Matcha Cake with a Silky Chantilly Cream (High Protein Low Sugar)

The star of the show is the chantilly cream!

I’ve made this sponge cake recipe so many times, and it always comes out light and moist. (No dry sponges please.) This is the first time I tried making chantilly cream. It’s so luxurious, it reminds me of my favourite Japanese pastry shop in New York called Harbs. When it comes to dessert, my favourite will always be french or japanese pastries. Ferrandi, the french culinary school, has a very comprehensive book for french patisserie, which I go back to all the time.

Compared to a traditional french recipe, I lower the amount of butter slightly and bring the sugar content way down. This recipe has 5 eggs, which gives it a higher protein content. The cake itself has only 4 ingredients + a flavouring liquid, which you can replace with flavours besides matcha eg. lemon (zest only to not mess with the acidity of the batter and water content, zest of ½ - 1 lemon in 30g double cream), chocolate (10g cocoa powder in 30g double cream), or coffee (5-10g instant coffee in 30g double cream). This recipe relies on egg whites for volume, instead of baking soda or powder.

Photo by M. Freddy

Ingredients for matcha sponge cake

• 5 large eggs

• 100g butter

• 40g flour

• 40g sugar

• Flavouring (30g double cream, 10g matcha)

Pro tip: a traditional french recipe would include some almond flour for extra flavouring, you can add 5g of almond flour into the flour for this recipe, but I kept the ingredient list simple.

Ingredients for chantilly cream

• 100g whipping cream (I use 70g double cream + 30g whole milk)

• 8g sugar (confectioner’s sugar is ideal but any sugar would work)

• Flavouring (5g vanilla paste, vanilla extract is fine too if you want a boozy finish)

Pro tip: I am confident that you will want to have a large serving of this chantilly cream, just multiply the quantity by 2x, 3x etc. for more.

Recipe for matcha sponge cake

1. Separate egg yolks from egg white

2. Whisk egg whites (with an electric whisk or KitchenAid) until they form a stiff peak when you lift the whisk, add half of the total sugar to stabilize the egg whites towards the end

Pro tip: start the whisk at a medium speed then slowly speed up.

Pro tip: if you add the sugar too early, the egg whites will take on a stretchy texture and your cake will be chewy.

Pro tip: the whisked egg white is doing the heavy-lifting for this cake. Be sure to google images of what a stiff peak looks like or search for a tutorial on Youtube. This is the most important part, if you don’t have whisked egg whites you won’t have a cake!

3. For the flavouring liquid, warm up double cream in a microwave, it should be warm to touch but not scalding hot (try 20 seconds), then stir in the matcha powder

4. Whisk butter, egg yolks, and remaining sugar with an electric whisk until it has fully incorporated, then slowly pour in the warm flavouring liquid while the whisk is on, whisk until fully incorporated

Pro tip: I know bakers love room temperature butter but I just use cold butter sometimes, and the cake comes out fine. I slice cold butter thin so it would whisk more evenly. The warm double cream helps too.

5. Preheat oven at 160 degrees celcius

6. Fold in your whisked egg white slowly into the whisked butter mixture (translation: use a silicone spatula or spoon and mix in slowly by hand, start with small amounts of egg white, take care not to whisk it any further)

7. Fold the flour into your batter

Pro tip: You can sieve in the flour but in most cases sieving only makes a difference when you’re baking at a bakery / restaurant scale, or when you are baking something very delicate like meringues or macarons. Feel free to pour in the flour and fold the batter.

5. To make sure your cake comes out of the cake pan easily (I use a ¼ size stainless steel gastronorm pan), either use a non-stick, line the cake pan with parchment paper, or butter and dust with flour (translation: grab a stick of butter, rub it around the insides of your cake pan, then add some flour to the pan and wobble it so the flour adheres to the buttered surface evenly, if you have a lot of flour left in the pan be sure to pour it out).

Pro tip: the size of your cake pan makes a big difference. Too small and it will take longer to cook, too big and it will end up flat and uninspired. It takes a bit of trial and error to find the ideal size for a recipe.

Pro tip: I butter and dust with flour because I think it’s healthier than the alternatives, but parchment paper is the best if you are a little anxious about demoulding. Just pull the entire paper out of the mold. Easy.

6. Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for ~30 mins at 160 celcius

Pro tip: if your cake pan is on the smaller size and the batter is quite thick, high heat can cause it to expand quickly, form a raised dome in the center, and crack the surface. Some bakers put a flower nail in the center of the cake pan before the batter goes in, with the pointy side up. There are different things you can try as well to make it cook more evenly. For example, a hot water bath (bain-marie) is likely to change the texture of the sponge cake, but you can fill a ramekin with tap water and let it sit a little further away from your cake pan.

Pro tip: I use a cake tester (a very thin metal rod with a handle) to see if the cake is done. You can use a fork, a toothpick, or a chopstick. Anything that doesn’t create a massive gap and affect the appearance of the cake too much. If the cake tester comes out clean, your cake is ready. I also use the cake tester when I’m making larger cuts of meat, so it’s a handy tool I recommend. Some chefs and bakers will use a thermometer for a more precise cook, but this recipe is really quite forgiving.

7. If you lined the cake pan with parchment paper, simply pull it out of the mould and let it cool. You can leave the cake to cool in a non-stick. If you buttered and dusted with flour, be sure to slide a knife around the edges so that the cake does not tear when it cools and contracts. Demoulding is a lot easier once your cake has cooled. This is the perfect time to work on the chantilly cream.

Recipe for chantilly cream

1. One and only step. Pour all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk with an electronic whisk until it has a nice soft peak. That’s it!

Plate, use a sieve to dust a bit of matcha powder on top for a nice presentation, and serve. This recipe took a little longer to write with all the tips, but I hope they help you understand more about the “why”. I’ll make a more advanced strawberry chantilly cake at some point. Stay tuned, be sure to subscribe.

As always, happy cooking 🍖