Dark Chocolate Matcha Cake

Homemade Dark Chocolate Matcha cake + Great Reads = Great Time 

Matcha (green tea) and dark chocolate are two of my favourite things. In this post, these ingredients are combined to create a cake for Mother's Day! I have made a seriously dark chocolate cake last year and it was very well received by my family and friends. 

The matcha (green tea) sponge was very light, without being overly sweet and the lightly sweetened matcha whipped cream further enhanced the matcha flavour. The chocolate ganache layer gave a contrasting rich, dense (in a good way) texture and flavour.

 

Happy Mother's Day to those who are mothering. 

Children are God's gifts to us, to give us a glimpse of how He loves us as we love and teach our children. I pray everyday for God's wisdom to make this journey of love, in this chaotic world, a reflection of heaven.

Dark Chocolate Matcha Cake
(makes one 4 layers 6 inch round cake) 
Matcha Sponge Cake

Ingredients

20g butter, melted and cooled

1 3/4 Tbsp milk, room temperature

90g unbleached organic flour
2 tsp matcha powder

3 medium eggs (each of the egg used was 57g), room temperature

90g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Decorations (Optional):
Chocolate coated Crunchie sprinkles

Matcha Powder

Steps to bake:

• Preheat oven to 180C. Line the bottom of  two 6" cake pan with parchment paper.
• Mix melted butter and milk in a small bowl and set aside.
• Sieve the flour and matcha powder twice to aerate and mix evenly.
• Prepare a small sauce pan of simmering water (over low heat), about 5cm/ 2 inches of water, to create a double boiler for the next step.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs and sugar. Place it over the simmering water and whisk the mixture with a hand whisk until it is lukewarm or till sugar have dissolved. Rub the mixture between your fingers and if you can feel the sugar grains, continue to whisk over the double boiler until sugar is dissolved. When checking for sugar grain, remove the mixing bowl off the heat.
• When the sugar have fully dissolved, whip the egg sugar mixture, on high speed, until the egg mixture is very thick (when the whisk is lifted, the egg mixture form soft peak).
• Add the sieved flour and matcha mixture in 3 parts into the whipped egg mixture. Fold, by hand, with a spatula one-third of the flour until it is incorporated into the egg mixture and repeat till all the flour is added.
• Then fold in the mixture of melted butter and milk.
• Pour the batter equally into the 2 prepared pans. Bake for 14 - 15 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean from the center of the cake.
• Take the cake out from the oven and leave it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Use a paring knife to go around cake and remove the cake from the pan and let it continue cool on the rack for 30 minutes.
• When cake is cooled, level the top of the cake and splice each of the cake into 2 equal layers, so in total, you will get 4 layers of cake. 

The matcha sponge layer

  Assembling the cake:

• Place the bottom layer on a 6 inch cake round and place on a turntable. Using a offset spatula, spread evenly 2 heaping tablespoons matcha whipped cream (recipe below) onto the bottom layer of the cake.
• Place a second layer of cake on it and now spread evenly 2 heaping tablespoons of chocolate ganache (recipe below) on it.
• Place the third layer of the cake and now spread evenly  another 2 heaping tablespoons of matcha whipped cream on it.
• Add the top layer of cake and spread it with the remaining matcha whipped cream(crumb coating) on top as well as the sides. Place the cake into the freezer for 1 hour to chill.
• After the cake is chilled, place the cake on a cooling rack with a baking pan below, so as to catch any of the pouring ganache (recipe below) that will drip off the cake when it is being coated.
• Pour the pouring ganache, in a circular motion, starting from the centre of the cake outwards. When you reach the edge of the cake, make sure you pour ganache onto the sides of the cake to coat it too. After the excess pouring ganache have dripped off the cake, place the cake into the fridge to chill it for at least 2 hours, before serving.

Matcha Whipped Cream

Ingredients

200g whipped cream, cold
2 tsp matcha powder

1 Tbsp sugar

Steps to matcha whipped cream:

• Pour the cold cream into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.
• Sift the matcha powder over the cream.
• Whip the cream on high and slowly stream in the sugar as you whip.
• Whipped till stiff peaks. 
• Use the cream immediately or cover it with cling wrap and place into the fridge till ready to frost the cake.

Chocolate Ganache

100g bittersweet chocolate chip (I used Callebaut 70% cocoa chocolate chip)

100g heavy cream

6g good quality honey

1/8 tsp salt

Steps to make the chocolate ganache:

• Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl, set aside. In a medium sauce pan, heat up cream, honey and salt, to a simmer, pour the cream over the chocolate and let stand for 5 min to melt the chocolate. 
• Whisk the mixture till smooth. Cover the mixture with a cling wrap and place into the fridge to chill till thickened to the consistency for frosting.

Pouring Ganache
100g bittersweet chocolate
150g heavy cream
5g good quality honey 

Steps to make the pouring ganache:

• Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl, set aside. In a medium sauce pan, combine cream and honey and  bring the cream mixture to a simmer, pour the cream over the chocolate and let stand for 5 min to melt the chocolate. 
• Whisk the mixture gently (so that you will not create too many air bubbles in the pouring ganache) till smooth and pour into a cup with a pouring spout. Give the cup a few gentle tap on the table. This is to allow the bubbles formed in the ganache to come to the surface of the mixture. Leave it at room temperature until the cake is ready to be coated. 

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