Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake

This posting is about a chocolate matcha bundt cake recipe that I found on bakerella. I love anything matcha so naturally I had to make this when I found the post. If you're not familiar with matcha, it is a very fine green tea powder that is traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremony. When it's made the traditional way you froth the powder in hot water with a bamboo whisk and have it immediately. It has a strong, lovely green tea flavor with a mildly bitter kick. To me it's incredibly refreshing and instantly feels like it's cleansing the body. These days you can find matcha in all kind of places -- candy, bubble tea,  kit kat -- even Starbucks carries a latte version.

The cake turned out to be really great. Not too sweet and the matcha flavor very present and nicely balanced with the cocoa. If you have any fancy cocoa, such as Valrhona, I would save it for another day. I used some generic cocoa powder for balancing the delicate matcha flavor and it worked nicely. I served it with a scoop of azuki (Japanese sweet red bean) first but it actually tastes better a la mode style with some vanilla ice cream. I highly recommend the combo! Hardly any dessert can go wrong with a scoop of ice cream on top.

I have a couple of tips if you're going to make this…

1. When I added the milk into the creamed batter because the batter was extremely runny and curdled. But fear not, it comes together nicely again when you add the matcha/chocolate mixture together. 
2. When it’s time to divide the batter into two bowls (you will do this because half will be coated with matcha and the other half will be coated with cocoa) mix and divide as quickly as possible. If you let it sit for even a moment, the milk will separate and sink to the bottom so when you divide the batter, one may end up with two bowls that are uneven in texture.
3. If you're not sure what you should be looking for when you look for matcha, it usually comes in a container like this:

And finally, a NYer tip on where to find matcha: I first went to Katagiri which is a great Japanese grocery store but their matcha was priced at something like $12 for 1.4 oz!! I didn't feel like paying that much for an experimental bundt cake so instead I went to Pearl River Mart on Broadway (between Broom and Grand) and found some for $4.50 for the same size and still made in Japan.