Macha/Green tea and Red bean cake

 Have you ever considered to make someone else's birthday cake cake or for a special occasion?

There are many good sides to making your own cake:

• You know what is in the recipe
• It is made by you and shows how much effort you have put into it
• The successful feeling when you finish making the whole cake
• Less artificial substances that people use in some cake shops
• You can adjust some factors of the cake according to your taste, less sweet or even decorate it as you like
• and many more...

For my dad's birthday, my mum and I decided to make our own cake instead of buying one this year. We have this recipe book at home and we just adjusted it to our preferred taste...Macha/Green Tea and Red bean cake. 
My mum was in charge of making the cake and I was in charge of decorating the cake. To be honest, I had no idea how I should decorate the cake...but I just went with the flow to see what I had at home and what my mum bought. She bought a can of Japanese Red bean and some cream. I also found some grapes and a can of peach at home so I used it.

Japanese Red bean:
 


Macha/Green tea powder

Green tea and Red bean cake

Ingredients:

A)   5 egg whites

40 g Caster sugar

¼ tsp cream of tar tar

Macha/Green tea powder

B)    5 egg yolks

40g Caster sugar

80g vegetable oil

70g warm water

1 tsp vanilla essence

C)  100g plain flour

20g corn starch

D)   570g whipping cream

115g caster sugar

E)   Optional:

      Can of Japanese red bean

Can of fruit cocktail

Method:

1. Beat ingredients (A) for approx. 5 mins or until very stiff.
2. Mix and blend ingredients (B) evenly and add (C), then blend well.
3. Divide the egg whites into 3 equal parts in step 1. Blend one part of (A) to (B) & fold evenly in one direction. Then add another part of (A) & fold.
4. Finally, pour all the contents of (B) back to (A) and fold well.
5. Transfer the final cake mixture to a cake tine laid with grease proof paper.
6. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for approx 25 mins. Before putting the cake in the oven, “drop” the cake lightly on the worktop to remove any large trapped air bubbles inside.
7. Remove the cake from tin and allow it to cool for at least 20 mins.
8. Divide and cut the cake into 3 equal layers. Allow it to cool further.
9. Whip ingredients (D) until fully thicken.
10. Scoop 3 tbsp of cream to another bowl and mix in some red bean. (The amount of red bean is up to you, you can add as much as you like to make it right for you, but don’t make the cream become too wet.)
11. Spread the red bean cream onto the bottom layer of the cake. If there are any extras, leave it to one side or place in the fridge
12. Add on the second layer/middle layer.
13. For the second/middle layer, spread a thin layer cream and plot some fruit cocktail evenly on top of the cream (not too big pieces, if you think it is a bit too big, slice it on half)
14. Add a further thin layer if cream on top of the fruit cocktail.
15. Place the top layer on top of the second layer.
16. Use the rest of the cream to spread over the cake and on the side, not too thick and not too thin.
17. Decorate the cake as you like and put the rest of the red bean cream wherever you like.

Please feel free to leave a comment :)

Have fun baking,

Jollycat

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