Green Tea Pound Cake

I had always wanted to make some green tea dessert since they smell really good. The recipe I used was adapted from Krafts.

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/grandmas-pound-cake-104511.aspx?

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 pack Philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 eggs

Reviews were awesome and pictures looked good too! The only modification I made was splitting the recipe in half and baking it in a loaf pan instead of tube pan, since I do not have one.

(All ingredients used were at room temperature).
(Since I have no electric mixer, I had to spend at least 2 minutes beating the mixture with addition of each ingredient)
1. Mix and sift 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon green tea powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt in one bowl.
2. Beat 1/2 cup butter in another bowl until soft and fluffy (This took about 5 minutes).
3. Gradually add in 1 cup sugar while beating. Beat until soft and fluffy (This step took at least 15 minutes. I could still hear sugar granules but the butter was lighter in color and fluffy).
4. Add 4 oz Philadelphia cream cheese. Continue beating.
5. Add 3 eggs, one by one. Continue beating.
5. Add sifted dry ingredients from Step 1. Mix well.
6. Bake in preheated oven 350F for 40 minutes.

The cake rose too much and overspilled. Since I doubled the amount of baking powder from the recipe, I should probably follow it the next time I make this pound cake. The cake is also too sweet to my liking. I will cut down the sugar by half next time.

Soft, fluffy and moist. Took me a lot of time and energy to manually cream the butter and sugar (my arm was so numb I couldn't feel it anymore) but it is worth it.

This pound cake can also be baked on its own (without green tea powder). I am thinking of making coffee pound cake next.

Note: Great recipe overall. Use baking powder as written on the recipe and cut down the sugar by half the next time.