I *had* to try it

I love Matcha flavored things - so when I saw this cake mix while shopping at Trader Joe's, of course I had to buy some and give it a whirl...

The making is as easy as any other cake mix, and this one is a bit kinder on the waistline than the very tasty Trader Joes Brownie mix...which, by the way is fantastic and substitutes just fine for brownies baked from scratch - but we're supposed to be talking about Matcha Cake.

The batter doesn't look terribly enticing when mixed - it has an odd resemblance to guacamole...


See?

The cake, once baked has a definite flavor of green tea, and thankfully, the guacamole green color is much more subdued...though perhaps it's difficult to tell since the sun was on its way down for this photo. The only green colored cake that I welcome is Pandan cake.

The crumb was um...a bit tougher than anticipated, and only mixed til combined...and I checked the cake for done-ness 5 minutes before the earliest "done" time marked on the box (and it wasn't done yet at that point).

Ah well, I really can't complain - it is a cake mix after all.

hmm back to that Pandan cake - anyone know where I can get one short of flying to Malaysia? I've never seen one at my local asian markets...