Green Power

Last night, we had the owners' meeting. To our dismay, we realised we are the only apartment still without gas. Some of our neighbours exercised much pester power and had theirs back on two nights ago and the rest had theirs back yesterday. We who left the administration in peace to perform their function got forgotten.

Even Guillermo came to the realisation recently "things which don't usually go wrong, go wrong with us". He was speaking about my new Australian passport. The Consulate told me when it was ready I would receive a phone call or an email, so I waited. A month later, the lady at the Consulate rang and was surprised that I didn't go to pick it up. Apparently, she sent an email which I never received.

I went up to Belgrano where the Embassy and Consulate are, I glanced over my details when I picked up the document and came home. A few days later, I was just showing Guillermo the new microchip and he noticed that my married name (his last name) was spelt wrong.

His last name has the typically Italian "telli" ending; it was spelt "telll" in my passport. The font made it difficult to detect the error at first glance but my husband is meticulous.

It was no big deal; I just handed it back, they sent it to the U.S. for cancellation and a new one to be issued. The lady apologised and told us that she'd usually check the new passports when they come in from Washington but she didn't with mine because she had gone through my details over the phone with officials over there as they were all trying to find a way to make my name easier for the Argentine bureaucrats. Anyway, the error was quickly fixed; my new passport flew in within 3 days.

So while we are still waiting for someone to turn up to give us gas, I turned my attention to my new treasure, the Matcha powder. I was itching to road test some Matcha recipes but only had very basic ingredients at home. In addition, I wasn't sure how Guillermo would take the taste of concentrated green tea – he is not a fan of green tea ice cream.

So I thought of a marbled cake, yogurt cake with Matcha swirls. I love the French Gâteau au Yaourt; the texture is wonderful yet very easy to make. Guillermo was intrigued by the half green cake but one bite he is a convert. He said the flavour is distinctive but subtle and he loves the delicate moistness of the cake, it is an absolute winner. The cake has also partially restored his mood, spoiled by the inept administration.

Note: I used unbleached organic sugar so the distinction between plain cake and green cake was blurred. If you use white sugar, the coloured swirls should stand out more.

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

a pinch of salt

3 eggs

3/4 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup plain full fat yogurt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

120g butter, melted

1 to 2 tbsp powdered Matcha

Preheat oven to 190C. Prepare a standard loaf tin by lining it with parchment. Sift together flour and salt.

In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar and mix with an egg beater until well incorporated. Add the sifted dry ingredients and continue mixing. Add vanilla and yogurt and mix well. Gradually add the melted butter and continue to blend until the cake batter is smooth.

In another bowl, add the powdered green tea and about a teaspoon of lukewarm water. Mix this into a paste. If desired, add a tablespoon of cream and continue mixing this into a paste (I just used more water).

Add the thick paste to 1/4 of the cake batter from above. Blend until it is a solid green color. Taste a little bit of the batter for tea flavour. It should taste like really strong green tea. If not, correct it by adding more green tea by making a paste as above.

Lightly fold the green tea batter into the plain batter with a rubber spatula. Make 1 or 2 large swirls with the rubber spatula, being careful not to over-do it. If you get too zealous, you won't get a marbled effect, just a green tea cake!

Pour the batter into the prepared pans, hopefully by alternating between plain and green batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes. The flavour of green tea in the cake continues to develop upon storing.