This week I am back and baking up a storm! What better way to return than with a matcha and raspberry loaf cake. I love matcha but got put off cooking with it when I watched Bake Off once and Mary Berry said she thought the taste was ‘grassy’. I don’t think it’s grassy at all and Mary clearly just has poor taste.

This is my first time baking with matcha and I am so excited. Matcha reminds me of being in Japan and at my Obasan’s place in Higashi Kakogawa. It reminds me of when me and my sister were young and we’d visit and take day trips to the local shopping center, walking single file alongside the un-pavemented road and passing rice fields on the way. We’d get into the massive department store and run straight to the arcade where we would slot 100 Yen coins into Mario Kart machines, hit the mole machines, and our favourite drum game (like guitar hero but with drums). After we finished we would meet our mum in the supermarket section, buy a packet of matcha Kit Kats, and then eat them on the way home to distract us from the humidity.

I remember one time in Japan when we were at my Obasan’s house and my sister and I were having an argument about something. I was maybe eight and she was nine and whatever we were arguing about must have been serious to us at the time. My Obasan’s house is very Japanese and has a dining room at the front with a table that’s far too large and takes up all the space. At the back of the house is a small living area with a TV and nothing else. In the evenings Obasan rolls out her futon and sleeps there. Next to that room is a small kitchen with a fridge always stocked with Yakoruto (Yakult) and to the back is a bathroom with a bath so small and high-sided you have to sit with your knees bent to your chest. Up a narrow and steep set of stairs are two more sleeping rooms with tatami mats and a small balcony where Obasan hangs her laundry. My sister and I were downstairs in the living area which also doubles as Obasan’s bedroom. I remember we were yelling at each other. We used to have these horrible fights when we were kids and would dig our nails into each other’s forearms until they were patterned with cuts the shape of little crescent moons. We hadn’t got to the physical part of the fight yet but we were arguing and then I remember saying to her ‘I wish you were dead’ and then left the room. I went to the dining room and watched the high school baseball and ate rice balls until I calmed down. After about half an hour, I wondered where she was, and when I went to find her she was on the living room floor crying her eyes out. When I asked her why she was crying she continued to sob for a moment and then she lifted up her head and I could see that her face was all red with the pattern of the tatami mat stamped across her right cheek. She said ‘You said you wished I was dead’ and I was surprised because I didn’t realise she would be upset by that. I said sorry and that I didn’t mean it and then we ate some grapes we found in the fridge. I feel bad for saying that now, I didn’t mean it at all and I didn’t even think she would care. But of course she did and so too would I if she had said that to me. We also had a lot of happy memories in Japan and I want to go back so much, I miss it a lot.

This matcha cake is helping me not miss Japan so much. The raspberries are great because they add natural sweetness. The colour is a little ugly but I find it charming. I will make sure to take some slices to my sister so she can enjoy the matcha, maybe I will also take some grapes or Yakult. This was really delicious, a bit different, and a lot of fun to make — job well done!

Goodbye for now.

Watch the reel!

The recipe I used was from @justine_snacks