Matcha Vanilla Swirled Pound Cake

My favourite bakes for the past few months have been easy bakes. Stuff such as pound cakes, banana loafs or breads that I used to pass over for the more complicated entremets. Speaking of which, it's been like a year (?!?!?!) or so since my last entremet. I really need to make one like soon before I forget how to.

Not too sure why the direction of my cravings have turned around so. But I'm certainly not complaining when I have a loaf of this dense, tightly crumbed, moist matcha vanilla swirled pound cake in front of me.

Matcha Vanilla Swirled Pound Cake

Pound cakes normally doesn't taste as good to me when they are still warm from the oven. I much prefer it when the loaves have cooled down completely, paired alongside a cuppa hot tea or latte (depending on the cake flavour).

If you are a regular reader, you should probably know by now my love for matcha as I've proclaimed it several times already. I decided that instead of a plain vanilla pound cake, I wanted to try making a matcha swirled version. As you can see, my swirls are quite *ahem* unevenly distributed. I don't have enough practice at swirling batter, so I guess I gotta make more swirled stuff!

I've been buying plain vanilla yogurt (love the Yoplait one with the vanilla beans in it) quite frequently nowadays for my OIAJ, or to eat with fresh fruits as a snack. It's a regular in my fridge nowadays and I find myself finishing a tub of it quite easily. In addition, I like to add yogurt to my bakes as it tend to up the moisture content quite well. I've used yogurt for the loaf below, but feel free to use milk, or cream in place.

Love the taste of this rich dense pound cake. The denseness was probably cos I used yogurt, but I'm fine with it. In fact, it kept the loaf very very moist even after a few days in the fridge (I left it to thaw to room temp before eating). The vanilla bean perfumed the loaf nicely, but it did make the loaf seem a little sweeter to my tastebuds, so if you like, you could probably reduce the sugar slightly for a less sweet version.

Matcha Vanilla Swirled Pound Cake (adapted from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book Plainly Perfect Pound Cake)
(makes one 9x5 loaf, or 2 17x7x6 mini loaves)

200g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
225g butter
1 vanilla bean, scraped
220g castor sugar (can reduce slightly for a slightly less sweet loaf)
4 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt (or milk or cream)
1.5 tbsp matcha powder (dissolved in a little hot water to form a paste)

Preheat the oven to 170C.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Combine butter and vanilla bean in a large mixing bowl and beat together until creamy for about 2 minutes.
Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy for about 3-4 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of the mixing bowl and until well mixed.
Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with yogurt.
Divide batter into two, adding the matcha into one batch and continue beating till well incorporated.
Pour half the vanilla batter into greased loaf cake mold, alternate with matcha batter till all the batter is in the mold. Use a knife and quickly swirl through with a few swirls.
Bake for 50-60 mins (or till cake turns brown and passes the skewer test).