This week.. let's see.. Oh wow! That was some week.
It started with green tea donuts. Fail. Then double chocolate macarons. Fail.
And I really did not feel like baking anything else. Because, well see I just can't handle my entire kitchen and cupboards of ingredients conspiring against me! But I remembered I had to bake my last cake with my lovely group The Cake Slice Bakers.. This month is the last month of our book, The Southern Cake Book, and it was a free choice. I remember there being a matcha bake way back when as a choice, and figured since I bombed on one matcha bake this week.. why not make it a two for.
Just feeling incredibly sorry for myself in case you hadn't figured.. Self pity party, table for one.
But then this one worked... and I was very happy with it! Well as happy as one can be after the realisation I forgot to marble it.. ooops! I also didn't have the required ingredients for the glaze that the book called for so made a vanilla sugar glaze and loaded it with yummy pistachios! But it did restore my fate in myself as a baker and as I went to take pictures...
Champ got sick. And I got sick and now I am back to feeling super sorry for myself and have nothing but a few photos on a bake I can no longer taste thanks to my smashing new head cold!
Can we just write this week off and start fresh after the bank holiday on Monday??
Green Tea and Pistachio Bundt
adapted from The Southern Cake Book's Green Tea- Honeysuckle Cake pg 205
575g caster sugar
60ml honey
6 large eggs at room temp.
675g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
125ml buttermilk
2tsp green tea (matcha) powder
1 tsp vanilla
250g icing sugar
60ml milk
100g chopped pistachios
Preheat the oven to 160C/325F or Gas Mark 3. Grease a bundt pan with butter and flour until coated. Tip out any excess flour.
Beat the butter until creamy and slowly add the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the honey and mix until just blended.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing a little after each addition.
Sift the flour, baking powder and add to the butter mixture in batches, alternating with the milk.
Fold in the matcha and combine until blended through.
Bake for at least one hour to one hour 15, on the middle shelf, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack. When cool, remove from the tin and poor over the glaze.
Make the glaze:
Add the vanilla, milk and icing sugar to a pot and allow to melt together over a low heat, until just heated. Pour immediately over the cold, turned out cake and sprinkle with the chopped pistachio.
Want to check out what the rest of the bakers choose as their final bake.. Have a peek at the linky below.. BUT also come back next month, for our new book reveal!! It's such a pretty one...
Green tea and pistachios are a wonderful flavor combo and so pretty, too. Love your close up photo with the chopped pistachios on top of the slices. That icing is just enough to hold them beautifully.
ReplyDeleteOoh that looks so good Hazel. A bundt tin is on my wish list, the cakes they make always look so pretty. I've never made an icing over the hob before, I shall have to give it a whirl. It's so frustrating when a bake goes wrong - although most things manage to go down the hatch when smothered with custard (as one of the GBBO contestants said), though I think we do learn so much from those failed experiences.
ReplyDeleteAngela x
sorry to hear you're feeling poorly. I love pistachio so this sounds amazing to me! x
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty cake! I hope things take a turn for the better. It is ridiculous how it all seems to come at once when things go bad!
ReplyDeleteI looks heavenly Hazel. Sorry to hear you aren't feeling well. That's probably why your baking went bad on you - whenever I have a run of bad days you can guarantee that up to a week later I'll come down with something nasty.
ReplyDeleteI've never baked with green tea, it looks very moreish. Hope your feeling better Hazel, thanks for being a dedicated baker within our group, it's always exciting seeing what you've created each month. Laura@ Baking in Pyjamas
ReplyDeleteHazel, hope you have fully recovered by now and back to being the top notch baker that you are! Love the pistachios on the icing! Looks great, even without the marbling.
ReplyDeleteI've been drinking green tea for years because I love the flavor and I knew that green tea has several health benefits, Thanks for sharing this excellent health benefits.
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