Matcha Green Tea Cake Roll and Coffee

I love green tea to no end.  It's the tea of choice for myself when I'm at home in the afternoons.  If I'm in the mood for only a cup of green tea instead of an entire pot, I reach for my precious supply of matcha powder.  I've never, however, eaten anything made with matcha until this weekend.

After getting over what seemed like the worst cold ever, I felt good enough for some dessert.  

I've repurposed this large fish knife for cake slicing.

Cake rolls are the perfect thing to serve for those who don't like sweet cakes. Made with a sponge cake base (eggs, sugar, milk and flour--no butter), the finished product produces a very light cake that can be served with either tea or coffee.  It's great for a luncheon dessert or for the end to a weekend dinner. 

Cake served on a vintage cake stand.

Matcha Green Tea Cake Roll Recipe

Vintage Wedgwood Queensware, old lustreware dessert plates and antique silverware. 

Matcha powder gives cakes a very nice flavor and an intense color that can't be reproduced with food coloring or artificial flavoring.  This is why it's imperative to use the best matcha powder you can find.  What do I use at my house?  I love an organic matcha green tea made by Mighty Leaf.  Look for it at Whole Foods.

This particular cake roll was filled with a very thin layer of apple jelly and some lightly sweetened whipped cream.  The cake was then gently dusted with both confectioners sugar and some Valrhona cocoa powder right before serving.  

Delicious.

I hope everyone is having an auspicious beginning to their summer.  Happy eats!

Sprinkles Birthday Cake

Cheerful, bright, colorful and immeasurably edible, are just some of the ways to describe a sprinkles birthday cake.  That is exactly the type of cake I baked for a dear neighbor's daughter over the weekend, and I did all of it in a matter of hours.  It's almost a foolproof cake that is bound to appeal to kids and adults alike if you use the best ingredients, and if you cover the cake in Swiss meringue buttercream. 

Sprinkles Birthday Cake

I've seen sprinkles cakes vary in the amount of jimmies used for decorating, from some being completely covered to others being lightly sprinkled.  For this sweet birthday cake, I decided to sprinkle only the bottom third of the double layer cake.  

After baking two 8" round yellow cakes (the 1-2-3-4 cake never disappoints) and letting them cool, I made one batch of Swiss meringue buttercream, and tinted it a very light, electric pink.  

Once that was done, I secured a cardboard cake round in the center of my decorator's turntable and placed the first cake layer right side up.  To this, I spread a small amount of the buttercream on the top of the layer, and then I carefully placed the other 8" round cake layer over that, bottom side up.

The entire cake was given a crumb coat of Swiss meringue buttercream, which was then chilled for about 15 minutes.

It was then a matter of applying the rest of the buttercream to the cake, taking care to even out the sides of the cake.  A bowl of sprinkles, a spoon and my decorator's turntable set over a rimmed baking sheet was all that was needed to finish it.  

I gently spooned the sprinkles around the bottom third of the cake, making sure that they adhered to the icing.  It helps to rotate the cake turntable as you do this.  Any excess sprinkles can be transferred onto the baking sheet.  Voila!

There is nothing like tasty, delicious Swiss meringue buttercream on a cake.  With the addition of the sprinkles, it makes the dessert even better.

Click here for a full tutorial and recipe for Swiss meringue buttercream.

There you have it.  Easy as 1-2-3.  Make a sprinkles cake for a special individual in your life and watch them smile upon taking their first bite.

Happy Baking!