Matcha Swiss Roll

Author Notes

This cake is inspired by my Japanese language class in high school. That’s right - I’ve been using this recipe as my go-to not-too-sweet cake for over five years. It started when I was first interested in baking. My teacher had a cute Japanese baking magazine filled with pretty images of pretty cakes. I immediately honed in on a fluffy-looking cake roll and decided to make it a project: to translate it and make it! As a non-experienced baker, I was flummoxed by the different measurements, the requirement for a scale, and the unfamiliar ingredients. Eventually, with the help of my teacher, I came up with a workable recipe and tried my hand with it. It was good, but not what I’d expected. So, I tabled it. Several years past, and I’d learned more about baking cakes, whipping up meringues, and other tidbits of information that helped me understand what I did wrong and how the recipe needed to be changed. To make a long story short, a couple of years after my initial translated recipe, I was able to struggle my way through many iterations and finally came up with a light, fluffy cake recipe.

My preferred version of this cake is with culinary-grade matcha. Matcha is a Japanese green tea that is ground into a powder form. Because we ingest the whole leaf instead of just water brewed from the leaves, it is said to be extremely healthy. More recently, matcha has become a very hip drink, with matcha bars and cafes popping up everywhere. I love drinking matcha - I drink a cup everyday in lieu of coffee, but my first introduction to it was actually in the form of ice cream! I loved the vibrant, deep green color it contributed, and the taste was unique but mild. Even better? It wasn’t too sweet. I hunted down a package of matcha and have been baking with it ever since. The taste works well in this recipe, especially when paired with a light whipped cream.

This matcha roll is easy to make (way easier than a layer cake), quick to whip up, and beautiful in presentation. It's also very customizable - I've done black sesame rolls, orange rolls, strawberry, rose, etc... and you can prop it on its side for a vertical cake roll (see blog)! For this cake, I always measure my dry ingredients in grams, but I’ve provided the cup measure as well. —Betty