Birthday Cake Club: Mango Matcha Cake

Yes, this cake tastes as good as it sounds!

Hi Bakers!

Here’s a cake for you: the fluffiest sour cream white cake, creamy mango curd, and silky matcha buttercream with hints of lemon. This is April’s Birthday Cake Club creation and I hope you just absolutely love it!

Spring is fickle here in the Pacific Northwest. There are glimpses of sun, followed by long weeks of rain all the way through June. On a rainy spring afternoon, not too unlike today, I took the girls to a local coffee shop. We snacked on cold green tea soba noodles with a citrus dressing that somehow found a way to brighten up a stretch of wet, grey days. 

I took inspiration from those flavors to create this sweet combination. We’ve worked with matcha here before - its earthy sweetness and nutty undertones coming through after baking.

Today, the finely ground green tea powder heads into buttercream. It is as subtle or strong as you want it to be and offset with a burst of lemon juice that is delightful and unique. Matcha has a unique and slightly bitter, vegetal taste. When sweetened and mixed with milk in a latte, it is smooth and creamy. This buttercream tastes of the latter.

The intriguing flavors paired with stellar textures from the tender cake, luscious curd, and smooth and silk frosting make this cake completely amazing as a whole. 

The Cake Layers

White Almond Sour Cream cake (or WASC) is a popular doctored cake mix recipe. And while all of the cakes here are made from scratch, I see why boosting an otherwise plain white cake with sour cream works.

Leaving out the egg yolks in a white cake means losing some of the fat. The use of sour cream, a baking workhorse, adds back in a bit of fat plus acidity to make the layers tender and moist. 

The cake recipe is based on a formula I use often for when I want a really moist cake. Using both butter and oil together make the layers fluffy while remaining soft at both room temperature and from the fridge (for when using with a filling that needs to be chilled, like curd).

Mango Curd

For the curd, I prefer Ataulfo, or honey, mangoes. This yellow variety has a thinner skin that easily peels off the flesh when ripe. They are found in crates or stacked high in pyramids at most grocery stores in the spring/early summer months around here.

Use any variety that is available to you, so long as the mangoes are ripe and sweet. If you want to use pureed mango instead of blending it yourself, then that is fine too.

Baking with Matcha

Matcha is a shade grown, stone-ground powdered green tea. It is usually available in three grades: ceremonial, premium, and culinary grade. 

Since the matcha is in the buttercream and not baked, I recommend reaching for a premium or a higher-end culinary grade matcha - similar to what you would use for homemade lattes.