At the start of the year, Roman calendar, not Lunar, I was contemplating what my first baking challenge of the year would be. In the back of my mind, the first thing that I thought of was a matcha lemonade. To be clear, I wasn’t trying to create my own matcha lemonade, but I was intrigued by the idea of matcha and lemons. I thought, “Well, if it works in a refreshing beverage, why not a cupcake?” So I made these lemon meringue matcha cupcakes and wow, were they awful. I mean, they failed by all accounts. The cake was bitter and dry, the curd was tart (in a good way, but not so great with the slightly too bitter cake), and to top it off (quite literally), the meringue was just blah. I was so disappointed.
Not wanting to be defeated, I decided that maybe right now wasn’t the right time to experiment with lemons and matcha. I cut myself some slack and turned to the internet for some inspiration and liked the idea of a tried and true combo, matcha and black sesame.
After three failed attempts with my black sesame whipped cream, I found success with huge thanks to the amazing Lisa Lin. She was making a black sesame filling for her Lunar New Year Tan Yuan and had filmed the process for her Instagram stories (follow her @hellolisalin). The moment I saw her story, I immediately went, “OHHHHH!” My mistake was that I wasn’t toasting my black sesame seeds! When the seeds are toasted, the flavors from the seeds are brought out.
You can easily go and buy a jar of black sesame paste (the store will probably call it black tahini) but it’s also SO EASY to make at home. I’ll likely never buy tahini again. To make the paste, check out my post on black sesame paste here.
In the midsts of my tahini debacle, I did get the cake to come out soft, light, and perfectly matcha. Topped off with some black sesame whipped cream, it makes for a perfect afternoon tea companion. Let me know what you think!
Matcha Sponge Cake (Makes 1x 9x13in sheet)
- 90g Cake Flour
- 165g (105g + 60g) Granulated Sugar
- 7g Matcha Powder
- 2g Baking Powder
- 23g (1x) Egg Yolk
- 80g Canola Oil (Vegetable Oil works too)
- 55g Water
- 95g (3x) Egg Whites
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 9x13in pan with parchment paper. Make sure the parchment paper has a bit of overhang over the walls of the pan.
Sift the cake flour, 105 grams of the sugar, matcha powder, and baking powder. Whisk the sifted dry ingredients together then set aside.
Whisk together the egg yolks, canola oil, and water. Heat the mixture over water, creating a double boiler. Remove the mixture from the heat when it reaches 110 degrees F (or until foamy) and then whisk in the dry ingredients until the mixture is smooth. Set flour and yolk mixture aside.
Place the egg whites and remaining 60g of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment to create your meringue. Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and mix until you get soft peaks.
Once you have soft peaks, fold a third of the meringue into your flour and yolk mixture to loosen the batter. Then fold in the rest of the meringue until there are no more streaks.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake on the middle rack for 5-7 minutes or until slightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes before letting it cool completely on a wire rack.
Black Sesame Whipped Cream (Enough to fill 5x 3 layer, rectangular cakes)
- 2 tbsp Black Sesame Paste (check out my black sesame paste recipe!)
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream (straight from the fridge)
- 2 tbsp Granulated Sugar (if using my black sesame paste recipe)*
Place the black sesame paste, heavy whipping cream, and sugar (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Turn on your mixer to medium and whip to soft peaks, about 4-5 minutes. Be careful not to over whip. It will make your whipped cream look broken, still delicious, but not as pretty.
*I like to keep my black sesame paste a little less sweet so that I can adjust the sweetness depending on what I’m making with it. If you’re using store bought black sesame paste, taste it before adding the additional sugar. The sugar can be substituted for any sweetener you prefer.
Assembly
Flatten 5 cupcake liners and then set aside.
Carefully remove the parchment paper from the cooled matcha cake and trim off the edges. Cut the matcha cake into 16 rectangles. Gently rub the top crumb off the cake.
Divide the rectangles into sets of 3, with a total of 5 sets. Obviously, this means you will have an extra; I save the extra piece until I am done assembling the cakes, just in case I mess up a layer.
Place the black sesame whipped cream in a piping bag** with the 848 Ateco tip.
Take a set of 3 and lay them in a row. Pipe a thin layer of whipped cream on top of the first 2 layers of cake. Then, pipe a spiral design on the top layer of the third piece of cake.
Stack the cakes with the pipped spiral as the top layer. Transfer the stacked cake to the prepared cake liner. Repeat with remaining 4 sets.
If you like, you can dust the tops with some matcha powder or sprinkle with a bit of toasted black sesame seeds.
**If you don’t have a piping bag, you can also just spread it on with a butter knife.