Skip to main content

So the secret is to balance- green tea sponge cake with almond infused cream mousse

Ever felt that the cake you are trying is too sweet/rich? I guess that is one of the biggest complaints most of my (Asian especially) friends have as for the store-sold desserts. Ever thought about the solution to it? For me, it is to balance!


I haven't been baking as often (for some reason) but a really good friend of mine was having her Birthday party this Saturday, so I got to make something (I mean, a cake). I used to be really afraid of high-cal cake recipes and was pretty keen on finding low-cal substitutes. But now I rather eat a smaller piece or eat less frequently, yet fully embrace the great flavors of butter, chocolate and cream. For this reason, the cake does contain a whole lot of cream (considering it was shared by almost 20 people, wasn't that bad, hmm? ), but the richness was actually balanced by my secret ingredients: almond and green tea.


Apologies for that I didn't take pictures at the party when the cake was sliced, but please imagine the three-layered green tea sponge cake. I added extra GREEN TEA powder, so that the bitterness perfectly balanced the richness. ALMOND, as another major element, is not only infused in the cream mousse but also presented as the crunchy topping. So there is more layers of flavors and textures. You don't really feel the rich cream screaming when tasting the cake, but enjoy the harmonious combination of different components.


I guess the secret of balancing doesn't only work on cakes, but on life. For me, I kind of stopped baking for a while coz I was actually in a new relationship. I do enjoy my present moments a lot, but also have to mess around with my 'routined life' a little bit: baking, climbing, hanging out with friends...
Can't say I made it for the balancing thing, but I gradually started trying. See, my first cake and blog post since my new life change.

If any one of my climbing buddies sees this blog, by any chance, I will really try to climb again soon! lol

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to feed A BOYFRIEND when you have no intention to cook

I had almost given up cooking before my boyfriend! I've always been enjoying spending time in the kitchen, but, often time, I just gave in to my laziness. Plus, I had my perfect excuses: 1. I'm a busy phD student; 2. I'm spending most of my "kitchen time" baking. So I'm really used to a rather simple meal plan myself: homemade bread for breakfast, salad for lunch and yogurt for dinner. (I try to balance the protein and starch in it, so, don't worry, I can totally be filled up.) With all my passion (and time), I made bread for myself and cakes for friends. However, all these routine somehow changed when I started to take on the responsibility to feed someone- someone who is an ultimate meat lover, who hates salad (I mean, all the green leaves), who would never join my meal plan. Alas, the game completely changed- only I'm still the lazy girl as I've always been. So I came up with a couple of tricks for the "game": 1. Make it simple

First bread in my new kitchen: Thomas Keller's multigrain batard

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Isn't spring the moving season? Yes, to me I guess as I've been moving for two years in a row at this time of year. Sadly I finally moved out from the glorious upper east side of New York after being there for 4 years (can't believe! is it that long already??), to the "humble" Queens.. However, after I moved in, I'm starting to love my neighborhood. There is actually quite a few to explore and to discover (I mean, hmm, restaurant) in Queens. Indeed, I can't just improvise to make a call to order some Chinese food delivered to my door, or walk to the French bakery a few blocks away whenever I want. Luckily I can opt to make my own.  With a good multigrain bread, some jam/spread, slices of good cheese, I am considering myself having a perfect breakfast/brunch. Of course, the world is even better if there is a cup of tea :) Multigrain batards are the most frequently-ordered bread I do in store- they're crust

I hope it is a good start- devil's food cake&red bean cream&chocolate glazing

I could have one thousand reasons to open a blog- just about some random pieces of life, my crazy ideas, people I hate and love, and most importantly, my love about baking!!! But I was so hesitant to actually do so (OK, I admit that lameness is one of the reasons), coz I'm not satisfied with the pictures I take! I was looking at the hundreds of pretty pictures on several popular food blog, enjoying and complaining- since when has photographing become an essential life skill besides computer and replacing the bulbs?!! (I'm good at neither btw.)  After all, I do want to present my cakes in a more pleasant way. So here is the decision I just made: I'm going to work hard on photographing. Hopefully the blog can see my growing~~~~ The small cakes are adapted from Thomas Keller's devil food cake. Love the rich chocolateness 'enriched' by mayonnaise! I added red bean flavored cream (so popular in Asian sweets!) between two cake layers, and glazed the layer ca