Birthday Cake Club: Matcha Strawberry Cake
Matcha + Strawberry Forever <3
Hi Bakers!
I’m not ready to hard launch into summer flavors quite yet, but this Matcha Strawberry Cake is giving me sunny picnic vibes on a late, lazy spring afternoon. Here we’ve got six soft layers of matcha sponge sandwiched with sweet strawberry jam. Both strawberry and matcha make their way into the buttercream in this stunning celebration cake. Cheers to you, May Birthday Babies!
My local coffee shop is serving up some spring-inspired matcha lattes and I could not pass up the opportunity to try something similar in cake form. The earthy, vegetal taste of matcha pairs perfectly with its sweet strawberry counterpart in this Matcha Strawberry Cake. We first explored this in last summer’s Strawberry Matcha Icebox Cheesecake, and the combo was so good it was worth repeating.
Love Matcha? I bet you’ll want to make these recipes too!
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and I wanted to pay tribute to my roots through some of my recipes over the next few weeks. My grandfather was born on the North Shore of Hawaii with lineage back to the Philippines. While I grew up eating more tropical fruits local to Hawaii, I also enjoy less sweet flavors like matcha, ube, black sesame, and the like.
This Matcha Strawberry Cake is not overly sweet with its earthy matcha layers and silky Swiss meringue buttercream. Being “not too sweet” is often a compliment among Asian desserts, and I think you will find the balance between the punchy jam, soft sponge, and buttery frosting quite lovely.
The cake layers are made using the reverse creaming method. The layers bake up slightly flatter than other mixing methods. The ultra-fine crumb is similar to pound cake, but bouncy not dense. The cake is soft, velvety, and nearly melts together with the strawberry jam.
We haven’t hit strawberry season yet, and baking with anything other than ruby red-to-the-core strawberries will lack significant flavor. Instead this recipe relies on both freeze-dried strawberries and strawberry jam. Using freeze-dried strawberries in the buttercream packs a big punch of flavor that often neither fresh fruit nor jam can bring to the table.
In this recipe, the freeze-dried strawberries get turned into a powder that is then rehydrated to make a paste. Along with some strawberry jam, it gets folded into the silkiest Swiss meringue buttercream to make a frosting that tastes not unlike melted strawberry ice cream.
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.
Baking with Matcha:
Matcha has a vegetal, sometimes grassy taste that lends a nutty, earthy flavor to baked goods. It can sometimes be a bit bitter, but welcoming and similar to the way that bitter dark chocolate is savory and decadent.
Matcha is a shade grown, stone-ground powdered green tea. It is usually available in three grades: ceremonial, premium, and culinary grade.
I typically use premium or a higher-end culinary grade matcha for homemade lattes and desserts. They tend to be better at retaining the vibrant green color after baking.
Less expensive culinary grade matcha can be bitter when baked and may turn brown after an increased time in the oven.
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