Green Tea Nokcha Cake

Green Tea Nokcha Cake

The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 35 mins
Total: 45 mins
Servings: 8 to 10 servings
Yield: 1 loaf

If you're a fan of green tea, you'll enjoy this recipe for nokcha, or green tea cake. This simple, moist cake is subtly sweet. You can also top your green tea cake with a delicious cream cheese frosting.

You need natural green tea powder to make this cake, which you should be able to find in most Asian grocery stores or from specialty retailers online. The Korean label will likely say: "Nokcha Karu," while the Japanese brands will say "Matcha." If there's no Asian market in your area and you prefer to shop in person rather than online, you can make a visit to a tea retailer to find Matcha powder.

Ingredients

  • 3 large eggs

  • 1/2 cup superfine sugar, use less if you prefer for your cake not to be sweet

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil

  • 3/4 cup plain Greek gurt

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • 6 teaspoons green tea powder, nok-cha karu, matcha

  • Cream cheese frosting, consider the frosting if you plan to use little to no sugar

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients. Preheat oven to 350 F.

    Green Tea Nokcha Cake ingredients

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil together until the resulting mixture is fluffy and light.

    beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil together

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  3. Gently stir Greek yogurt into the mixture. This yogurt has a range of health benefits, including high protein content and probiotics which are great for balancing gut bacteria. Choose the organic variety if it's available and in your budget range.

    add greek yogurt to the egg mixture in the bowl

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  4. After stirring in the yogurt, get a separate bowl, and sift the flour, baking powder, and green tea powder together.

    sift the flour, baking powder, and green tea powder together in a bowl

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  5. Next, gently fold the flour mixture into the wet sugar-yogurt mixture.

    gently fold the flour mixture into the wet sugar-yogurt mixture

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  6. Then, pour the resulting cake batter into a greased cake pan, smoothing out the top until level.

    cake batter into a greased cake pan

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  7. Bake the cake for 35 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. If there's batter on the pick, keep the cake in the oven for a few more minutes, checking periodically until it's done.

    baked green tea cake in a cake pan

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

  8. If you're using cream cheese frosting instead of sugar, wait for the cake to cool down before icing it.

    Green Tea Nokcha Cake with cream cheese frosting

    The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

*If you can't find superfine sugar, learn to do-it-yourself.

** NOTE: If you don't have cake flour and need to substitute all-purpose flour in this recipe, then you need to use LESS all-purpose flour. Use 1.5 cups minus 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. 

Green Tea Is a Well-Known Antioxidant

Green tea is a staple of the Eastern diet, but as Westerners begin to take an interest in all things from the Orient, the tea has garnered a following abroad. In fact, green tea has been used in hundreds of Western clinical studies in recent years, and the research has been overwhelmingly positive. It has found that green tea can potentially fight cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and dementia. It may even counteract the effects of reproductive health problems, such as fibroids and endometriosis. And if you're watching your waistline, studies have found that green tea has belly-blasting properties.

So, what's so magical about green tea? The unfermented leaves of green tea contain antioxidants known as polyphenols, which fight the free radicals that damage cells in the body and lead to disease. Polyphenols contain six major catechin compounds, most famously EGCG, which has been the subject of much research. EGCG is even sold as a supplement.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
266 Calories
14g Fat
31g Carbs
5g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories 266
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 14g 17%
Saturated Fat 2g 8%
Cholesterol 57mg 19%
Sodium 88mg 4%
Total Carbohydrate 31g 11%
Dietary Fiber 0g 1%
Total Sugars 14g
Protein 5g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 57mg 4%
Iron 2mg 10%
Potassium 69mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Article Sources
The Spruce Eats uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. Chacko SM, Thambi PT, Kuttan R, Nishigaki I. Beneficial effects of green tea: a literature review. Chin Med. 2010;5:13.  doi:10.1186/1749-8546-5-13

  2. Mousavi A, Vafa M, Neyestani T, Khamseh M, Hoseini F. The effects of green tea consumption on metabolic and anthropometric indices in patients with Type 2 diabetes. J Res Med Sci. 2013;18(12):1080-6.