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Matcha Mousse Cakes

There is a Japanese tea house in Munich. The tea house is a gift from a tea school in Kyoto as a sign of friendship on the occasion of the Olympic Games which took place in Munich in 1972. Occasionally this tea house offers tea ceremonies and more than a decade ago - while I was still a teenager - I attended a tea ceremony at this tea house. I was mesmerized by this experience and it was the first time that I encountered matcha tea. I had a koicha  -  it is a very thick matcha tea and served only during tea ceremonies - accompanied with a Japanese sweet snack. It was delicious and this was the moment when my love affair started with matcha. A decade ago matcha was an exotic tea and it was not that easy to get hold of good matcha powder. This has changed completely today and matcha became such a trend, "superfood" (such a strange word) and the other day I even saw matcha powder in a drugstore. I am not sure what to think of this hype and I wonder how tea farmers cope with the growing demand of matcha tea. Even though green tea becomes more popular green tea flavoured sweets and cakes are a rarity, at least in my part of the world. I remember when I travelled to China, it was my first trip to an Asian country, and green tea flavoured sweets, ice cream or cake was very popular and I was very pleased about this as a tea lover. Until today, whenever I receive Matcha flavoured sweets or tea in general, it is very special to me. When I lived in Korea and every time I am travelling to Asia I always choose green tea flavoured sweets as a snack or dessert.
On my last visit to Seoul I ate a matcha cake which consisted of a matcha mousse, a milk chocolate mousse core and a matcha sponge cake bottom, It was an incredible delicious cake and I could not stop thinking about this green tea cake. I had to recreate this matcha mousse cake myself. My first attempts were miserable. This is probably an exaggeration because the cakes tasted good but they did not taste as this particular cake I had in Korea. I wanted to have a very creamy mousse texture but my cakes were not as creamy as the cake I had in Seoul. One day I decided to make a mousse without eggs and that was the aha moment. Et voilà that was the green tea cake that tasted almost as good as the cake I ate in Korea. I got a little bit obsessed with this matcha mousse cake and I ate the cake five days in a row. Today is the first day that I won't eat this matcha cake, because I do not have any cakes left in the freezer, which is probably better for my waistline but I do crave this cake right now. Although there is a lot of heavy cream involved the cake does not feel heavy but have a light texture. I also do not use a lot of milk chocolate in baking because I often find milk chocolate too sweet but in the combination of matcha it is the perfect match. The slightly herb taste of the matcha tea provides the balance to the sweet milk chocolate mousse. I hope you enjoy these matcha mousse cake as much as I am loving these cakes.
NOTE: There is a a very big price (and taste) difference between different matcha powders. For baking do not use matcha powder that is used for tea ceremonies; it is often called ceremonial matcha powder. There is matcha powder which is intended for baking and cooking. It does not mean that the quality of culinary matcha is necessarily lower (though it is cheaper) but the powder is prepared differently.
Makes 10 cakes (6 cm / 2.4 inches in diameter; 4,5 cm / 1.8 inches in height)

Milk Chocolate Core

    • 25 ml / 2 tablespoons heavy cream
    • 5 g / 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
    • 30 g / 1 ounce milk chocolate, finely chopped
    • 55 ml / 4 tablespoons heavy cream
    • 1/2 (0.75 g) sheet gelatin, soaked
  • Place heavy cream and sugar in a small pot and bring it almost to a boil. Set aside and add the finely chopped white chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Add the soaked gelatin and stir again until the gelatin is completely dissolved. 
  • Pour the chocolate mixture into a medium sized bowl and let it cool to room temperature. In the meantime whip the heavy cream until creamy. Fold in the whipped cream to the chocolate mixture. Pour the chocolate mixture into small moulds (height: 2,5 cm / 1 inch, 2, 5 cm / inch in diameter). Freeze the moulds for at least 1 1/2 hours. 

Matcha Sponge Cake

    • 2 eggs (medium size)
    • 45 g / 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
    • 25 g / 3 tablespoons almond flour
    • 20 g / 3 tablespoons pastry flour, sifted
    • 1/2 teaspoon matcha powder, sifted
    • 1 pinch of salt
  • Preheat the oven to 190 °C / 375 °F. 
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
  • Separate 1 egg. 
  • Whisk one egg, egg yolk and 25 g / 2 tablespoons sugar until fluffy (it takes about 3 to 4 minutes). 
  • Mix almond flour, pastry flour and matcha powder in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. 
  • Whisk the egg white and a pinch of salt until almost stiff. Add little by little the remaining sugar (20 g / 2 tablespoons) and whisk until stiff. 
  • Fold in the beaten egg white into the mixture. 
  • Spread the batter onto the baking sheet (30 cm x 20 cm / 12 inches x 8 inches).
  • Bake the sponge cake for 5 to 7 minutes or until light golden brown in color. 
  • Let the sponge cake cool completely. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter (the size depends on the size of your cake moulds; I cut out 6 cm / 2.4 inches in diameter circles).

Matcha Mousse

    • 150 ml / 2/3 cup heavy cream
    • 10 g / 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
    • 200 g / 7 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
    • 3 (4,5 g) sheets gelatin, soaked
    • 12 g / 3 teaspoons cooking / baking matcha powder, sifted
    • 350 ml / 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • Place heavy cream and granulated sugar into a medium sized pot. Bring the mixture almost to a boil and set aside. Add the finely chopped chocolate to the mixture and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Add the soaked gelatin and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Mix the matcha powder with  two to three tablespoons lukewarm water until smooth. Add the matcha paste to the chocolate mixture and mix well. 
  • Pour the chocolate mixture through a sieve to a medium sized bowl and let it cool for a bit. In the meantime whip the heavy cream until creamy. Fold the heavy cream into the matcha chocolate mixture. 

Milk Chocolate Ganache

    • 15 ml / 1 tablespoon heavy cream
    • 30 g / 1 ounce milk chocolate, finely chopped
  • Bring the heavy cream almost to a boil. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until the chocolate is melted. Pour the ganache into a small bowl. 

Assembling

  • Prepare a board or a flat plate with parchment paper and place the cake rings onto the plate. 
  • Place a matcha sponge cake disc into each cake mould and add a dollop of ganache on the middle of each sponge cake disc. 
  • Fill each cake ring two third full with the matcha mousse. Unmould the frozen chocolate cores and gently press the frozen chocolate mousse core into the matcha mousse. Fill up the moulds with the remaining matcha mousse. Freeze the mousse cakes for at least 4 hours.
  • Dip the cake rings for a few seconds in hot water in order to unmold the frozen mousse cakes. Place the mousse cakes on cake boards and decorate each cake with a strawberry or any other fruit to your liking. Defrost the cake at room temperature which takes about an hour. Or you can defrost the cakes in the fridge as well; keep defrosted cakes in the fridge until you consume the mousse cakes.