This easy matcha white chocolate cake has two layers of fluffy matcha sponge cake, frosted with a creamy white chocolate ganache. The white chocolate and green tea flavours are the perfect sweet combination!
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✏️ Recipe creation
I love matcha. The earthy green tea flavour is so addictive. This delicious matcha cake is the perfect simple treat. It’s also a great way to introduce friends and family to the exotic taste!
Continuing with my matcha obsession, I wanted to make an easy matcha cake recipe. This homemade matcha cake has two matcha sponge cake layers and the frosting is a simple, two-ingredient, white chocolate ganache. No need to separate egg whites and egg yolks for fancy frostings or flavours!
It’s basically a standard yellow vanilla cake but with some matcha powder in it!
In parts of Asia, matcha is often paired with red bean paste or sesame. Personally, my favorite flavour combination for matcha is white chocolate.
A matcha cake is great for dinner parties or as a unique birthday cake. Of course, being green it’s also fun to have on St Patrick's Day.
🥘 Ingredients
This matcha white chocolate cake recipe calls for the following ingredients:
Matcha cake:
- Unsalted butter: softened to room temperature to help beat to fluffy.
- White sugar: finely granulated sugar e.g. caster sugar.
- Eggs
- Plain all-purpose flour: sieve for a smooth cake batter.
- Baking powder
- Matcha green tea powder: use culinary or ceremonial grade and a good brand for bright vibrant colour. Sieve for a smooth batter.
- Milk
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla extract: use extract or paste over essence for best flavour.
White chocolate ganache:
- White chocolate: use baking chocolate for ease of melting.
- Heavy cream
See the recipe card for quantities.
Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.
♻️ Substitutions / Variations
Ingredient substitutions
Instead of plain flour, you can substitute this for self-raising flour. If doing this, reduce the amount of baking powder to ½ tsp.
You can use any neutral-flavoured oil, e.g. canola oil or sunflower oil, for this matcha sponge cake recipe. If you want to change the flavour slightly, you can swap this for melted coconut oil.
Whipped ganache
I like to use the thick creamy white chocolate ganache as soon as it sets. However, instead, you can whip your ganache for a lighter and fluffier frosting.
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer (whisk attachment) on high speed, whip up your set ganache until it’s fluffy and almost doubles in size. You can then spread this on your matcha cake for a thicker frosting layer and a lighter taste.
Frosting variations
To add an extra boost of matcha flavor, you can swap the white chocolate frosting for matcha buttercream. It adds so much yummy matcha green tea flavour!
For a zingy flavour twist, you swap the white ganache for a lemon frosting or no-cream lemon white chocolate ganache.
Vanilla cream cheese frosting is also a winner with matcha! Why not use a half batch of frosting from my walnut banana cake.
For an even lighter flavour option, you can simply frost your cake with whipped cream. Beat heavy whipping cream until light and fluffy and use to replace the ganache in this recipe.
Even if you're changing the frosting, it could be really tasty to use a white chocolate ganache cake filling. Simply make a ⅓ batch size of ganache per this recipe and spread it between your cake layers.
📖 Method
First, preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the oil, milk and vanilla until combined.
In a separate bowl, sieve in the flour, baking powder and matcha powder, whisking together. Gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry mix, folding gently until combined.
Divide your batter between two greased and lined 6inch round cake tins and bake for 30-35mins until risen, springy and a skewer comes out clean. Allow cooling for 20mins before transferring to a wire rack.
Make the ganache while your cakes are cooling. Heat the cream over a double-boiler or in the microwave (15-30 secs at a time), until hot but not boiling. Pour the cream over broken up pieces of chocolate and let it sit for 10mins before stirring until smooth.
Allow the ganache to cool at room temperature for 20-30mins until cooled and set.
Once the cake sponges have cooled, turn one sponge upside-down and spread roughly ¼ of the ganache on top. Place the second sponge on top and cover the cake in the rest of the ganache.
Dust your frosted cake with matcha powder and enjoy!
💭 Top tips
- For a super smooth sponge batter, cream together your butter and sugar thoroughly.
- Slowly adding your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in your cake batter also helps to reduce lumps.
- For a light fluffy matcha sponge, try not to overmix your cake batter once you've added the baking powder.
- Position your cake pans in the centre of the oven on the middle shelf when possible for a more even bake and don't open mid-bake.
- Your cake sponges are cooked once they’re risen, springy to the touch and an inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean from the center.
- Leave your baked cakes in the tin to cool for 20mins before removing them from the cake pan onto a wire rack. This speeds up the cooling process and stops your cake from baking further trapped in the hot tin.
- Use baking belts for flat cake layers. If you don't have them, you may need to cut off any peaked tops with a knife or cake leveller.
- Before you start, grease your cake tins with butter or cooking oil spray, then line them with greaseproof paper. I usually use pre-cut circles that already fit the cake tin.
- For a smooth professional finish, assemble and decorate your cake using a cake turntable, offset spatula and cake scraper. Cover your cake in a crumb coat first, refrigerate for 15mins, then smooth on another layer of ganache.
- I usually decorate this matcha cake simply with a dusting of matcha powder. You can also pipe swirls of any spare white chocolate ganache, drizzle melted white chocolate over the top or sprinkle with white chocolate shavings.
❔ Recipe FAQs
Matcha is a fine powder made from the same plant as green tea. It is specially grown and processed from green tea leaves. This is made differently from what you find in your standard green tea bags. There are also different quality grades of matcha powder.
Matcha has an earthy taste similar to actual green tea. On its own, matcha is usually described as a bit bitter so pairs nicely with sweet flavours such as vanilla.
Yes! When baking with matcha powder, be sure to use food-grade at a minimum, or ceremonial-grade matcha powder for a more vibrant colour.
Matcha powder adds a delicious green tea flavour to your baked goods and will add a lovely green too.
As it’s a very strong flavour, you don’t need much matcha green tea powder to flavour your baked goods.
For drinking, use a ceremonial grade organic matcha powder. For baking, use a culinary grade or ceremonial grade organic matcha powder. I’m a fan of Jade Leaf brand matcha powders.
Good matcha powder is usually available in Asian grocery stores or you can purchase it online.
Your matcha cake should last up to 4 days at room temperature stored in an airtight container. If it’s quite warm where you live, you might want to store your cake in the fridge so the ganache doesn’t melt.
Yes! You can freeze your matcha cake wrapped in a layer of cling film and a layer of foil for up to 3 months.
This could be caused by a few things. One issue could be that you've added too much baking powder. This may have happened if you used a heaped teaspoon instead of a levelled one.
Another reason could be that you opened the oven partway through baking. This would have caused your oven temp to drop rapidly and sinkhole your cake.
I usually use two round 6-inch cake pans for this green tea cake recipe. However, you can instead use two 8-inch cake tins and bake for 5-10mins less time. Your cake will have thinner layers but still be delicious!
To make a gluten-free matcha cake, swap the plain flour for gluten-free flour. I recommend using a gluten-free plain flour blend, such as King Arthur's measure for measure flour or Freee from Doves Farm.
You should also add ½ teaspoon of xantham gum to the matcha cake batter if your flour blend doesn’t already include this in the ingredients.
For gluten-free cake success, add an extra 1 teaspoon oil and 1 tablespoon milk to the batter. Beat your batter really well and let it stand for 30mins before pouring it into your cake tins and baking. You might need to bake your cake for an extra 5-10mins.
🧁 Other goodies
Looking for some other goodies to make?
If like me you love a matcha dessert, then you might also like these matcha cupcakes, matcha Oreo cheesecake, matcha cookies or sesame shortbread with a matcha chocolate dip.
For more matcha dessert ideas, check out this collection of the best matcha sweet treat recipes.
If you're a fan of traditional Asian dessert flavours, then give this ube cheesecake and easy ube cake a try!
If you’re after some more great cake recipes then you might like this chocolate orange cake or biscoff celebration cake.
Other Related Recipes:
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📋 Recipe
Easy Matcha White Chocolate Cake
Rate this recipe here:
Equipment
Ingredients
Matcha Cake:
- 160 g (¾ cups) unsalted butter room temp.
- 180 g (1 cups) caster sugar granulated
- 3 eggs
- 170 g (1 ⅓ cups) plain flour** all-purpose
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 20 g (3 tablespoon) matcha green tea powder
- 4 tablespoon milk
- 2 ½ teaspoon vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
White Chocolate Ganache:
- 375 g (3 cups) white chocolate
- 170 ml (¾ cups) heavy cream e.g. double cream
Instructions
Matcha Cake:
- Preheat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F
- For the sponges, cream together the butter and sugar, either using a spatula, electric hand mixer or stand mixer, until light and pale.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the milk, oil and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder and matcha powder. Whisk together until evenly mixed.
- Slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, folding gently together until only just combined.
- Divide the batter evenly between two greased and lined 6inch cake tins and bake in the oven for 30-35mins until risen and skewer comes out clean from the middle of the cakes.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 15mins then remove from the tins and transfer to a wire rack while you make the ganache.
White Chocolate Ganache:
- Heat the cream over a double-boiler or in the microwave (15-30 secs at a time), until hot and steaming but not boiling.
- Break the chocolate up into small pieces in a heatproof bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Let it sit for 5mins and then stir until smooth.
- Allow the ganache to cool uncovered at room temperature for 20-30mins until cooled and set.
Assembly:
- Once the cake sponges have fully cooled, turn one sponge upside-down and spread roughly ¼ of the ganache evenly in a thick layer on top.
- Place the other sponge on top to sandwich the layers and cover the top and sides of your cake in the remainder of the ganache.
- Dust your frosted cake with matcha powder and enjoy!
Notes
- You can swap the plain flour in this recipe for the same amount of self-raising flour and reduce the baking powder to only ½ teaspoon.
- You can use any neutral-flavoured oil for the cake batter. If you want to change the flavour slightly, you can swap this for melted coconut oil.
- You can swap the white chocolate ganache for this easy matcha buttercream.
- Use softened room temperature butter for ease of mixing and cream it thoroughly with your sugar for a soft cake sponge.
- Before you start, grease your cake tins with butter or cooking oil spray, then line them with greaseproof paper or cake circles.
- Use baking belts for flat cake layers. If you don't have them, you may need to cut off any peaked tops with a knife or cake leveller.
- Your sponges are cooked once they’re risen and springy to the touch. An inserted toothpick or skewer should also come out clean from the middle.
- Decorate your matcha cake with a dusting of matcha powder, swirls of leftover ganache, drizzled melted white chocolate or white chocolate shavings.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.
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Heidi
Hi, just out of curiosity, why don't you use any salt in this recipe?
Sweet Mouth Joy
Hiya, I've found it doesn't make much difference in this recipe, so I usually leave it out. If you like adding salt, for example, to cut sweetness slightly, you can add 1/8 tsp to the cake batter.
Gianluca
Definitely a great combination! Didn't know what to make with matcha before.
Sweet Mouth Joy
Thank you! Glad you liked it
Kayla DiMaggio
This matcha white chocolate cake was so delicious! I have never used matcha in a recipe before but it has so much flavor!
Sweet Mouth Joy
Thanks Kayla! Matcha is a bit of a unique flavour so I'm glad you're a fan!