Matcha Roll Cake with Red Bean Cream

This was my 3rd try and I’m absolutely delighted to finally obtained the texture and taste that I want. The other 2 times were too dry and it cracked, totally hideous. I find that cake flour is better than all purpose flour for roll cake. They give a lighter finer texture. I love my cakes pretty and delicious! 🙂 

Serving: abt 7 pieces. (10 x 12 in pan)

Ingredients for roll cake: 4 egg whites and 4 egg yolks (all in room temperature), 40g cake flour, 2 x 40g white sugar, 1 tablespoon green tea powder. 

 

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C. Lightly mix together cake flour and green tea powder. Sift both dry mixture together for at least 3 times. This gives the cake a finer texture. In a medium bowl, beat egg white till soft peak forms. Gradually add in 1 portion of white sugar, little by little till stiff peak forms. 

In a large bowl, gently beat egg yolk. Add in the 2nd portion of white sugar and beat till creamy, thickens and lightened in colour. Add in dry mixture, and mix well with a hand whisker.  Make sure the dry mixture is fully moisten. 

Add 1/3 of meringue into green tea mixture and mix well with hand whisker. It’s ok to flatten the meringue here. It should look something like pic 10. Add in another 1/3 of meringue into mixture and becareful here, not to flatten the egg white, fold gently with spatula. Complete the process with all the remaining 1/3 meringue. When you see that glossy and smooth texture (pic 11), it’s done. Transfer batter to baking tin (lined with non-stick paper). 

 

Spread the batter evenly. Tap against table to remove trapped air bubbles. Bake in pre-heated oven for 24 mins. When done, remove the cake (while hot) from tin and place on a flat surface. Cover with baking sheet or aluminium foil. I find this important, it helps to prevent the cake from drying up and retain the moisture in, which makes the rolling of the cake easier. Now we can proceed to do the filling. 

Ingredients for the cream: 120ml whipping cream (cold), 120g red bean paste, a handful of azuki beans (abt 50g, boiled and cooked, if you can find those already cooked ones will do just fine too. It’s expensive to get this beans in SG, but it gives this extra crunch to the cake which I realy like), 1 tablespoon white sugar. 

Beat whipping cream with sugar until stiff peak forms. Add in red bean paste and mix well.  

With a new baking paper at the bottom, overturn the cake and gently peel off the baking paper. It should look like pic 19 and this will be the surface of your roll cake. Cover the surface with baking paper and turn the cake. The browned side is the inside and add the red bean filling. Spread the filling, and sprinkle azuki beans on top. Gently roll the cake (this needs a little practice, check youtube videos on how to roll a cake before you attempt to get a rough idea). Wrap cake in wrapping paper, and cling wrap the whole thing and chill in fridge for at least 3 hours. 

Before serving, top with icing sugar (optional), cut off the 2 sides and slice evenly into thick slices and you are done!