Matcha Sakura Petits Fours

The Art.

    One of my favorite things about my visit to Japan last fall was all the pastries. When I discovered that the entire ground floor of Daimaru department store was devoted to desserts, I almost refused to come back the US. This spring, I was reminiscing about our trip and thinking about how wonderful it would be to go back during sakura season. I decided to make little Japanese-inspired springtime petits fours to tide me over until I can visit again. Since I ran into matcha flavored EVERYTHING while we were there, I started out with matcha flavored cake and icing. I also discovered this amazing sakura blossom paste that is absolutely to die for, so I used that as the filling in the petits fours. Topping the cakes off with pink blossoms brings together the sakura blossom theme!

The Science.

    Matcha is a bright green tea that is made by shading tea plants before they are harvested. This causes the leaves to produce more green chlorophyll, so they can make more energy from the little sunlight they get. This method produces tea with a strong, distinctive flavor. One of the things I noticed while I was testing recipes was the difference in color and flavor between different matcha powders. I researched this a little bit, and came across an amazing thing I didn't know about: there are electronic intelligent instruments called the E-nose and E-tongue that detect odors and flavors! These instruments have "diverse sensors generating different signature phenomena to fully exploit the characteristics of test samples," and are paired with sophisticated computer algorithms to predict what a person would taste and smell from the tea [1]. In plain English, the E-nose and E-tongue can "smell" and "taste" the way humans do. Many food scientists have quantified the compounds that give matcha its distinct flavor by mass spectrometry [2,3], and the E-nose and E-tongue use this information to generate a flavor profile from the tea and give it a grade classification. This technology, in addition to being really cool, is used to eliminate the variation between human tasters and the influence of their taste preferences on the tea's classification. I just can't get over the fact that there are tea-tasting robots! Do they have tea parties?

The Recipe.

Matcha cake:
3 egg whites, divided
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5 grams matcha powder 
1/3 cup salted butter 
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk
Sakura paste (filling)

    Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9x13 inch baking pan with baking spray, and line with parchment paper. Beat 2 egg whites and 1/4 cup sugar together on high speed until stiff peaks form. Set aside. Beat together butter, sugar, vanilla, and remaining egg white. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and matcha. Alternately add one third of the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, beating between each addition just until combined. Fold in beaten egg whites with a spatula. Spoon batter into pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake on center rack for 15 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.

Matcha poured fondant:
4oz Ghirardelli white bar chocolate 
5 grams matcha powder
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

   Heat chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl in 30-second bursts, stirring inbetween, until melted.  Add matcha. Stir in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, adding small amounts of water at intervals. Stir in corn syrup. Icing will be very thick. If desired, tint the icing a brighter green with gel icing colors.

Assembly:
    To make pretty petits fours, you must be very accurate while cutting your cake. First, level the top of the cake with either a cake leveler or a long serrated blade. Next, get out your ruler and cut your cake straight down the middle to create two 9x7.5 inch pieces.  Spread a thin layer of sakura paste on one side and top it with the second cake layer. Get your ruler out again, and cut your cake into one-inch strips. Carefully score the top of your cake strips into one-inch squares with your serrated knife, then very gently cut your petits fours with a slow sawing motion.
    To ice the petits fours, balance one cake on a fork over the bowl of poured fondant. Spoon fondant over the cake and then allow to dry on a wire rack. You may want to coat the petits fours once more to give them a nice smooth finish. Before the second layer dries, top with pink gum paste blossoms. Either pipe some icing into the flower center or add edible pearls to complete your cherry blossoms.
    Store petits fours in the fridge for up to one week, or freeze if storing longer.

References:

1. Zhi, R et al. "A Framework for the Multi-Level Fusion of Electronic Nose and Electronic Tongue for Tea Quality Assessment." Sensors (Basel). 2017 May 3;17(5). pii: E1007. doi: 10.3390/s17051007.

2. Wang, L.F. et al. "The Compounds Contributing to the Greenness of Green Tea." Journal of Food Science, 69: S301–S305. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.tb09894.x

3. Lee, Lan-Sook et al. "Metabolomic Analysis of the Effect of Shade Treatment on the Nutritional and Sensory Qualities of Green Tea." J. Agric. Food Chem., 2013, 61 (2), pp 332–338

DOI: 10.1021/jf304161y

Chocolate Strawberry Mint Cake

The Art.

    One of the first plants I grew as a kid were little strawberries planted outside my bedroom window. My favorite thing about strawberries is how pretty the vines are, so I made a beautiful cake covered in strawberry vines and flowers. This is the first time I've used my gum paste flower set and I would highly recommend it. The small and medium flower cutters are the perfect size for strawberry blooms, and painting them ever so slightly pink with food color gives them dimension. Hiding under the buttercream and mint leaves are two layers of dark chocolate cake separated by more fresh strawberries. I have to admit, I usually I wouldn't combine so many flavors, but in this case they blend together perfectly for a fresh, spring cake!

The Science.

    One of the things that surprised me about this cake is that everyone assumed the icing was mint flavored. I had only intended to use the mint leaves as an edible decoration, and it didn't occur to me that they would have so much impact on the flavor. I think the real reason for this is that I accidentally extracted the essential oils of the mint into the icing. Most of you probably remember from high school chemistry that fats and oils are "hydrophobic," or water-hating. And also the rule that "like dissolves like," meaning that if you want to dissolve something hydrophobic, you use another hydrophobic solvent. These principles are what lead to the happy accident that is the faux mint buttercream. The fats in the butter and shortening in the icing dissolved the flavorful oils from the mint leaves, enhancing the flavor of the icing with a fresh, mint flavor. This has inspired me to try to incorporate fresh mint into my icing in the future, hopefully with the same wonderful results!

The Recipe.

    The recipes for chocolate cake and buttercream icing can be found here and here. This cake was made using two 6x3-inch pans. Spread buttercream on the bottom cake layer and arrange with fresh strawberries, then top with the second layer. 

    I dyed most of the remaining icing light blue using Wilton Icing Colors Teal, and a small amount with Kelly Green. After smoothing the cake with blue icing, use a small round decorating tip to pipe the vines. Adorn the cake with mint leaves, gum paste flowers, and halved strawberries. If your strawberries have nice leaves, you may keep them on. Mine did not, so I improvised and used some of the smaller mint leaves. Refrigerate cake until serving to prevent the mint leaves from wilting. The cake will look its best if served within one day.

Berry Valentine Cake

The Art.
    Happy Valentine's Day! For those of you who have been around for a while, you know how much I love Valentine's Day. If you're new around here, just check out my Valentine Petit Fours, Burnin' Love Sriracha Truffles, Roses are Red Cake, or Gluten Free Corset Cookies and you'll get the idea. This year, I have a beautiful berry cake to share with you. I deviated from the usual chocolate chocolate chocolate motif and made this cake using my angelfood cake recipe and filled it with some silky Bavarian cream. Decorating this cake with fresh berries and miniature roses makes it sweet, romantic, and easy to finish off.

The Science.
    For this cake, I wanted to create a whipped icing with true blueberry flavor.  I didn't want to use blueberry jam because I wanted a fresh taste without getting it too sweet. I knew this would be tricky, since simply pureeing fresh berries and adding them to the cream would add too much water and make it hard to whip up. So instead I made a blueberry reduction by heating the blueberries in a saucepan and boiling down the strained juices. While I was doing this I learned that it takes a lot more berries than you would think to create a punch of flavor, so don't skimp on the blueberries!

The Recipe.
     Prepare the angelfood cake as for the Roses are Red Cake, and a batch of Bavarian Cream. You will also need fresh berries and miniature roses for decorating.

Blueberry Whipped Icing:
1 pint blueberries
1 cup 40% heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 cup powdered sugar


    Place a metal bowl and your mixer beaters in the freezer to cool. Wash blueberries and place in a small saucepan on low heat. Stir occasionally and cook approximately 20 minutes, until berries have released all their juices. Remove fruit with a strainer and press down on the strainer with a spoon to reserve the remaining juices in the saucepan. Continue to heat the juices for about 10 minutes until they begin to thicken and reduce down to 1/4 cup. Allow reduction to cool.
    In your cooled bowl, beat the whipping cream on medium speed until it begins to thicken. Add blueberry reduction, cornstarch and powdered sugar. Beat on medium speed until stiff peaks form.

Assembly:
    Place one cake layer on cake stand. Cover with approximately 1/2 cup Bavarian cream. Top with second cake layer. Smooth the whipped icing over the cake with an offset spatula. You will have lots of leftover Bavarian cream and whipped icing, which you can serve alongside the cake. Decorate with fresh berries and miniature roses. Store covered in the fridge until serving. Cake can be made ahead one day.