Now that the restaurant Matt has been working on for months is finally open and he's been out of the house helping run it, I've been getting real real creative with ways to entertain myself. I've started taking Fox on extra long walks and actually watering all of my plants and reading every possible article on The Atlantic and listening to the America's Test Kitchen podcast and it's all been really fun even though I miss the dude a whole lot. I'm not the *best* at being alone for long periods of time, but I've taken this as an opportunity to focus on myself and the house. It's weird, really, how easy I forget to just take a second out of the day to do a small task I've been putting off or to, shit, just do nothing at all. I feel like I'm constantly running on empty and suddenly having the house to myself for long periods of time has given me a much needed wake up call to chill the hell out. Quiet times can be good - who knew!

I've even started late night baking again - something I haven't really done since finishing up with school - and so far I've only fallen asleep with a full pan of brownies in the oven once! I woke up five minutes later though, don't worry, I got this. Anyhow, this weekend I played around with this breakfast cake recipe and ended up making it super late at night, so it was basically fresh baked the next morning. I've gotta say it's delicious as hell. Almondy and fluffy and *moist* with a subtle green tea flavor - it's a pretty dope way to start the morning, y'all. I ate it with just a smudge of butter and a cup of coffee, but maybe consider putting some cream cheese or whipped goat cheese on it - that's something I'm gonna try next. You can find the recipe below, which is adapted from this almond cake recipe from Williams-Sonoma. Have an amazing week ahead, babes!

Almond Matcha Breakfast Cake

prep time 20 minutes // cook time 1 hour // serves 6

Crumble

3 T all-purpose flour
2 T brown sugar
2 T white sugar
1/4 t salt
1.5 t Aiya Cooking Grade Matcha
1 T unsalted melted butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Cake

2 c all-purpose flour
1.5 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 lb almond paste at room temperature
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract
3/4 c whole fat plain yogurt
2 t Aiya Cooking Grade Matcha

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
For the crumble: In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, both sugars, matcha, and salt. Whisk in the melted butter. Add the almonds and toss it all together. Set aside.
To prepare the cake batter, first whisk together the flour, salt, matcha, and baking powder in a large bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and almond paste for about two minutes, until smooth. Add the sugar and beat to combine. Add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until blended. Scrape down the bowl and add half the flour and beat to combine. Add the yogurt and beat again. Finish with the flour and beat just until it's all incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with the crumble topping. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until the top is slightly cracked and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.

Thanks a ton to Aiya Matcha for sponsoring this post, all opinions are our own!