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Raspberry Matcha Cake has light gluten-free matcha sponge layers filled with a sweet tangy raspberry crush and swirled all over with creamy raspberry swiss meringue buttercream.
Summer is winding down and Cole and I are looking towards a new routine. It’s just the two of us three days a week, the other two he’s at nursery, and we have had a pretty settled schedule for the past 18 months. We have been going to toddler classes in the morning where we meet up with our friends, who also join us for chaotic lunch together, before going our separate ways for naps and errands in the afternoon. It’s been a brilliant time but I feel change is in the air.
Cole completely stopped napping earlier in the summer which means my days are long and aren’t really broken up with a nice restful cup of tea anymore. He is all go and with this active toddler I have begun to think that our mornings singing nursery rhymes are numbered. Coupled with the fact that my mummy friends are welcoming new babies or sending their toddlers off to nursery, we are going to find ourselves pretty solitary as we head into the new term.
So, what to do with our days? I have to admit I’m a bit nervous and completely adrift without a routine to fall back on or a weekly plan. I’m not one of those mums who is endlessly creative, setting up little craft stations or putting on indoor activities. I’ve tried to interest him in baking, but he is more keen to eat endless sultanas or the raw egg or the butter sitting on the counter. It’s more an exercise in eating than baking. If I give him the bowl to stir the wooden spoon just ends up going in his mouth along with the raw mixture.
So, we’re going to begin a season of trial and error as I look for activities to tire out my relentless son. I think I’ll try some toddler gym classes, maybe swimming, although I am not keen on it myself, public swimming pools just send me right back my dreadful memories of it at school. Damp changing rooms, eye stinging chlorine and the dreaded swimming costume. We’ve just bought him his first balance bike so afternoons in the park will probably be a staple, and then hopefully we might have at least one playdate a week so we don’t drive each other round the bend. I’m hoping I find us some sort of schedule to adhere to as I do like a bit of a plan.
I can’t believe we’re heading into the autumn already and organising all these changes. The end of summer has snuck up on me unawares and I have been so behind these past few weeks. Luckily there are still raspberries about to make this delightful Raspberry Matcha Cake which I’ve been meaning to post about for a while now.
Although I have to admit this cake is not for everyone as matcha is an acquired taste round these parts. Luke is still unsure about matcha, although the more matcha cakes, brownies and ice cream we have in the house certainly helps to encourage his interest. I adore matcha though and if you are like me then you will be head over heels for Raspberry Matcha Cake. The light fluffy matcha sponge is perfectly balanced with the sweet and fruity raspberry crush filling and the creamy swiss meringue buttercream. I’ve raved about freeze-dried berry powders before but they are really excellent when adding flavour to buttercreams as the fresh zingy hit of raspberries is all there without adding more moisture to the buttercream.
The cake is gluten-free and uses sweet rice flour as the main ingredient in the flour blend. If you want to learn more about why sweet rice flour is such an important ingredient in producing successful gluten-free cakes then do check out last week’s post. There are a few other flours involved here which all play their part and I will be discussing each in more depth in the coming months as I continue my series on Gluten-Free Flours. It may seem a lot of different flours but it’s worth stocking up if you are going to be baking a lot of gluten-free cakes.
Raspberry Matcha Cake is a perfect way to celebrate the end of summer as we head into our new autumn routines.
Raspberry Matcha Cake {gluten-free}
Ingredients
- 105 g sweet rice flour
- 75 g oat flour
- 60 g millet flour
- 35 g potato starch
- 30 g tapioca starch
- 25 g matcha powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 300 g butter
- 300 g caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
Raspberry Crush Filling
- 225 g raspberries
- 75 g very good raspberry jam
Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 6 egg whites 180g
- 300 g caster sugar
- 400 g unsalted butter at room temperature, cubed
- 5 teaspoons raspberry powder
- A pinch of salt
- Handful of raspberries for decoration
- ¼ teaspoon of matcha powder for decoration
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and line and grease 2 x round 20cm cake tins.
- Cream the butter and sugar on a high speed in a food mixer for about 5 minutes until very light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time and mix until completely incorporated, then add the vanilla extract.
- Sieve the flours, matcha powder, baking powder and salt together in separate mixing bowl, then add into the food mixer. Beat until just combined.
- Stir in the milk to lighten the batter then divide the batter equally between the two sandwich tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to settle for 5 minutes in their tins, then turn out onto cooling racks and leave to cool completely.
Raspberry Crush Filling
- Crush the raspberries roughly into the jam in a small bowl and set aside until assembly.
Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Heat egg whites and caster sugar in a bain marie, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the temperature has reached 71°C.
- Remove the egg whites and sugar from the heat and pour into a stand mixer with whisk attachment. Whisk until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
- Change the attachment to a paddle attachment. On a low speed add the butter slowly cube by cube. When you have almost added all the butter the mixture will look curdled. Do not fret – this is supposed to happen and just means you are nearly done. Just continue to add all the butter. Once the butter is totally incorporated the frosting will miraculously become a smooth velvety consistency.
- Add the raspberry powder and pinch of salt and mix into the buttercream.
Assembly
- Place one of the sponge layers on a cake board and pipe a circle of raspberry swiss meringue buttercream at the very edge of the top of the cake to act like a dam for the raspberry crush filling.
- Spread the raspberry filling on top of the cake, right to the edges of the buttercream dam.
- Place the second sponge layer on top and cover the top and the sides of the cake with the raspberry swiss meringue buttercream.
- Decorate the top of the cake with a sprinkle of matcha and fresh raspberries.
Nutrition
SHOP THE RECIPE
There are so many different kinds of matcha powders out there and the quality varies greatly. For beautifully green cakes which taste of pure delicious matcha do use a high quality matcha powder. I am obsessed by Matcha Green Tea Powder (Super Tea) 50g by PureChimp – Ceremonial Grade From Japan
and drink it every day in my matcha lattes and use all the time in my baking.
I couldn’t recommend freeze-dried raspberry powder enough for your swiss meringue buttercream, it won’t upset the balance of the ingredients and I use it endlessly in my kitchen for smoothies, adding to natural yoghurt, granola bowls, ice creams and of course my cakes. I love RealFoodSource Certified Organic Freeze Dried Raspberry Powder 100G
as the quality is always excellent.
The cake tins I always use are these PME Anodised Aluminium Round Cake Pan 8 x 4-Inch Deep
which are wonderful as they have completely straight sides so your layer cakes will be beautifully neat, the anodised aluminium means the heat disperses evenly throughout the cake without cooking the sides too quickly, which some darker cake tins do. The cakes slip out of the tins easily and they come in all the sizes you would need, although typically I use the 8 inch tins.
For checking the temperature of your egg white sugar syrup when making your swiss meringue buttercream don’t be without a Classic SuperFast Thermapen 3 professional food thermometer in grey colour
It gives quick and accurate temperature readings meaning you can don’t have to guess at any temperatures when making candy, caramel or fancy buttercreams. I use mine all the time.
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Hello, so lovely of you to drop by. I am Georgina. I bake a lot, eat a lot and love writing about my gluten-free kitchen adventures here. I run a gluten-free cake business but am mostly kept busy with my 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 husband, and two gorgeous sons.
Oh how I love your posts…but I get so sad when I see oat flour in the recipe
Have you found anything that works as a substitute??
Hi Jacqui, don’t be sad – there are plenty of cake recipes to choose from that don’t include oat flour! You could just use more millet flour in its place. I choose the oat flour because of the texture and the flavour it gives the cakes as its universal flavour profile matches most cakes. That is not the same with all alternative flours so you need to pick wisely. Millet flour tends to be a little bitter which is why I only like to use it in moderation. Or you could sub with sorghum flour which would add another flavour profile entirely. To learn more about gluten-free flours and the roles they play within the cakes then I recommend downloading my Gluten-Free and Alternative Flours Cheatsheet which may be of assistance.
Like your husband, I haven’t acquired the taste for matcha quite yet. Still I love the recipe and I hope you can keep up with your son!
Thank you Karl. Matcha is a grower and definitely the powders you can buy vary in quality. Some of the cheaper grade matchas can be quite astringent and I always find that less is more as well.