the modest marce lair

 

so i worked on a little living room transformation with my friends over at west elm. you can read all about it over on west elm's blog front & main here!

get the look below:

white chocolate matcha cake

 

last year my friend from japan came to visit & brought with her a ton of matcha flavoured treats for us to try. matcha is a specially blended green tea powder from japan that is incorporated into various foods, drinks & desserts. while some of the treats i tried were a bit too strong for my liking, the thing i loved most was the green tea kit kat bar. they have SO many unqiue flavours of kit kat available, omg. the combination of the sweet white chocolate & earthy matcha made for the most perfect pairing. well i have yet to come across it again, today's cake is inspired by that green tea kit kat! a matcha layer cake frosted with a creamy white chocolate buttercream. i was so tempted to add a little green tea powder to the frosting & make it an ombre cake.. maybe next time! i used aiya matcha's cooking grade blend which is specially blended for cooking & baking because it's aromas will come through even when the matcha is mixed with various ingredients! a little goes a long way. also, matcha is very healthy because it is high in antioxidants, making this cake healthy! right?!?

ingredients

for the green tea cake

  • 1 1/4 cup raw sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (can subtitue equal parts vegetable oil)
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons aiya matcha powder (i used the cooking grade)
  • 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

for the white chocolate buttercream

  • 1 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3 cups icing sugar, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 50 grams white chocolate, melted & cooled (i used lindt)

directions

  • preheat oven to 325 degrees.

  • in a mixing bowl cream butter, sugar & oil. add eggs one at a time.

  • mix in milk, vanilla & matcha powder.
  • in a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder & salt. add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients & beat until fully incorporated.
  • evenly divide batter between two greased & floured 8-inch cake pans.
  • bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cakes are fully cooked. let cool completely before flipping & frosting.
  • once cakes have cooled, begin to make the frosting. using an electric mixture with the paddle attachment add butter, icing sugar & vanilla. mix until light & fluffy, about 5 minutes. slowly pour in the melted white chocolate until incorporated.
  • frost cakes as desired & sprinkle with a touch of matcha!

thank you so much to aiya matcha for sponsoring this post! all opinions are my own. the cooking grade matcha blend that i used is available here. xo

MINI COCOTTE BLUEBERRY LEMON PIES

 

a little while ago after making a chocolate pie, i had a bit of left over pie dough that i didn't want to throw away. i hate having to waste any little bit of food! so i decided to test out the idea of making an individual pie in one of my mini cocottes. i absolutely loved how it turned out & knew i had to develop a blog post around it! any excuse to use my mini cocottes. for this particular recipe i did a blueberry lemon filling because i was inspired by the beautiful spring like weather we had this weekend! however, you can honestly fill it with what ever fruit pie filling you like best & decorate it as fancy or simple as you prefer. i took the time to get very detailed on my first pie, until the daylight started to end.. then i had to hurry up & get these bad boys in the oven before i lost all my light. anyways.. now you can eat a whole pie without any judgement:)

ingredients

(makes 4 mini cocotte pies)

for the pie dough

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon raw sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold + cubed
  • 1/3 cup vegetable shortening, cold
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup ice water
  • 1 egg, for egg wash (can also use cream)

for the pie filling

  • 3 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1/3 cup raw sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice + zest from half a lemon
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

directions

for the pie dough

  • using a food processor pulse the flour, salt and sugar.
  • add the cubed butter, shortening and vanilla. pulse until a crumb like mixture forms.
  • add the cold water one tablespoon at a time until the crumbs begin to come together. turn out onto a pastry board and shape dough into a disk. if dough seems wet, add a bit more flour. if the dough seems dry, add a bit more water.
  • wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours.
  • pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
  • on a floured surface roll out pie dough to 3/4 cm thick. cut out four circles & line greased/floured mini pie dishes/cocottes.
  • evenly distribute blueberry filling amongst the pies.
  • decorate top as desired with remaining half of dough.
  • brush with egg wash or heavy cream & sprinkle with raw sugar.
  • bake for 25-30 minutes. if top begins to brown too quickly, cover in foil.
  • serve hot from oven with vanilla ice cream!

for the pie filling

  • in a mixing bowl toss blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, lemon zest & vanilla. set aside until ready to roll out the pies.

NOTE: you can use the ceramic or cast iron mini cocottes. if you don't have either of those on hand, mini pie plates will work as well!