Totoro black sesame matcha cake

I used to enjoy baking. Then I realized how dangerous baking is when one lives alone and doesn’t have people to share the calories. Now I find the precise quantities and measurements of baking too restricting and always creates a bigger mess than I’m willing to clean up.

But since i had the week off, I thought i’d break out the baking utensils and use the smallest ring cake molds recently acquired. Another reason baking doesn’t quite agree with me anymore is my tendency to cut out sugar and fat quantities whenever possible. Unfortunately the science in baking doesn’t always permit such practices. I can’t make up the lack of sugar with spices.

Upon reviewing a few different basic cake types to refresh my memory, i settled on sponge cake for its lack of additional oil(butter). I tried flavouring the sponge with matcha and black sesame powder (ground up toasted black sesame) and both work well. I experimented with swiss meringue buttercream and whipped cream, and eventually settled on fresh whipped cream flavoured with matcha. The main advantage of using whipped cream in my opinion is the option of sweetening to my exact liking. Buttercream on the other hand require a certain amount of sugar to maintain the meringue structure and to help fluff it up. Also i ran out for an appointment and left the sponge to cool down in the oven which made them a tad on the dry side and whipped cream will help balance that with its higher moisture level.

The decoration choice was hardly original. After crumb coating the cake, i added toasted black sesame on the sides, powder on top, whipped cream for the belly and eyes and chocolate ganache for the decorative bits.

It was fun baking, but i’ve cleaned up my hand mixer enough times for a while. Back to random savoury cooking. I’ll satisfy my sweet tooth with seasonal fruits.