Matcha Chiffon with Chocolate Frosting

DH requested for a matcha (green tea) cake for his birthday but the kids wanted a chocolate cake.  So, I did a matcha chiffon cake with chocolate frosting and this was what I came up with.  I had originally wanted to do a chocolate ganache to cover the whole cake but I didn't prepare enough ganache and ended up with just a simple heart-shape ganache in the centre.

After so many frosting attempts, my frosting skills didn't seem to improve.  I had wanted to do a comb-effect to cover up the flaws but I couldn't find my comb scaper :-(

I used a heart-shape cookie cutter and placed it in the middle of the cake, then poured in chocolate ganache and sent it to the fridge.  When I tried to remove the cutter, the edges of the chocolate got disfigured and I had to cover up the mess with cream collon.  DD1 commented the cake looks better without cream colon and there's no reason to disagree with her.

I used a 3 eggs recipe instead of 4 eggs (as it's way too much for our family) and reduced matcha significantly as my kids don't fancy matcha cakes.  They do eat but wouldn't go for second helping.

As the cake was shorter than the usual cake, it was difficult to slice and I couldn't get even layers.  I should have sliced it into 2 layers instead of 3.

I can never apportion my cream correctly.  I was worried I may not have enough cream to cover the whole cake so I used it sparingly and ended up with some extras.  The same goes to the chocolate ganache.  Trying not to waste the ingredients, I baked a swiss roll to finish up the whipped cream and chocolate gananche.  I should have sliced the cake immediately after rolling it up as the skin was still intact but after chilling it in the fridge, the skin got stucked onto the parchment paper.  Argh!!

We had our cake cutting over at my inlaws and the cake was instantly wiped out!  Each child had 2 slices and my niece went for a 3rd helping.  In fact, she was eyeing the last piece (her 4th slice) but was stopped by my sister-in-law.

Matcha Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

(A)
3 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
pinch of salt

(B)
30ml corn oil
75ml warm water
1.5 tsp matcha (green tea powder)

(C)
75g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
*sifted

(D)
3 egg whites
1/3 tsp cream of tartar
20g castor sugar

Method

1. Cream ingredients (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredients (B) in the respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
3. Sieve in ingredients (C) and mix till no lumps.
4. Beat egg whites with electric beater till frothy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Egg white should be beaten till stiff peaks are formed.
5. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
6. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into a 8" round pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
8. Bake at pre-heated oven of 170 deg.C for 10mins.
9. Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for another 20 - 25 mins.
10. Reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for a further 10 to 15mins to brown the surface.
11. Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.
12. Layer into 3 layers and set aside for further use.