Green Tea Swiss Roll

After so many months of baking, this is my first swiss roll.  
Unbelievable, huh?

It's actually rather simple.  
It's really just a sponge/chiffon cake in a shallow pan. 
Yup, that's all there is to it. 

The tricky part is the rolling. For me, at least. 

I'm glad I gave this a try.
The sponge is so so so so soft and fluffy, it's unbelievable. 


GREEN TEA SWISS ROLL
Makes a 12x12" (30x30cm) sheet cake. 

3 whole eggs
1 egg yolk  (save the white for macarons!)
80g sugar
75g cake flour  (plain flour will do just fine too)
5g / 2.5 tsp green tea powder
15ml corn oil
30ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


Whisk the eggs, yolk and sugar bain marie till all the sugar is dissolved.
(Bain marie just means over a double boiler.)
Transfer to the bowl of your mixer, and whisk for about 5 min or so till it's light and fluffy. You should now have about 4 times the volume you started with.

Sift the flour and green tea powder over the fluffyness.
Gently fold with a balloon whisk or spatula till all traces of flour disappear.

Combine the oil, milk and extract in a bowl.
Mix in about 1/4 of the fluffy batter.
Pour this back into the fluffyness and fold a few times to combine.

Push all of the fluffyness into a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Spread the love fluffyness evenly throughout the pan, not forgetting the corners.

Bake at 170*C for 18-20 min.
Remove the cake together with parchment paper from the pan immediately and cool on the wire (with the parchment paper still attached to the bottom).  

When still warm but cool enough to handle, roll the cake (with the parchment still attached) and leave it to cool completely in this mock roll.

Meanwhile, make the filling...


RED BEAN WHIPPED CREAM
150ml whipping cream
2 tsp caster sugar 
50g red bean paste  

Whip the cream till soft. Then add sugar and whip till stiff.
Gently fold in red bean paste till evenly combined.
Unroll the cake, and spread cream evenly, leaving about 1" gap from the edges.

Peel a little of the parchment paper away from the top edge.
Now roll the cake towards you, using the parchment paper as a guide.
Continue rolling towards you, peeling the parchment paper as you go.
When you reach the end, use the parchment paper to secure the shape of the roll and refrigerate for at least 15-20 min before slicing.

I just love the little dark green specks on the cake. 
Just like the little dark specks on my Oreo Nutella Macarons. 

Nothing fancy. 
Nothing complicated. 
Just a simple swiss roll.
Makes me smile :)

* * * * * * *

Green Tea Macarons + Nutella Filling

It was such a coincidence that my blog-buddy, KL, and I made macarons on the same day! 


In the midst of mac-ing, we were whatsapp-ing each other on the recipe we were using - the ingredient proportions, the drying time, the oven temperature, baking times, etc. So many factors that could make or break a macaron. 

I don't know why this picture turned out so psychedelic.

It's really not meant to be so neon.

The first few minutes in the oven are anxious minutes. 
Will those elusive feet appear?
Yes, they did. Phew!! 


But will the tops be nice and smooth? Or will they crack and erupt?
Thankfully, they turned out just fine. 
Now I can breathe...

Green Tea Macarons

30g egg white (or 1 egg white)

10g caster sugar 

40g almond powder

60g icing sugar

1/2 tsp green tea powder (1 tsp for a more intense green tea flavour)

Blend almond powder, icing sugar and green tea powder till fine. 

Sift two times. Set aside.

Whisk egg whites till foamy, then add caster sugar and whisk till soft peaks appear.

At this stage, you may want to add some colouring to enhance the appearance of the macarons. The colour fades quite a bit after baking, so your mixture should be a few shades darker than your desired end result.

Continue whisking till the meringue is glossy and stiff.

Fold in almond/sugar mixture in 2-3 batches till batter is evenly combined and somewhat sticky.

Using a #11 piping tip, pipe 1-1.25" circles on parchment paper or silicone mat. 

Let the piped circle air dry for about 30-60 min till skins form and are no longer tacky.

Bake at 140*C for 18-20 min. 

Now resist the temptation to peel the macs off. Allow macarons to cool completely before removing from parchment paper or silicone mat. 

Nutella Filling

This has got to be the easiest yet tastiest filling ever!
You can simply use Nutella straight from the bottle.

Or if you prefer something a little more delicate, mix some milk or whipping cream into the Nutella and fill those macs!

Now for the most important question: Do you like mini macs or maxi macs?


Me? I like 'em mini. 

Green Tea Cake with Azuki Beans

Soft, fluffy, moist matcha cake, layered with azuki beans and freshly whipped cream, topped with a generous sprinkling of matcha powder. 

Now, that describes my vision of a perfect green tea cake. But, alas, reality bites...

I used a genoise recipe for the cake. And although it appeared to be rather moist, it was actually on the drier side. Maybe more butter/milk next time. If that works, I'll post the recipe. In the meantime, just pictures...

It also pays to have patience when it comes to slicing your cakes.
Learn a lesson from me... for cakes with whipped cream, chill them till firm before slicing. Otherwise, you get a mess like my cake...

Christmas Truffles

Cake truffles, made for some very special friends.

* Glenfiddich Chocolate & Peanut
* Green Tea White Chocolate & Coconut

Recipe can be found here.
For the green tea truffles, just use green tea cake crumbs instead of chocolate, and replace choc with white choc.

Green Tea Log Cake

This month turned out to be a much busier month that I expected, but I managed to squeeze in a log cake class. It's really not as difficult as it looks - just a swiss roll covered with cream and festive decorations.  The best part is: perfection in imperfection!  No need for smooth even frosting or regular symmetrical lines. I love it!

Hidden under the 'snow' frosting (which is really just whipped cream) is a green tea swiss roll filled with soft cream cheese frosting.  Pretty yummy, and a nice change from the traditional chocolate log cakes.

Merry Christmas, my dear friends!

Matcha Cake with Red Bean Icing

Japanese dinner means Japanese dessert. 
Great opportunity to try my hand at green tea (matcha) cake. The original recipe called for green tea icing as well, but I thought that'd be OD-ing on green tea. So I improvised and created my own red bean icing instead.

Whoever thought of pairing green tea with red beans is a genius! The 2 flavours complement each other so well, it's amazing. I couldn't find adzuki beans, so I got the normal local red beans. Still tasted good, but I bet adzuki would really be awesome!

For a small 6" square cake:
40g plain flour
45g cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp green tea (matcha) powder
60g sugar
80ml oil
80ml plain yoghurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

1 - Sift all powdered ingredients. Mix well. Set aside.
2 - Beat sugar, oil and egg until smooth. Add vanilla extract.
3 - Gradually beat in flour, alternating with yoghurt. Mix well.
4 - Bake at 170 degC for about 30-35 min till done. Cool completely before icing.

Red Bean Icing:
100g dried red beans
water
About 6 tbs icing sugar

1 - Boil red beans with enough water to cover all  beans.
2 - Stop cooking when beans are soft. Set aside to cool. Then mash beans up with a blender till you get a fine paste. Add water by teaspoonfuls if required to get a smooth but thick consistency.
3 - When cooled completely, transfer to mixer and beat together with icing sugar. Adjust amount according to desired sweetness and texture.
4 - Chill for about half hour before spreading on cake.

In my mind, I had the vision of a moist crumbly cake (somewhat like a pound cake) with stiff icing. How nice that would be!

But it didn't quite turn out that way. (Fortunately the taste was ok.) I figured it had to be the cake method used for this recipe. By mixing the oil, sugar and egg first, it resulted in a texture similar to steamed sponge cakes. Next time, I'm trying this again with a pound or butter cake, or even a genoise sponge, method.

Stay tuned...

P.S.  A much better recipe of green tea (matcha) cake can be found on my Green Tea Swiss Roll post.