Matcha Lemon Cake
By: Sanura Weathers
Published: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 10:35am

Ingredients




1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft plus more for greasing pan
1 1/2 cups plus ¼ sugar
5 large organic eggs; room temperature and separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 The zest of lemon plus the juice; separated
2 cups flour
A pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
A dash of nutmeg
2 tablespoons +1 tsp. Matcha green tea powder
Garnish: Roughly chopped Italian Pistachios or almonds

Preparation

1 Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350°F. 2 In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and Matcha tea powder. 3 In a large bowl, beat together butter and 1-1/2 cup of sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. 4 Add the yolks into the butter mixture, one at a time, mixing well in between each addition. Add the vanilla and the lemon zest. 5 Add dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Do not over mix. 6 Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. 7 Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the cake batter. 8 Pour the batter into the loaf pan and garnish with pistachios or almonds. Bake for one and quarter hour, or until a fork or a toothpick comes out clean. 9 Meanwhile, over medium heat, mix 1/4 cup of sugar plus the lemon juice in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Set lemon glaze aside to cool. 10 When the cake is done cooking, let cool on a wire rack for five minutes before removing from loaf pan. Pierce the top of the cake with a fork. 11 Set the cake on a wire rack over a cookie sheet. After the cake has been removed from the pan, drizzle lemon glaze over the cake. The cookie sheet will neatly catch the glaze to make clean-up easier. 12 Enjoy your first slice when the cake is completely cool. 13 Note: Recipe adapted from a Pound Cake recipe in Mark Bittman’s, "How to Cook Everything".