter and mix into the cocoa mixture. Set aside. Add matcha powder to the rest of the yogurt batter in the mixing bowl.

Use a large spoon to fill the bottom of the pan with about three quarters of the green batter placed in dollops. Cover the green batter with dollops of chocolate batter. Top the chocolate batter with small dollops of green batter spaced so that the chocolate batter shows through. Use a table knife to marble the batters together with a circular or zigzag motion; be careful not to blend them too much.

For cupcakes, scoop a heaping tablespoon of either green or brown batter into each paper liner, and cover it with the alternate batter. Marbling the batter with a knife is optional. If you do not marble the batter, you will get a two tone cake instead of a marble cake. Which I think looks equally elegant and appealing.

Bake for 45-50 minutes for cake, (20-25 minutes for cupcakes) or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

Cool for 10-15 minutes on a rack. Unmold the cake. Cool completely before serving or storing.

27 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:47 PM

    I've always wanted to try a chocolate & matcha dessert. How lovely. Thanks!

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  2. I love this combo also; white chocolate and matcha is divine too. Sorry to hear you've been sick. Hope you recover as soon as possible for your trip. Have a great time! xoxo

    I hope we get to hear more about your trip to Seattle. I always like hearing about people visiting here and what they think. :) Did you try the croissants at Le Fournil, I hear they have some of the best in Seattle.

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  3. What a beautiful recipe!

    All the best with your trip, interview and all! Get well soon!

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  4. Good luck to OCT on all the interviews and I wish you both the best. Have fun on your trip! If an interview lands him closer to Charleston,SC let me know...:)
    The cakes look divine, light and healthy...good thing to bake before croissants!

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  5. Nice combination!

    Hey is this the recipe from your previous post - low fat chocolate marble cake by Alice Medrich? I've tried that cake before, however, my vanilla yogurt portion turned out fine while the chocolate turned out dense and looked uncooked.

    hmmm..any idea why? Yours looked so nice, moist and fluffy for both chocolate and green tea portion. :)

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  6. oh yum, that looks great! hope you get completely well soon :)

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  7. Glad to see you posting again, Hope you recover fully soon. I've been unwell too and when I think I'm getting a little better, I get worse again! I have not been blogging much too, but I managed to put up a post on my Chiang Mai trip today.
    You sure love your matcha! I do too, it goes really excellent with chocolate. They look really pretty!

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  8. Anonymous7:42 AM

    Yeah! Another matcha recipe to try. I'm glad you're feeling better and I would tag along to seattle to if I had the chance.

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  9. I missed reading your post but I'm glad to know you had a wonderful time with your trip. Get well soon okey!

    Those little cakes are so cute and I bet they taste really wonderful ;)

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  10. Welcome back - and I hope you are feeling 100% very soon! I'm jealous of your trip to Seattle - what a wonderful city!

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  11. looks wonderful! i'm a green tea fanatic myself. this recipe looks like a must-try!

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  12. Anonymous11:04 AM

    Where do you get valrhona choc?

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  13. Anonymous12:01 PM

    What an amazing combination!! I love matcha green tea and cocoa of course. Genius I tell you, genius.

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  14. Anonymous1:56 PM

    First, I hope you recover fast and well. Miss your postings. :)
    Second and back to your taggin' trips - I thought taggin' only happens to blog memes...hahahah! I have not had the chance to visit Seattle and think will not have one esp. when it approaches fall/winter in the northwest. Too rainy. I have not even tagged along my hub. when he goes to Phoenix,AZ coz he is always telling me there is nothing much there. :(

    Do enjoy your Atlanta trip to come. :)

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  15. So pretty, love the colors combination!

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  16. Hi Mandy! I have been peeking in to see if you had posted any more of your yummy treats, and was wondering where you'd disappeared to. I'm so sorry you have had the flu...no fun at all, bless your heart. But I'm glad you are feeling lots better, and that you have a trip planned to Atlanta...I'm a Georgia girl, but I'm a few hours south of the big city. :-) This cake looks so good...yummy! And the very best luck to OCT on his interviews!

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  17. Mmm... looks yummy! Hope you're all better now!

    And yes, come back with pictures of your trip! Have another great one!

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  18. I hope you are feeling better, sweetie - and this makes me want to try matcha even more!

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  19. Thanks for sharing this chocolate & matcha combo :) I have seen this Alice Medrich's recipe, but have yet to get down to it! Enjoy your next interview trip :)

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  20. Those cakes look so beautiful! How nice that you can get away once in a while...but welcome back!

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  21. Anonymous5:27 PM

    Hi!

    Im a new reader, and I just wanted to say how much I love your blog. The recipes are right up my alley, and I love that you always provide a delicious looking picture. I'm really enjoying looking through your archives as well.
    Anyways thanks again for your lovely blog!

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  22. Wonderful! Hope you feel better soon!

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  23. This looks like the kind of cakes/cupcakes I would love. Bookmarked for my next baking project. :)

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  24. holybasil,
    thanks! Hope you get to try it out.

    amy,
    of course I tried the croissants from Le Fournil. I also herd your advice of ordering the pate sandwich! :)I miss Seattle already.

    anh,
    thanks!

    Helen,
    sure thing! Will certainly let you know if we are going to Charleston.

    aimei,
    sorry to hear that the chocolate portion didn't work out for you. Hmm...I can't think of a reason for this since both portion should be cooked at the same rate...

    nabeela,
    thanks!

    Carol,
    thanks! I hope you have fully recovered too.

    veron,
    Actually I have given up my option to tag along to San Diego for Seattle. I am glad I made the right decision. :)

    anne,
    thanks! I miss reading your post too!

    deborah,
    thanks!

    marias23,
    I really like this recipe a lot. Let me know if you try it. :)

    anonymous,
    I got mine from World Market while it was on offer.

    hillary,
    thanks! I am blushing.

    tigerfish,
    Speaking of Phoenix, we went there to visit a friend a few months ago! We went to the Zion Valley and Grand Canyon but didn't step into the city at all. Maybe your hub is right. :)

    little corner of mine,
    thanks!

    belinda,
    thanks!

    bp,
    Will definitely try to take lots of pics!

    Patricia,
    thanks!

    happyhomebaker,
    this is really a flexible recipe and low fat too.

    aimee,
    yeah, it's always nice to be able to explore new places and devour good food!

    claudia,
    thanks so much, you make my day!

    love.boxes,
    thanks!

    Rasa Malaysia,
    Let me know if you try. :)

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  25. Thanks for sharing the recipes..
    all pictures and recipes from your blog.. make me drooling and want to try all of it.....
    keep on posting new recipes mandy...^_^

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  26. Hi Mandy,

    I just tried this matcha cake in the form of muffin today. Been wanting to make this since the day I saw your post!

    Mine turned out rather dense. Is yours the same? I followed everything according to your recipe, except that I did reduce the sugar quite a substantial, but about 1/3, as my parents can't take in too sweet stuffs.

    Is this suppose to be thse soft fluffy type??

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  27. can i used normal drinking tea ? i got a big tin from My taiwanise friend but duno what to do with it..and now thinking of baking this cake..

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