This Matcha Steamed Cake (Mushi Pan) is light and fluffy with an aromatic green tea flavor. These individual Japanese cakes are so easy to steam in a frying pan for the perfect breakfast or snack. Less than 20 minutes to make!
Steamed Cake or we call it Mushi Pan (蒸しパン) is a light, fluffy, and soft cake. As the name suggests, it is steamed instead of baked, and it takes less than 20 minutes to prepare from the beginning to the end. I shared another version two years ago and that steamed cake recipe has been one of the most popular recipes, especially among readers from Asia.
Since then, I’ve kept experimenting with the ingredients and came up with this recipe that I enjoy and have been using for a while. To make the steamed cake moister, I added honey and used yogurt instead of milk. I love the changes I made and I hope you give this updated version a try if you tried other steam cake recipes before. Let me know what you think!
What Does Matcha Taste Like?
It’s a bit difficult to describe. It has a unique rich bitter taste as well as sweetness. When matcha is used in recipes, the flavor becomes subtler. If you are a matcha fan, you might be interested in my other matcha recipes like Green Tea Ice Cream, Green Tea Cookies, and Green Tea Crème Brûlée.
This simple and quick steamed cake recipe is perfect for an after-school snack or when you have sudden guests. Hope you enjoy “steaming” these little cakes! Itadakimasu!
Creative Matcha Steamed Cake
JOC reader Angel tried this recipe and made these absolutely gorgeous steamed cakes that I want to share with you.
When I asked her how she made them, she agreed to share her tutorial with us! Here’s her tutorial:
- Just before adding matcha powder, portion out 2 tsp. of plain batter for pink color and 1.5 tsp. of batter for brown color into two bowls.
- Add 1 tsp. of sifted flour into 2 tsp. batter and mix well and add in some pink food color.
- Add ¾ tsp of cocoa powder to 1.5 tsp. of plain batter and mix well.
- Transfer both batters into piping bags.
- Add matcha powder to the rest of the plain batter and mix well.
- Filled matcha batter into cupcake liners and drop the liners on the countertop a few times to remove air bubbles before pipe pattern on the cakes as desired.
Note:
- The batter should be slightly thicker yet able to pipe.
- Add in a little bit more batter if it’s too thick or flour if it’s too thin. It should be at the right consistency as pipe design may sink while steaming if the batter is too watery.
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Matcha Steamed Cake
Ingredients
- 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 3 Tbsp plain yogurt
- 1½ Tbsp sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp matcha (green tea powder)
For the Garnish (Optional)
- sweet red bean paste (anko) (you can make my homemade Anko recipe)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. I use 6 oz Pyrex glass ramekins (custard cups).
- Wrap a frying pan lid with a kitchen towel. This will prevent condensation from falling onto the cakes while steaming.
- Place 4 empty ramekins in a frying pan and pour enough water into the pan to go halfway up the exterior sides of the ramekins. Take out the ramekins, cover the pan with a lid, and bring the water to a boil.
- Meanwhile, place a cupcake liner inside each ramekin.
- In a medium bowl, add 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) and 1 Tbsp neutral oil and whisk well.
- Add 1 Tbsp honey and 3 Tbsp plain yogurt. Mix well.
- Add 1½ Tbsp sugar and mix thoroughly.
- Sift ½ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) and 1 tsp baking powder together. Then, add it to the egg mixture.
- Sift 1 tsp matcha (green tea powder) and fold until the matcha powder is well incorporated into the batter.
- Divide and pour the batter evenly into the lined ramekins.
- When the water starts to boil, place the filled ramekins inside the pan.
- Cover with the lid and steam over medium-low heat for 12–14 minutes.
- To test if the steamed cake is ready, insert a skewer in the center of the cake and see if it comes out clean (no wet batter). Do not overcook as the cakes will become hard. When done, remove the ramekins from the pan and serve with sweet red bean paste (anko).
To Store
- I recommended enjoying it immediately or on the same day since the steamed cake gets harder. You can re-steam them before serving (I don‘t recommend microwaving).
Hi Nami-san! I tried your recipe and it was a big hit with my family. And the mushi pan turned out so pretty too! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Hi Anna! Ohhh I’m so glad you liked it and they turned out well. Yes the color is amazing! You must have good green tea powder too, in order to get nice green color. 🙂 Thank you for your feedback!
I just made it (literally like several minutes ago) and I absolutely love them! I put too much matcha in mine so it wasn’t as sweet but oh my they were so soft and delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Hi Sophie! Yay! Thank you so much for your feedback. I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe and enjoyed the steamed cake. 🙂
Hi Nami!
I just stumbled across your blog recently and I love everything! I live with my husband in Japan and I often buy the store brands of mushipan, but I want to learn to make it myself. I just have a question for you, have you ever tried to make it with もち粉? I really like to eat the もち入り蒸しパン that I can buy here, but one time I tried to make it myself and it just completely turned out wrong. Do you have any advice?
Thanks so much and I’ll look forward to reading and trying your other recipes!
Hi Chako! I’m happy to hear you enjoy my blog. THANK YOU! 🙂 I haven’t’ made mushipan with mochiko before. But after a little research I’ve found a lot of mushipan with Joshinko (上新粉) recipe, but not too many with mochiko. I think it works better with joshinko. I’ll share the link I found.
http://cookpad.com/search/%E4%B8%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%B2%89%20%E8%92%B8%E3%81%97%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3 (you can use Chrome to translate)
I will try some recipe myself one day. 🙂
I just tried these cakes and they were absolutely delicious!! After seven minutes the cakes looked done but had wet patches on them despite using the kitchen towel, so i popped them into the microwave for 30 seconds. They came out perfectly, wonderful texture and not too sweet. THANK YOU!!
Hi sk! So happy to hear you liked this recipe! 🙂 These are really easy and quick to make. I’m happy they came out well after adding a few seconds in the microwave. Thank you very much for writing a feedback on my post. xo
These cupcakes have become the number one dessert in our house! My kids love them and they are easy to make. I can prepare it in less than 10 minutes. Sometimes, I leave the matcha out and make plan cupcakes and serve them with fresh fruit. Thank you for the great recipe!
Hi Beth! So happy to hear you enjoy this recipe! The steamed cakes are so versatile and very easy to adapt. I’m glad your family enjoy them! Thank you for your feedback! xo
Hello Nami,
This mushipan is sooooo delicious!!! I read here I can make it with bamboo steamer, so I will try next time.
I love your recipes *___* With your recipes I can make my japanese boyfriend happy 😀 It is easy to understand and to cook 🙂 So I can learn to cook japanese. Thank you!!!
Best wishes from Germany
Hi Tina! Yay! So happy you enjoyed this mushipan recipe! About bamboo steamer – A reader name Elly (a few comments above you) commented that she uses steamer and the texture is not like mine. Hope you can steam well with a steamer. I haven’t tried steaming with bamboo steamer myself, so I am not sure how it will be. Very happy to hear your Japanese boyfriend is happy with your Japanese dishes. 😀
Once again me ^^
How is it to make it with a microwave?
Thank you in advance 🙂
Tina, I’m not sure if that will work, and you probably need to adjust cooking time and method according to microwave cooking.
I have this plastic steamer for microwave, and if you are going to use those kind, the cooking will be similar to one in bamboo steamer. Hope that helps.
Thank you for the recipe Nami! Simple, fun, not-too-sweet dessert that everyone enjoyed on Father’s Day!
Hi Satz! Yay! So happy you enjoyed this recipe. Yes, simple and delicious, and the sweetness is perfect for Asian sweets fan. 🙂
This looks very good! Although it only makes four cupcakes! I’m going to triple the recipe so I can make more! 😀 Love all the step-by-step and pictures to demonstrate! I’m a visualist so pictures are good!
I’m going to use this recipe and do a layered cake with green tea mousse and vanilla buttercream, cupcake size. Maybe top it off with some kind of chocolate shaped design, or just chocolate shavings…oh the ideas! HOPEFULLY, my idea turns out perfect!
Hi Laura! Yes, 4 steamed cakes at a time since we use a frying pan and the steamed cakes are best when they are just made. Glad step-by-step pictures are helpful. A lot of time I feel I almost give up taking step by step pics because they are time consuming, but comments like yours keep me going. 🙂 Hope you enjoy these steamed cake!
Hi Nami, I have tried twice using your recipe but I can never get a smooth surface like yours. Mine were ‘rocky’ and very uneven. The texture is different too. My cakes had a more moist and coarse texture in the upper portion but the bottom portion is fine, just like yours. I have followed every steps except that I used the normal steaming method. Please help! I really want to get a perfect cake! 🙁
Hi Elly! Mine always comes out the same texture and I don’t make any changes when I use this recipe. Try steaming in a frying pan (the same method I use in this recipe) to see if you get the same texture. I never used a steamer for this quick steamed cake recipe. I believe differences in steaming method caused the different texture. Because the ramekins are attached to the hot water, the heat goes inside the cake more gently and evenly than the regular steaming I think. This is the same technique for fluffy Japanese cheesecake recipe I have on the blog. Let me know if that helps. 🙂
Green tea steamed cake is very easy to make and less effort so start with that one? 🙂
Hi! I’m planning to try this out for Mother’s Day with some red bean paste because my Mum loves that combination 🙂 Just wanted to check if the yogurt used was regular yogurt with a thin liquid consistency or was it greek yogurt that was thicker and had more like a cottage cheese consistency? I have both in the fridge and I’m not sure which one to use!
Hi Adeline! I used plain regular yogurt this time (not too watery – see the consistency in my picture), but I also use greek yogurt as well. It shouldn’t make a huge difference or at least I haven’t noticed the difference much using different kind of yogurt. Hope that helps. 🙂 Hope your mom enjoy this recipe! xo
I just re-stumbled upon this link saved in my favourites and the cakes turned out great for a Mother’s Day surprise! Thanks! However I had a leftover piece (mine made 3) and saved it for my Dad when he woke up much later, around 3hrs or so and he said the texture became rock hard 🙁 Is this normal and are we supposed to eat it fresh or did mine not turn out right because my Mum said it was still moist and soft when she had hers right out of the steamer!
Hi Adeline! Since I make 4 at a time (or max 8), I never have leftover and ate the following day. If the air tight container doesn’t help, maybe it’s not meant to eat the next day. Have you re-steamed it (and eat right away)? Maybe that might help too…
Yess, finally get to use matcha powder I have! Thanks for yummy and simple recipe XD I’ll definitely eat it with anko as you mentioned!
Hope you enjoy Jane! Yes, the combination of sweet anko and bitter green tea flavor is perfect… 🙂
whats the yogurt and baking powder for ? ARIGATO GOSAYMASHE
Hi Noel! Baking powder (and baking soda) is leavening agent, which means they are added to baked goods to increase the volume and lighten the texture.
Yogurt is used her to moisten. Sometimes we use milk too. 🙂 Hope that helps! Arigato for reading my blog! 🙂
I just replied via email, but bounced back. Hope you get my answer here. 🙂
Thanks for the great receipe, I have always been a fan of green tea. I have tried making the green tea cakes today and they taste great! However, they do not look as good as the cakes posted in your blog ( the colour is abit patchy). Any reason for that? Thanks!!
Hi Mel! Thank you for trying this recipe and glad to hear you liked it. About the color, I assume you incorporated the matcha in the batter very well so that’s probably not the issue.
So only thing that I think of is the quality of matcha powder. How was the quality? I use this same brand of matcha for all of my matcha recipes, and it’s a bit pricey but the result is excellent. Matcha is a very pricey ingredient, but it makes a huge difference especially in color. Hope you can try with different brand to see if that helps. 🙂
This is the first time I tried a mushi pan, and I really love your recipe ! I like the matcha flavor with a slight of honey in it, also the fluffy texture of the cake. Next time when I steam these cakes, I’ll have it with the leftover anko (also from your recipe). Totally perfect for snacks !
HI Magda! I’m so glad you liked the recipe! 😀 It’s easy so you can make it pretty quickly whenever you want to eat it (and I also like the small portion). Yes, try adding anko too, it’s really good… Thank you for your kind feedback!