Blueberry Vanilla Matcha Snack Cake

A colourful marble cake

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Hello, Happy Friday!

Who doesn’t love an easy cake, a recipe you can make quickly but that’s still excellent and packed full of flavour? To me that is half the definition of a snack cake. The other half is that the cake is also simple in its entirety. Not a cake with big elaborate decorations or with several layers and multiple fillings. Just a simple cake with a simple icing or frosting. Most commonly, snack cakes are single-layer affairs, and the topping or icing, if any, is super simple. They also happen to be one of my favourite styles of cake to make. They’re minimal effort, maximum reward.

Before we get to the recipe, can I ask you a question? Is it weird that I love baking with matcha but I never drink it? I think it’s maybe a bit weird! I think the flavour is wonderful in baked goods, the sweetness of the recipe balancing out the grassy and slightly bitter matcha. When it comes to drinks, I will always choose coffee over matcha, but I just love baking with it. For this recipe, I was inspired by one of those convoluted matcha drinks you see on social media, a blueberry vanilla matcha latte. In the same way that I think matcha pairs beautifully with white chocolate because it is smooth and creamy, it also works very well in the simplest of cakes, in this cake made with a little vanilla and, unusually, a lot of cream. To give the cake a little something special, I make this as a marble cake. This may look impressive, but it only takes a little extra work, and it’s a very easy look to achieve.

The base of this cake is one of my favourite base recipes that I often riff on. It is incredibly easy to make, makes a cake with a wonderful velvety texture, and is easily adapted into different flavours. Because the cake is so quick to make, I find this is a really great recipe to have in your back pocket for those times you need to whip something up quickly. It also needs very little equipment; the batter is basically made with just a bowl and a whisk. Simple.