Matcha Chiffon Cake is soft sponge cake flavored with Matcha green tea powder. This light and fluffy and not overly sweet cake is great by itself, but it also goes very well with sweet whipped cream and berries, like we made here. Matcha Chiffon Cake is perfect for afternoon tea time, and it is also a very nice light dessert after a full dinner.
Matcha is a kind of green tea that is in a powdered form, traditionally used for the Japanese tea ceremony, and it is different from regular green tea leaves. Matcha tastes rather strong and bitter by itself, but its refreshing flavor goes very well with dairy and sugar. It is an excellent complement to baked goods especially, leaving no bitterness but a nice fragrance. Matcha has become a common flavor for many drinks and desserts in the US too, such as Matcha Ice Cream and Matcha Latte that you may have seen before. The recent Matcha craze is spreading sparks to all over the world and all kinds of food. Matcha Chiffon Cake is no exception.
Chiffon cake was created by an American baker in early 20th century. This cake that is silky soft but with some elasticity became popular in the US, and it was eventually imported into Japan in the 1980s. Chiffon cake established its popularity in Japan over the years, and now is loved by cake shops and home bakers. Some Japanese people may even think that Chiffon cake is Japanese cake. There are a lot of cake shops that sell Chiffon cake by the slice, but also supermarkets and convenience stores carry various flavored Chiffon cakes today.
Chiffon cake rises in the oven mainly due to whipped meringue, but adding baking powder ensures its rising. Therefore, you may say that it is easier for less experienced bakers to make this come out well than with regular Japanese sponge cake. That said, we are still talking about baking a cake from scratch. Read the whole recipe before starting, measure all the ingredients before hand, and please, turn on the oven first of all! Preparing well is the key to success in baking. It can take some practice to get the texture of the meringue and batter right, so watch our video to see how it should look. After it’s baked, the cake needs to be cooled upside down so that it doesn’t deflate and sink. When using a ring-shaped chiffon cake pan, you can cool the pan on a wine bottle by turning the pan upside down and sliding the neck of the bottle through the ring so that that the pan rests on the body of the bottle. Then you can leave the pan on the bottle until it has cooled completely.
Once the cake is done, the fun starts. Decorate the whole thing with icing or simply sprinkle powdered sugar, or do whatever strikes your fancy. Add seasonal fruits, drizzle chocolate sauce, etc. Hope you like this wonderfully fluffy cake with a Matcha twist!
Matcha Chiffon Cake
*Links may contain ad. #CommissionsEarned
Equipment
- 1 chiffon (angel food) cake pan 7" (18 cm)
Ingredients
- 3 oz cake flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Matcha powder
- 3 eggs
- 3.5 oz sugar divided
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350F (175 C). Sift cake flour, baking powder, and Matcha powder together. Separate eggs into whites and yolks.
- In a medium bowl, combine the yolks, half of the sugar, the oil, and the water, and mix with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes. Then add the flour mixture and mix for 2 minutes.
- In another bowl, whip the egg whites. Add the rest of the sugar in two parts, and whip until stiff peaks form in the meringue.
- Add a mound of the meringue to the yolk mixture and mix well. Fold half of the meringue in the batter and gently mix, taking care not to deflate the foam. Add the rest of the meringue and do the same. Pour the batter into a chiffon cake pan.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until done. Test with a toothpick – insert the toothpick in the cake and pull it out. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.
- Cool the cake upside down. Hang the middle part of the pan on a wine bottle or something similar. Cool completely. Remove the pan from the bottle. Insert a petite knife or metal spatula in-between cake and pan, and unmold the cake.
- Decorate the cake with whipped cream and berries, or with sprinkled powdered sugar, or as you like.
Video
