Green Tea Cake Recipes

Matcha is a particular type of green tea, available in a finely powdered form. It first gained popularity in the Japanese tea ceremony. Now, it is quite commonly used as an ingredient in different variety of sweets and desserts. Researches suggest that green tea reduces the risk of developing heart diseases and also of certain types of cancer. On account of these benefits of green tea, it's popularity is no longer confined to Japan and has spread to different Western countries including North America. Here, we shall discuss two popular green tea cake recipes.

Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Cakes

Ingredients:

1¼ cups of flour, sifted
3 large size eggs
8 tbsp of melted butter
¾ cup of fine blond sugar
1.5 tsp of Matcha tea
1 tsp of baking powder
1.5 tsp of sifted unsweetened cocoa, diluted with 2 tbsp cold whole milk
3 ounces of chocolate 70% cocoa, melted
A pinch of salt

Procedure:

Beat up the eggs well to obtain a white frothy color. Melt the butter and pour it on the eggs and stir well. Mix baking powder and salt to the sift flour and add it to the eggs to make the batter. Now, separate the batter into two halves. Add the molten chocolate and the cocoa which has been diluted in cold milk into one half of the batter. Mix the matcha tea into the other half. Take 6 small size molds and grease them properly. Sprinkle some flour on the greasy surface. Now, in each of these molds pour some chocolate batter first followed by some matcha tea batter. Put the molds inside a preheated oven and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes.

Green Tea Opera Cake

This is the traditional method of making green tea cake. The uniqueness of this cake is the fact that it has four different components. These are: cake, syrup, buttercream and glaze. You have to prepare each one of those components and then arrange them to form a green tea opera cake.

Ingredients:

6 large egg whites, at room temperature
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. of granulated sugar
3 tbsp. (1½ ounces; 45 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups of ground blanched almonds
2 cups of icing sugar, sifted
6 large eggs
1tsp matcha

Procedure:

First, prepare the meringue. For this, take a mixer bowl with a whisk attachment. Pour the egg whites into it and beat it well till the soft peaks appear. Then, add the granulated sugar into the beaten egg and continue to beat up the mixture to make the peaks stiff. Take another mixer bowl with a paddle attachment and break all the six eggs into it. Then add the grounded blanched almonds, two cups of icing sugar and the most important ingredient, matcha. Beat the mixture at a medium speed for around 3 minutes to get a mixture that is voluminous and light. Now, add the all-purpose floor into the mixture and again beat up at low speed. Take care that it should not get over-mixed.

The next step is to fold the meringue gradually into the mixture and then adding the molten butter. To bake the opera cake you have to divide your oven into thirds by placing a rack in the both the upper and the lower third of your oven. Preheat the oven at a temperature of 220°C. Take two jelly-roll pans and line them with parchment papers and apply some melted butter on it. Pour the batter into these pans. Keep one of them at the middle of the oven and the other one in the bottom third. Bake till layers of the cake get a golden brown color. It may take about five to ten minutes. Take the pans out of the oven and cover with wax paper. Then turn over the pans and remove the parchment paper. Allow the cake to cool down.

Preparation of Buttercream
Take a large sized egg and one egg yolk and whisk them in a mixer bowl with a whisk attachment at a high speed in order to make it foamy. Take ¼ cup of water, a cup of granulated sugar and a teaspoon of matcha or green tea powder in a saucepan and heat it at a medium temperature so that the sugar gets dissolved. Keep heating the syrup till it reaches 107°C. You can check the temperature with the help of an instant-read thermometer. Then remove from heat and pour it into the mixer bowl that contain the whisked eggs. While pouring, make sure that your mixer is at a low speed. Put the mixer at high speed until the eggs get a thick feel. Now, mash 7 ounces of softened unsalted butter in a bowl and add it to the mixer and mix it well to get a shiny buttercream. Allow this to refrigerate to make it firm.

Preparation of Syrup
Take ½ cup of water, ⅓ cup of granulated sugar and one or two tablespoon of vanilla in a saucepan and boil the mixture. After a boil, remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool.

Preparation of Glaze
Take ½ cup of heavy cream and 4 ounces of coarsely chopped white chocolate and melt both of them. Beat the mixture until it becomes smooth and allow it cool for 8-10 minutes.

Setting up the Opera Cake
This is a big challenging task. The look of the cake entirely depends on how well you set up the cake. Cut the cake into four equal pieces. Take a baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Keep one piece of the cake on the baking sheet and pour a few drops of the syrup over its surface. Then properly spread half of the buttercream on the cake. Place the second piece of the cake over the first one and add some syrup and then the white chocolate glaze. Follow the same procedure for the remaining two pieces that should be placed on the top of these two pieces. Refrigerate the entire arrangement for half an hour so that it is properly set. You can do some trimming on the sides to give it the required smooth finish.

For the first timers, the procedure of opera cake recipes may seem slightly lengthy, but I am sure when the cake is ready, you will get immense creative satisfaction. The color, the rich flavor of the buttercream and the glaze will motivate you to make it many times and that too quite frequently!