Matcha & Azuki Roll Cake

As a special post-Christmas treat, my mum surprised me by preparing all the ingredients to make the matcha and azuki roll cake I had recently drooled over on the Japan Centre website. I’ll admit that both of us thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but it was a challenge we were willing to face!

Here’s the picture from the Japan Centre recipe page:

Mine, I have to confess, wasn’t quite as beautiful. I was a bit… loose. But I managed to make it, and it was delicious! Here’s how it went…

Ingredients:
• Matcha Green Tea Powder – 2 Tablespoons
• Azuki Red beans – 1 Tin
• Wheat Flour – 60g
• Corn Flour – 10g
• 4 Eggs
• Milk – 2 Tablespoons
• Double Cream – 100ml
• Butter – 20g
• Sugar – 70g
• Parchment paper

Method:

First things first, begin by preheating your oven to 180°C (about gas mark 4). Separate the egg yolks from the whites and put to one side while you mix the wheat flour with the corn flour and matcha powder.

☆★☆

Grab another bowl to start making a soft meringue mixture. Start with beating the egg whites until stiff with a hand mixer and add the sugar little by little. Finish by adding the yolks one by one and don’t forget to beat after each addition. Now we can incorporate the flour and matcha mix using a spatula, try to fold in the flour mix evenly. Melt the butter for 30 seconds in the microwave before adding together with the milk and mix well. Finally add the melted butter and milk to the mixture and fold in well.

Your cake mixture is now ready to be baked. Take the parchment paper and align it on a baking tray before evenly spreading the mix.

☆★☆

Put in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Now is the perfect time to prepare the delicious azuki red bean cream. All you need to do is to whip the double cream before adding chopped or blended azuki red beans and mix again until incorporated.

☆★☆

Once your matcha sponge is baked, take it out of the oven and remove it from the baking tray so it can cool off a bit. Put the cake on the new piece of parchment paper and remove the one it was baked with.

☆★☆

Time to get rolling! Begin rolling the matcha sponge away from you and try to keep it as tight as possible, roll the parchment paper as well as this is only a preparation before the final roll.