Let's eat......simple!: Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

Hello February, the happiest month of all! Here’s why. The month starts with my birthday on February 1^st, I celebrate. Then on February 14^th is the Valentine’s Day, I (and everyone else) celebrate. Follow by the Chinese New Year on February 19^th, I (and everyone including non-Chinese) celebrate. (There are also Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on Feb. 12^th, the President’s day on Feb. 16^th, and Mardi Gras on Feb 17^th where people around the world celebrate in the most magnificently colorful and fun way!) Now you understand why I say February is the happiest month of all! Hooray for that!

Every year on my birthday, I will usually bake my favorite chocolate cake, every time. And this year is no exception. Recently, however, I am craving for Matcha green tea a lot. When I hit Starbucks to meet up with my girlfriend lately, I’d order hot soy green tea latte, instead of my usual coffee mocha I used to love. Sorry coffee mocha, I still love you BTW! Anyway, my birthday cake this year I couldn’t decide what I really want, chocolate cake or Matcha green tea cake. After I’d been thinking back and forth for a couple of weeks, I decided to make both! Why not? And I’d never baked green tea cake before. So, it’s about time!

I've come up with this easy recipes for both chocolate and green tea cake which they are almost identical, except for a few things different as I adjusted while I was mixing up the batter. Honestly, I was not even sure about the result and this cake was not in my intention to be posted. But I changed my mind after I finished a big piece because the cake came out soooooooo good, moist, soft, and awesome. And the strawberry cream cheese icing just gave the cake that “wow” effect and it’s just right! (I wanted to say “perfect” but there’s no such thing is “perfect.” I stopped!) It may sound so exaggerated because of my crazy for chocolate and green tea. But if you tried it once, you would probably agree with me. Let’s do it!

For chocolate:

1 cup cake flour

3 tbsp. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp, salt

1 large egg, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp. butter, soften

1/3 cup milk

4 tbsp. hot brewed coffee

>> Preheat the oven to 350’ F and grease the Bundt cake pan with butter, set aside.

1. In the medium bowl, sift together cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and set aside.

2. In the medium mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a handheld mixer until the sugar look fluffy for about 4 minutes, then add an egg and continue beating until the mixture turn yellow pale, about 4 minutes.

3. Add in half of the sifted flour and beat just to combine. Then the milk and hot coffee, beat to combine. Add the rest of the flour and beat until the batter is well blended smoothly.

For green tea:

1 cup cake flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. Matcha green tea powder

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp. butter, soften

1 large egg, room temperature

1/2 cup milk

1. In the medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, salt, green tea powder, and set aside.

2. In the medium mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter for 4 minutes and add an egg and beat another 4 minutes until it turns in pale color.

3. Add half of the sifted flour and beat just to combine. Then add milk, beat to combine. Add the rest of the flour and beat until the batter is well blended smoothly.

Bake at 350’F for 35-40 minutes: at this point, you decide with you own imagination which batter you want to put in first. There is no rule for that. But my green tea batter was a little thicker than the chocolate batter. So, my chocolate batter went in the cake pan first and then the green tea batter which I smoothed it out a little before I put it in the oven. Bake the cake at 350’F for 35-40 minutes or until the insert come out clean. When the cake is baked, let it cool down before pour the icing on top and garnish with some more fresh strawberries as much as you like. Enjoy!