Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis, #TheCakeSliceBakers

The Cake Slice Bakers are a group of bakers from around the world. Every month a new challenge arrives...Currently, we are presented with the opportunity to bake one of four selections from Southern Living’s The Southern Cake Book. This Ninja Baker chose Green Tea Honeysuckle Cake.

Surprise! The Ninja Baker chose the one Asian accented recipe in Southern Living’s The Southern Cake Book. After all, Japanese food and language were all this Ninja Baker knew until age 5. Tokyo was my hometown until age 18. So, yes, when one of the recipes up for experimentation, I mean baking, for this month’s Cake Slice Bakers was Green Tea Honeysuckle Cake, there was no waffling. But, seriously, who knew that besides sweet tea, Southerners have a thing for green tea?

Droplets of honey glaze Green Tea Honeysuckle Mini Rose Cake.

From trying other green tea matcha recipes penned by foreigners, I suspected that more matcha was required. I’m blonde and probably not allowed to use that word. So let me say green tea matcha recipes written by non-Japanese usually result in a whisper of green tea flavor. Yay for learning from experience instead of ignoring the small voice inside. My Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis are still subtle in the matcha department but the distinct taste of green tea is discovered. Heavy overtones of honey prevail in this Southern Cake Book recipe, too. By the way, the original glaze recipe for the cake declares a 3 minute reduction time. Really? Was someone sipping on one too many mint juleps that day? It took more like 8 minutes to get something approaching a syrup or glaze in my pan.

Matcha green tea frosting leaves top a mini cake loaf.

Ninja Note (plus shout out to the husband!): Clean your saucepan right away with tons of scalding hot water. I might have been scrubbing until my next post had the husband not pointed out the hot water trick.

Back to the actual Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis: The mini cakes are wonderfully moist, have a tender crumb and packed with deliciousness. (Those Southerners do seem to have a flair for delicious desserts!) The photo and recipe in The Southern Cake Book reveal a gorgeous vanilla bundt swirled with matcha green tea cake. But, sorry, this Japanese-influenced baker needed to make the whole cake matcha. And to bring even more green tea flavor to the dessert, I added more matcha powder to vanilla frosting and garnished most of the minis. (I thought the Green Tea Honeysuckle Mini Rose Cakes look better without frosting.)

Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis à la Mini Bundt Style!

The link for the original Southern Living The Southern Cake Book recipe is here. My Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis recipe follows.

Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis

Japanese green tea matcha powder mingles with honey in a moist, tender-crumbed cake. More matcha flavor is an option by adding tablespoonfuls to your favorite frosting.

The original recipe from The Southern Cake Book is here.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup vegetable shortening (I used the kind without saturated fats)
2½ cups superfine sugar
¼ cup honey
6 large eggs at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup French Vanilla Coconut Milk
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder

For the glaze:

1 cup cane sugar
½ cup butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup Triple Sec liquor
3 tablespoons Cointreau
1 teaspoon yuzu juice

Garnish:

Your favorite frosting + 2 heaping tablespoons of matcha green tea powder

Directions:

For the cake:

Set the oven to 325 degrees. Coat mini cake pans with coconut oil. (Lots of coconut oil to ensure easy release.)

Whip up the butter and shortening in a kitchen stand mixer. Slowly pour in the sugar. When the mixture looks light and fluffy, add the honey. Drop in the eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Alternately incorporate the flour mixture with the milk into the butter bowl.

Pour the batter into the mini cake pans. (2/3 full)

Bake at 325 degrees for 26 to 30 minutes depending on the “mininess” of your cake pan. Do use the toothpick in the center method to determine if the cakes are done. A few clinging crumbs are fine. (But not a whole bunch.)

For the glaze:

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Constantly stir (as to avoid burnt sugar) for about 8 minutes.

Garnish:

Whip 2 heaping tablespoons of matcha green tea powder into your favorite frosting.