Matcha Chiffon, Yuzu Curd, Lemon Chantilly
This was a dessert I made on MasterChef Australia Back to Win. Featuring my most loved cake since I was little. This cake is all about the chiffon, but made in a flat flat tray, then layered with yuzu curd and lemon chantilly. Finish off the cake with a fresh layer of chantilly and sprinkled heavily with good quality matcha. An absolute winner I hope you will love as much as I do.
Ingredients
Matcha Chiffon
4 eggs, separated
40g oil
40g full cream milk
60g caster sugar
60g flour
1 tbsp matcha powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
Lightly grease a 36cm x 25cm baking sheet and line with greaseproof paper ensuring a 2cm overhang. Preheat your oven to 175C.
Sift the flour, baking powder, matcha and salt in a bowl. Whisk until well combined. Place the egg yolks, half the sugar, oil and milk in a separate bowl and whisk well. Add the mixed flour, whisk until smooth.
In an electric mixer whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Slowly add the sugar in and whisk until medium peaks. Don’t over whisk or the whites will split.
Whisk a third of the meringue into the egg yolk-flour mixture to loosen the batter, then confidently fold the remaining meringue in two batches taking care to maintain its lightness.
Pour into the lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. The cake is cooked when it’s firm to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cook completely
Yuzu Curd
70g yuzu juice (bottled is fine)
80g lemon juice
180g whole eggs (about 3 large)
180g caster sugar
3g gelatine, soak sheets in water to soften
180g unsalted butter
2 lemon zest
Bring to a simmer a medium saucepan 1/4 filled with water. Bring the yuzu and lemon juice to a boil in a separate saucepan. In a stainless steel bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until well combined but do not incorporate too much air. Place over the medium saucepan with simmering water and stir with a silicone spatula until the mixture coats the back of the spatula and temperature reaches 85C. Remove from the heat. Squeeze out the gelatine sheets to remove any excess water and stir into the egg and sugar mixture. Keep stirring until the temperature drops to about 55C then whisk in the butter cubes a few at a time until well emulsified. Pour into a bowl and cover directly with clingfilm to avoid a film from forming. Allow to set in the fridge.
Lemon Chantilly
300ml thickened cream
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 large lemon zest
Whisk the cream and maple syrup until medium peaks form. Fold in the lemon zest.
Assembly
To assemble the cake, flip the cake over and peel off the baking paper from the slab of cake. Divide into 6 equal pieces. I tend to go 3 (length) x 2 (width) Spread the first layer of cake with curd then alternate with the cream until all six layers are stacked on top of each other. Cover the entire cake with the remaining cream. Allow the cake to set in the fridge until ready to serve then cover the top with a generous sprinkling of matcha powder.
