Usually when our group of food loving friends decide to throw a food themed party, I would let The Boy come up with the dish of what he wants to make, watch him have a kitchen disaster, assist in taking over and then presenting the dish at the end of the day. Usually it works and we are happy with the end result (or I am at the very least, The Boy sets very high standards for himself and most often doesn’t meet them).
However, this means that on the lists of who’s cooking what, it always reads this sentence, “something crazy“. Our friends know that we never bring what we promise at the beginning and/or that we bring what we say we are but it turns out to be completely different (case in point Salmon Rillettes).
When Thanh decided to throw a Matcha (Green Tea for the uninitiated) Party at Michele’s house, The Boy’s mind went into over-drive. I knew this meant disaster for me as he doesn’t bake and has not entered into this foray as willingly as I have. He just can’t as he refuses to follow baking instructions and makes it up as he goes, which just doesn’t work when it comes to baking.
After a very busy and long week at work, a late night before the day of the Matcha party, I had given up on The Boy’s plan (he had given up the previous week to come up with an idea and told me that it was all up to me!). So I went to bed and told the guys that we’ll be bringing simple matcha brownies. But…
…as I was preparing to go to bed, I looked up my instagram feed just in time to see that Daisy had also changed her mind about what she was bringing to the party. She announced that she would be bringing Matcha Brownies!! Oh, to seven hells of damnation. I couldn’t bring the same dessert now!
With that in mind, I woke up early the next morning (7am for a Saturday planned sleep in is way too early) and started banging around the kitchen.
I woke up feeling positive (and re-energised). I couldn’t let the team down! I had to bring something spectacular. I knew what I had to do but I’d never done it before. Feeling as if I was put to a pressure test on Masterchef and with only 3 and a bit hours before the party was to start at 12pm, I commenced on Operation Matcha Opera Gateau.
There are several recipes out there to make a Matcha Gateau or a Matcha Layered Cake. However, as I couldn’t find the perfect combination in which I wanted to present, I decided to compromise and combine several different recipes together.
The layers I had to make were:
- Matcha and Pistachio Feuilletine
- Matcha Mousse
- White Chocolate Buttercream
- Matcha Sponge
- Matcha Ganache
For the purpose of the step-by-step process of making this cake, I will start with the layers I did chronologically rather than from base to top layer.
Matcha Opera Gateau (Green Tea Layer Cake) Recipe
Ingredients
For the Matcha Mousse:
- 7.5 grams Powdered Gelatin
- 30 grams Cold Water
- 50 grams Sugar
- 5 grams Matcha Powder
- 165 ml of Milk
- 115 ml of Full Cream
For the Matcha Sponge:
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 3 Egg Whites
- 50 gram Sugar (split into 25 grams)
- 70 grams Plain Flour
- 10 grams Matcha Powder
- 40 grams of Grape Seed Oil (or melted butter)
For the Matcha and Pistachio Feuilletine:
- 80 grams White Chocolate
- 20 grams Roasted Pistachios
- 15 grams Butter (softened)
- 50 grams (about half a cup) of Paillete Feuilletine
- 5 grams Fleur de Sel
For the White Chocolate Buttercream:
- 115 grams White Chocolate
- 40 grams Full Cream
- 70 grams Butter (softened)
- 120 grams Powdered Sugar (Icing Sugar)
For the Matcha Ganache:
- 115 grams White Chocolate (chopped finely)
- 100 grams Full Cream
- 10 grams Matcha Powder
Instructions
For the Matcha Mousse:
- Start by making the Matcha Mousse as it requires time to set.
- Sprinkle the powdered gelatin over the cold water and set aside.
- Place the matcha powder and sugar in a medium size bowl. In a heavy base saucepan, bring the milk to the boil. Remove from heat. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the matcha and sugar mixture.
- Heat the gelatin in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds and stir into the matcha-milk mixture.
- In another bowl, beat the full cream to soft peaks. Fold into the matcha-milk mixture and set aside. You can also speed the process up by placing the Matcha Mousse mixture into the refrigerator.
For the Matcha Sponge:
- Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius (210 degrees celsius if fan forced). Grease a square cake pan (I used an 8" x 8" inch pan) and line with baking paper.
- In a bowl, mix plain flour with matcha powder.
- Beat the egg whites with half the sugar (25grams) until stiff peaks are formed.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until it turns thick and pale. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white.
- Fold in the flour-matcha mixture and grape seed oil to the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove matcha sponge from cake pan and set aside to cool.
For the Matcha & Pistachio Feuilletine:
- In a hot pan, toast the pistachios until fragrant. Take care to keep tossing the nuts to keep them from burning. Remove and let cool. Once cooled, ground the nuts into powder form. I used a spice grinder for this.
- In a double boiler, melt the butter, white chocolate and matcha powder while mixing until smooth. Remove from heat and fold in the paillete feuilletine, fleur de sel and pistachio powder. Set aside to cool.
For the White Chocolate Buttercream:
- In a medium saucepan, melt the white chocolate and full cream until a smooth consistency is formed. Add in butter and powdered sugar. Whisk all ingredients together to form a paste-like texture. Set aside.
For the Matcha Ganache:
- Place together the white chocolate and matcha powder into a bowl. Heat the full cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over the hot cream into the chocolate mix, stirring consistently until all the chocolate has melted. Set the glossy mixture aside.
To Assemble:
- Line the same square pan (from the matcha sponge) with plastic wrap.
- Press the pistachio feuilletine into the bottom of the pan, making sure that it is spread evenly. Use the bottom of a spoon to do this.
- Pour the matcha mousse mixture on top of the feuilletine and refrigerate until set. As I was working to a tight time limit, I popped mine into the freezer for about 30 minutes.
- Spread an even layer of the white chocolate buttercream onto the set mousse gently.
- Place the matcha sponge over the white chocolate buttercream layer. Cover the top of the cake with more plastic wrap and refrigerate for another 30 minutes to set.
- To remove the cake from the cake pan, we flipped the cake onto a chopping board (to remove the bottom plastic wrap) before flipping it onto the slate where we trimmed the sides of the cake.
- Spread the matcha ganache layer over the top of the cake evenly. As I only wanted the glaze to be on the top, this meant that I had to be extra careful. (Unfortunately, during the car ride to Michele's house, this meant the glaze spilled a bit over the sides.)
- Decorate as you wish. I used dehydrated strawberries and crushed them to a fine powder before sprinkling at the corner of the cake. Topped with fresh edible flowers from the garden, the cake is ready to be served.
Notes
What do you think? I was rather impressed how quickly I did this and managed to bring it in time to the party! Not to mention it was my first time attempting a layer cake like this.
Would I make this again? I sure would! I made this style of cake the very next day with different flavours. Using the same ideas, the possibilities are endless!
Hope you enjoy this cake!
This is amazing!! Can’t believe you made an ube one the next day. You’ve got too much patience.. but it does pay off it seems!! just wow!
Hahah.. I’ve lost my mind!
Hello, may I know if the matcha ganache requires 100g of full cream or 100ml of full cream? Cause I’m really confused if you are using grams or ml, thank you.
How divine!! You’ve almost inspired me to try to make my own … I just need an event to share it at now.
Any excuse is a good excuse to make this!
Well I think you did a pretty damn good job!!!! Layers look pretty and I’m sure taste amazing too – can’t tell it’s your first time! Just wish I was there to nom it. 😛
Looked like you did a good job yesterday~
can’t believe you concocted this in 3 hours! R.E.S.P.E.C.T!!!
and pweetty pweetty pwease, can i partake in the next sweet meet!
I can’t believe it too! And sure, I wasn’t hosting or planned this one so couldn’t have a say to the guests list 🙂
3 hours to make such a work of art? I agree w jo, Respect indeed!
Okay I get it. Next time I make it for the both of you!
I’m officially very impressed indeed! So awesome, so tasty and so pretty indeed! I bet everyone was blown away by your amazing offering 🙂
I was so stressed.. hahah glad they liked it
Hehe, opera cake not that hard to make, right, right!? Just don’t follow the crazy recipe Masterchef has for the jaconde / coffee version. I’m gonna try this matcha version soon <3
I do want to make the jaconde version though.. looks fun!
I love you so much I can’t breathe.
I am not very good at CPR so you better breathe honey!
Wow what a spectacular dessert, and so precisely constructed too!
Thanks Helen! It was a stressful cake at the time.
You are really amazing don’t know how you managed to all this in only 3.5 hours!! I just had a look at all the ingredients and the steps… I think i’m going to have to make this a 3 layer cake and then once i’ve nailed the first 3 layers i’ll move onto 5 and then finally 7 hahaha
Sorry for stealing your Matcha Brownie idea 😛 and thanks for blogging this recipe so soon! Super excited about trying!
Which layers would you make if it was 3? Make sure the flavours are balanced 🙂
i may have gone to matcha heaven just reading this! ive been waiting for the longest itme for this recipe! thank you for being so generous and sharing it with us!
Hahah, you are welcome 🙂
Looks amazing I-Hua!, I gotta try baking with matcha sometime soon…
Thanks Sam! I’ve got another one in my head all planned out with slightly different layers!
Cool, let me know when you make it!
Will do 🙂
I’ve had an opera gateau but not with matcha! OMG you’re genius!
Aww thank you!
This is amazing 🙂 It’s perfect and totally restaurant quality!
Lol.. wow I don’t know about that!
Crazy girl. You did exceptionally well though!
WUHOO!O!O!OO!OO!!!!
This looks fantastic! Great recipe and photography too! I was going to try and make it today, just wasn’t sure about 75 grams of gelatin? Should this be 7 grams maybe?
Hahahah! Oops! It’s meant to be 7.5 grams. SORRY!
Haha! No worries! I’m half way through already, used 6 grams of gelatin, hope it’s going to be enough =)
Hello! Your creation looks fantastic! I gave the ‘spongecake’ two tries seeing as the first was tough and a bit on the flatside and the second attempt rendered a bit more height but it was still tough nonetheless 🙁 I followed the instructions exactly as written and weighed accordingly. I baked 10minutes at the said time and temperature as well. Have you any clue why my spongecake was so tough and somewhat dry?
Hmm would it be because of the egg whites? It is a denser type of sponge, not super fluffy, so you may have got it right!
Where would I be able to find Paillette Feuilletine and fleur de sel in Melbourne? 🙂 or any substitution for them?
Hi ,
What size tin is this cake? Also, can I substitue fleur del sel with normal table salt instead as we cannot buy that from Singapore.
Please advise.
Thanks
Florence
Hi, what size of cake tin does this recipe make?
Hi, this looks amazing! Wondering if any, and which parts, could potentially be made ahead of time?