matcha tea, lime and coconut lamington cake

...another week zooms by in a blur. I honestly woke up this morning ready to get dressed and go to work, so confused am I as to which day it is. I'm not complaining. I love being this busy, it thrills me to the core and i'm working on some seriously cool events at the moment which I'm sure I will share with you as they progress... it's very exciting times but of course it means there's been a bit of blog neglect so do excuse me whilst it goes a little silent occasionally over the next few weeks.

matcha tea, lime and coconut lamington cake
the good folk at teapigs sent me some of their gorgeous matcha green tea powder last week... i've seen a lot of matcha used in baking over the years, I know that dear Choclette is a massive fan but I have never cooked with it before although I have drunk it once or twice on occasion. I think it has a bitter tea taste... an almost freshly picked quality to it that can be both deliciously light but also a little medicinal... i'm currently running hot and cold over how much I like it... of course what's fabulous about it is how green it makes everything, which is always fun.... funnily enough I had a massive baking disaster with some matcha shortbread swirls earlier this week that looked more like swamp cookies than anything... I didn't bother sharing them with you...

this week the lovely Peter over at Delicious Delicious Delicious is celebrating Australia Day with a fourth year of his 're-nventing the Lamington' challenge and so i'm submitting this gorgeous beast as a giant version of the little coconut covered cakes...

for the cake
4 eggs
260g butter - room temp
260g caster sugar
260g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons matcha tea powder
a little milk
desiccated coconut

for the icing
250g icing sugar
150g butter - softened
4 tablespoons lime marmalade
1/2 juice of a lime

pre-heat the oven to 170C and line and grease 2 18cm loose bottomed cake tins

in a large bowl beat the butter with the sugar until soft and light then beat in 2 of the eggs followed by half the flour and baking powder - scoop down the sides of the mixing bowl and then add the rest of the eggs and remaining flour and beat in, then add a little drop of milk and the matcha powder and beat again until fully blended.

divide between the two cake tins and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and risen and skewer inserted comes out clean - set aside to cool

to make the icing beat the butter into the sugar and then beat in the lime juice and marmalade until it is smooth and soft enough to spread

cut the cakes in half... I only stacked three layers and kept a layer to nibble on but you could make this a four layer cake if desired... then slather icing and a sprinkling of coconut on each layer and then roughly on the outside of the cake too with a final coating of coconut

...in other news I am excited to tell you that i'll be doing my first London-based demo-cooking session at the Westfield Stratford next Saturday 1st March... I have three sessions; 12noon, 1:30pm and 3pm... i'm a little nervous so do come by and laugh at me make a fool of myself and join in the cooking fun. The cooking theatre is next to Waitrose...

eat and of course, enjoy!