Matcha Shamrock Cake

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Welcome to Tasty Tuesday! On Tuesdays I like to share recipes that my family loves. Today I am sharing something very special — a matcha shamrock cake that my sweet daughter made from scratch and decorated herself. I think the cake is so delicious and amazing!

My daughters love matcha. In case you don’t know what matcha is, matcha is a finely ground powder of green tea leaves. You can use it to make tea, but you can also use it to flavor other things – like this cake! My daughters especially like matcha bubble teas. The matcha flavor in this cake is light. I think even someone not used to matcha would really like this cake. A plus is that the matcha powder gives the cake a pretty light green color – which is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

My daughter loves baking and decorating cakes. She made a gorgeous pink KitKat sweetheart cake for Valentine’s Day. My husband’s birthday is coming up next month – I am hoping she can bake and decorate a cake for his birthday!

Cake Ingredients

(Recipe from Real Simple)

Cake: 

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled 

3 teapoons baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

2 1/2 tablespoons matcha powder 

1 cup butter, room temperature 

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar 

4 eggs 

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 

1 cup milk 

Buttercream Ingredients

(Recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction)

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

Tiny pinch of fine sea salt

1 ½ pounds (24 ounces) powdered sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Food Coloring

Lucky Charms Marshmallows (for lining the bottom layer of the cake)

Baking Tools

KitchenAid Stand Mixer

2 Nonstick Springform Pans

Silicone Mixing Spoon

Mixing Bowls

Liquid Measuring Cup

Measuring Spoons 

Piping Bags and Tips

KitchenAid Stand Mixer

Cake Directions

Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans. Grease with butter or line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment paper.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and matcha powder in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add the sugar and continue mixing until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing to combine. Stir in the vanilla. Add the matcha mixture and the milk in increments, alternating between them. Stir until just combined. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.

Bake cakes for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest for 15 minutes, then remove from pans and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. My daughter used a sharp knife to cut off the rounded tops of the cakes to make them flat before icing.

Icing Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for 6-7 minutes.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the salt and powdered sugar, and continue beating until the sugar is fully incorporated.

Add in vanilla and cream or milk and mix on low speed until incorporated.

Turn the mixer back up to medium-high speed and beat the buttercream for an additional 6-7 minutes.

If the buttercream is too thick, add in a bit of milk, one teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

My daughter separated the icing into mini batches and used food coloring to get the desired colors. She used a green buttercream icing for the main part of the cake.

For directions on how to frost a layer cake, check out this YouTube video.

To make the rainbow buttercream, my daughter used icing and food coloring to create a few different buttercream colors. (She split the buttercream into small batches.)

My daughter then added the various colored icing in separated vertical rows to the piping bag. That way, when she piped the decorations onto the cake, she got a beautiful swirl of colors. Very nice!

Check out this YouTube video to see the technique my daughter used to make her rainbow buttercream icing.

To create the cute Snoopy and shamrock on top of the cake, my daughter piped the icings in the various shapes she needed onto the cake.

She used a knife and sometimes a spoon to smooth out her piped designs.

For extra fun, my daughter lined the bottom layer of the cake with Lucky Charms marshmallows.

I love how beautifully this cake turned out!

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