Merry Christmas!! This was a special Christmas that everyone in the apartment stayed back and did not fly home because of the pandemic. There was no tree in the apartment nor other decoration. To make the holiday festive, I made a cake inheriting Christmas color green and red, hence matcha and strawberry cake, and I made up for real Christmas tree with piped Christmas trees on the cake 🙂
On the day of Christmas, I realized that ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream might not be easily whipped and would be soft, so I walked for almost 2 hours, to 6 different local stores/markets looking for heavy whipping cream and finally found 2 boxes at the corner convenient store!! I have never felt such sense of accomplishment as when I found the heavy whipping cream sitting in the fridge waiting for me~
QUICK TAKEAWAYS
- If want to use less cream, cut strawberries between layers to smaller pieces.
- Cotton cake in this recipe is less light and fluffy then chiffon cake. But can withhold weight of decoration better.
- Whip cream till 70-80% for icing, 90% for decorations.
RECIPE
Ingredients for 6inch cake
Cake:
- 155g egg, ~3 eggs
- 80g sugar
- 10g honey
- 2g vanilla extract
- vinegar/lemon juice
- 30g unsalted butter
- 45g milk
- 95g cake flour
- 10g matcha powder
- 1g salt
Strawberry:
- 10 strawberries for 2 layers decoration
- 3 strawberries for snowmen
- 2 strawberries for flower decoration
Icing:
- 400g heavy whipping cream + 40g sugar for icing
- 100g heavy whipping cream for decoration
Part I: Matcha Cake
- Mix together 155g egg, 80g sugar, 10g honey, 2g vanilla extract, few drops of vinegar/lemon juice, mix well
- Whisk high speed first, then mid-low speed till drawing pattern doesn’t disappear
- Sieve through 95g cake flour, 10g matcha powder, mix well
- Melt 30g unsalted butter, 45g milk and 1g salt over water bath
- Mix 1/3 cake mix in butter milk mix, mix well. Pour back to cake mix bowl, mix well
- Transfer to lined cake mold
- Bake at 170C, 35-40mins; if top too moist, bake longer
- Remove from oven, flip for cool down
- Slice into 3 pieces
Part II: Icing cake
- Slice each strawberry into 4 equal parts
- this way will use more cream to cover strawberries between layers, if want to use less cream, just slice strawberries into smaller chunks
- Whip 40g sugar + 400g heavy whipping cream till soft peak forms (70-80% whipped)
- Place a layer of cream on cake, place strawberries, cover strawberries with more cream; repeat.
- Cake surface icing with the left over cream
Part III: Decorations
- Whisk 10g sugar and 100g heavy whipping cream till firm peak form (90% whipped)
- Divide cream and color into green for leaves, brown for eyes & tree trunks (mine was blue), the rest stays white for snowman.
- Pipe Christmas tree on the side
- Choose round strawberries and slice into 5 equal size’s circle, place them on top of cake as flower, tip as stamen
- Choose 3 large and round strawberries as snowmen, slice at 1/4 height. Tip will be snowmen’s hats. Place snowmen’s body on cake top.
- Pipe white cream on top of snowmen’s body as their faces, place the strawberry tips on, place a little snow ball on top of hat
- Pipe small spots near flower stamen
- Place sprinkle or choice of decoration on tree, cake side
- Sprinkle coconut shreds or sugar powder as snow
- Keep cake in fridge for 1-2 hours
READY TO SERVE!!
RESOURCES
Cake recipe
