Matcha Cake Parfait

Here is a festive matcha cake parfait, isn’t the color beautiful? The bright green color with fresh berries makes a perfect spring or summer dessert. The recipe is quite simple, you bake an easy matcha sponge cake, and then assemble the ingredients. This is my kind of dessert, the taste is great and it looks fabulous. If you are a matcha lover like me, this is sure to be one of your favorite matcha desserts!

Matcha Cake Parfait

(serves 8)

·      3 eggs

·      ⅓ cup (80ml) of granulated sugar

·      ½cup (120ml) of cake flour

·      1 tablespoon of matcha powder

·      2 tablespoons of milk

·      1 tablespoon of melted unsalted butter

·      1 to 2 cups of sweetened whipped cream

·      your favorite berries: strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries

·      rum syrup (¼cup of water and  ¼cup of sugar, heat the ingredients until the sugar is fully dissolved then remove from the heat. Add 1 tablespoon of white rum to the hot mixture.)

1.     Preheat oven to 390F.

2.     Line 8x8 baking pan (brownie pan) with parchment paper.

3.     Beat eggs and granulated sugar in a large bowl until they are thick and heavy.

4.     Sift matcha powder and cake flour into the egg batter, and use a spatula to fold quickly together until no dry flour remains on the surface (do not over mix).

5.     Add milk and melted butter into the batter mix then fold them until smooth (don’t over mix).

6.     Pour the batter mix into the baking pan, and smooth out the surface. To compress the mixture lift then drop the pan flat onto the counter top from about 5 inches high to help remove the extra air from the batter.

7.     Bake for 15 minutes or until the toothpick test shows your cake is done. (Insert a wooden toothpick near the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.)

8.     Remove the cake from the oven, and again raise then drop backing pan from the height of 5 inches above the counter top. Remove the cake from the pan and cool it down on the rack. Cut the cake into 8 pieces. Wash and cut berries to your desired size, prepare sweetened whipped cream and rum syrup.

9.     In your favorite glass or serving bowl, put half of a piece of cake on the bottom then glaze the cake with the rum syrup. Next add some berries and cover with whipped cream. Repeat for a multi-layered parfait. Lightly cover the filled serving bowl with a sheet of cling wrap, and let it rest in the fridge for some time (from 1 hour to overnight).

10.  Garnish with matcha powder on the top and serve.

Tokyo Style Sakura Mochi

Sakura mochi is a delicately flavored treat we enjoy during the cherry blossom season in the early spring. Tokyo style sakura mochi is bean paste wrapped in a rice dough crepe which is lightly colored with a hint of pink to mimic the cherry blossom’s color then wrapped in a “preserved” cherry leaf.

The cherry blossom’s pink color is beautiful and the fragrance of the leaf is lovely. This combination is what makes this treat so appealing and nostalgic.

We cherish celebration the seasons in Japan and we always express this in our Japanese cuisine, like we do here with sakura mochi.

Tokyo Style Sakura Mochi

·      ½ cup of cake flour

·      1 tablespoon of sugar

·      1 teaspoon of rice flour (Shiratamako)

·      ½ cup of water

·      10 tablespoons of bean paste

·      10 preserved cherry leaves

·      a hint of red food color

·      vegetable oil

1.     Soak preserved cherry leaves in water for 10 minutes to remove the extra salt, then pat them dry.

2.     Form bean paste, make 10 small balls (1 tablespoon each). If the bean paste is too runny you may need to evaporate the excess liquid in a pot on the stove over low heat. You will need to cool it down at least to room temperature before you work with it.

3.     In a bowl, sift cake flour, sugar, and rice flour together. Add the water then mix well. Strain the mixture to make it smoother.

4.     Add a hint of red food color to make it slightly a pink color, like the cherry blossoms.

5.     On a non-stick pan with just a drop of vegetable oil spread around with a paper towel, pour 1 tablespoon of batter then shape it with a ladle or tablespoon into an oval shape. Cool the mochi crepe until the top surface looks dry then flip it over and cook for another minute. Remove and cool on a rack.

6.     Put the bean paste ball on top of the cooked mochi crepe then roll it in the crepe. Wrap the sakura mochi with the cherry leaf.

7.     You can enjoy the sakura mochi with the leaf or without.

Green Peas Rice with Cherry Blossoms

Green peas are a classic culinary symbol for spring, and cherry blossoms are the classic symbol for spring in Japan. I am introducing a lovely rice dish that combines them both in a visually appealing and subtly flavored spring celebration. The color is amazingly beautiful and the fragrance of the cherry blossoms makes my heart sing.

In this recipe I have added salted cherry blossoms to green peas rice. The salted cherry blossoms I use are homemade. Every year, I try to collect and make the salted cherry blossoms. The life of a cherry blossom tends to be very short so we collect and pickle the flowers to be used for various Japanese desserts and dishes throughout the rest of the season.

Green Peas Rice with Cherry Blossoms

·      3 cups of rice

·      ½ lb (220g) of green peas (preferably fresh peas, but frozen is fine too)

·      540ml of water

·      1 teaspoon of salt

·      1 tablespoon of sake

·      5 to 6cm length of dry konbu seaweed

·      optional: 3 tablespoons of salted cherry blossoms, rinsed to remove salt

1.     Rinse the rice until the water is not cloudy, drain well.

2.      In a pot, put the rice and water, and soak for 20 to 30 minutes.

3.     Add salt and sake then mix well. Add kombu, green peas, and cherry blossoms on top of the rice.

4.     Put the lid on the pot and cook for over high heat. Once it starts boiling, lower the heat and cook for 13 to 15 minutes.

5.     Turn off the heat and steam for 10 to 15 minutes then mix well and serve.