Lemon and Green Tea Pound Cake

Your friends will the thrilled to see and to eat it this cake! The combination of the lemon as well as the powdered green tea (matcha) makes this cake dense and not-too sweet. The exterior of the cake will be crispy while the interior moist.

Preparation time:   25 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

Serves:   8

200 g cake flour

100 g plain flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 medium eggs

350 g caster sugar

120 g sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Zest of one lemon

3 tablespoons lemon juice

5 g  matcha powder (green tea powder)

220 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

METHOD

1. Butter a loaf pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess.
2. Alternatively, you can also make cupcakes by lining muffin tins with cupcake cases.
3. Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt.
4. Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and thick.
5. Whisk in the vanilla extract and sour cream until evenly distributed.
6. Fold in the melted and cooled butter swiftly.
7. Divide the batter in half and put in two separate bowls.
8. To one bowl of batter, add the zest of the lemon and lemon juice.
9. Fold in the matcha powder into the other bowl of batter.
10. Pour the matcha batter into the loaf pan.
11. Top with the lemon batter.
12. Swirl gently and minimally with a butter knife to get a good swirl effect.
13. Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
14. If you are making cupcakes, bake for 20-25 minutes.
15. Once removed from the oven, allow the loaf to rest in the pan for 20 minutes before running a knife along the edges of the pan and inverting the cake onto a cooling rack.