Going Green

My "going green" isn't about the environment. I am talking about COLOR here. This is my answer to Gypsy Cowgirl's question/comment on my post about beets. She asked if I had any ideas for a natural green food coloring. She mentioned most natural sources of green being weak or muddy. I have tried everything from seaweed to spinach. The best thing I have found is green tea powder called "matcha". 

You can see from this cake that the green tea color is quite strong. I added about two teaspoons of the matcha to my dry ingredients. Since it's a powder it will not add extra liquid to your recipe which makes it great for things like shortbread, macarons, frostings, and whipped cream. Of course the more color you add, the more green tea flavor you will end up with. With this cake I wanted the tea flavor to go with the sweet adzuki bean filling. In japanese sweets this is a pretty typical pairing.