Ever thought of making your own Swiss roll? This matcha chocolate roll goes one better than that. It’s a rolled chocolate sponge filled with matcha buttercream. The matcha tea powder gives a vibrant natural green, which makes it stand out from the crowd. It tastes good too.
Having been inspired by the combination of tea and chocolate a year or so ago, I haven’t done nearly as much baking with these ingredients as I’d like to have done. With tea and chocolate as this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge, it’s time to try a few things. At least I’m hoping it will be a few things, but time will tell.
The inspiration for this matcha chocolate roll came in a round about way from Dan Lepard and his latest bake hemp & ginger cake. I haven’t used hemp flour for a long time in baking and had, in fact, forgotten all about it. It has a lovely green colour, not nearly as bright as matcha, but still very distinctive.
That got me thinking about doing some sort of hemp cake with matcha icing to contrast the two shades of green. I was really pleased with the one cake I actually managed to make using matcha before my supply ran out. Thanks to Vitalife, I now have a small amount to play with again – if I don’t drink it all as tea first that is.
Matcha Chocolate Roll
As it happened, I was unable to get hold of any hemp flour, but I decided to go with Dan’s suggestion of some sort of Swiss roll and came up with this matcha chocolate roll which I hoped would be a good showcase for the matcha and chocolate colour combo.
My attempts at rolling up the sponge have been less than successful in the past, so I thought I’d follow Lorraine Pascale’s advice and add a bit of water to the sponge mix.
Despite Lorraine’s words of wisdom, I still managed to break and crack the sponge when trying to roll it. However, this matcha chocolate roll has still been my most successful Swiss roll attempt so far (see my chocolate chestnut roulade) and I was pleased with it. It got the thumbs up from my mother as well.
I love the vibrant green against the dark chocolate and it tasted pretty damn good too. This matcha is not as strong as the one that CT brought back from Japan, so the matcha taste in this is more subtle than I was expecting.
A slice, I found, went very nicely with a cup of matcha tea. CT thought it had a firm texture, was not too sweet and the taste of tea persisted pleasantly on the palate. Neither of us could taste the lemon verbena tea, but it was delicious and disappeared rather quickly.
Other Matcha Recipes You Might Like
- Christmas butter biscuits
- Christmas chocolate bark
- Green tea cheesecake pots
- Honey & matcha spelt scones
- Matcha blondies
- Matcha madeleines
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this matcha chocolate roll, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Matcha Chocolate Roll. PIN IT.
Matcha Chocolate Roll – The Recipe
Matcha Chocolate Roll
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 2 oz golden caster sugar (60g)
- 1 tbsp warm water (I used lemon verbena tea)
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 oz white spelt flour (30g)
- 1 oz wholemeal spelt flour (30g)
- 1 pinch sea salt (I used Himalayan pink rock salt)
- 1 tsp caster sugar for dusting
Matcha Buttercream
- 50 g unsalted butter softened
- 100 g icing sugar
- 2 tsp matcha green tea powder
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
Chocolate Sponge
- Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4)
- Line a 20cm (8 inch) x 30cm (12 inch) Swiss roll tin with baking paper.
- Whisk the eggs with the sugar for a few minutes until the mixture is thick, pale and has almost tripled in volume. Electric beaters make the task a lot easier.2 large eggs, 2 oz golden caster sugar
- Pour the water down the side of the bowl, but don't mix in at this stage.1 tbsp warm water
- Place the cocoa powder on the scales, then put in enough of the white flour to bring the weight up to 1oz.1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 oz white spelt flour
- Sift this along with the wholemeal flour into the egg mixture with a pinch of salt.1 oz wholemeal spelt flour, 1 pinch sea salt
- Fold in the flour and water as carefully as possible so as not to loose too much of the air that you’ve already whisked in.
- Scrape the batter onto the lined tin and spread in an even layer to the edges of the tin.
- Bake on the middle shelf of your oven for 10 minutes or until the top is firm to the touch.
- Scatter the sugar over a sheet of greaseproof paper, then turn the sponge out onto it.1 tsp caster sugar
- Peel off the baking paper and roll up in the greaseproof paper whilst warm.
- Leave to cool.
Matcha Buttercream
- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, then add the butter and cream until light and fluffy.50 g unsalted butter, 100 g icing sugar
- Beat in the matcha powder.2 tsp matcha green tea powder
- Add the milk and beat until you have a smooth consistency.1 tbsp milk
- Unroll the sponge and spread the buttercream over the surface.
- Roll up the sponge, without the paper this time. Transfer to a serving plate.
Maya Russell says
Never tried Matcha. Lovely cake recipe.
Rachel says
This looks delicious, and I’ve been meaning to learn to make swiss rolls…
Choclette says
Thanks Rachel. Swiss rolls are my nemesis. I haven’t made one that’s been entirely successful yet, but I will try again – and no doubt again :-S
Choclette says
Dharm – please do, the more the merrier.
Dharm says
I love this challenge! I’ll definitely come back to check out the next ‘issue’ of We should cocoa and maybe take part too!!
Choclette says
Baking Addict – thank you. I was quite pleased with this roll, but still a way to go on that rolling. Do hope you have time to blog about your bake – am looking forward to seeing what you’ve made.
Foodie & Chef – thank you for your kind comment.
foodie and the chef says
What a fun-looking treat – this is divine 😀
Baking Addict says
wow looks great! I’ve never made a swiss roll before but I’ll be pleased if it turns out as beautifully as yours. Looks like we had a similar idea for the challenge – chocolate and green tea. It’s still in the oven so hopefully I’ll blog about it before the deadline.
Choclette says
Thanks MissCakeBaker
MissCakeBaker says
The colours look fab together. Looks delicious mcb x
Choclette says
Johanna – this is the first time I’ve tried make a roll with flour. The secret, apparently, is to put in a bit of water, but that doesn’t sound quite right for a flourless one.
BVG – thank you. matcha is well worth a try if you can find it. It has quite a distinctive flavour, but you can make it fairly dilute and still get a good green colour.
Kath – thank you. Trouble with the mouth watering bit, is that it didn’t last very long!
Suelle – there aren’t many natural colours that give such a bright colour, so it’s good to find one that is vibrant and tastes good too.
Dom – I’ve let you down again – it was polished off here with remarkable rapidity.
Hazel – because you don’t like tea?
Gillian – please do.
C – it’s amazing what a camera can hide 😉 Matcha has a very distinct flavour which is quite different from normal tea – I like it but do have it rather weak.
FoodyCat – hadn’t noticed the green teeth before. Shall be racing off to a mirror next time I have it.
Celia – it’s hard to believe until you try it yourself.
Ocean Breezes – thanks and thanks for the good wishes too.
Chele – elegance is not something I manage very often, so always pleased to get that particular compliment.
Oxslip – love the idea of a toothpaste cake. I used to use green colouring too, but now I’m not keen on food colourings unless they are real foodstuffs so am particularly delighted when such colours can be found.
oxslip says
Fab! Love the idea and the colours are great. When we were kids ‘toothpaste’ cake was a standard birthday cake, choc cake w mint flavoured green icing. Yours is a much more sophisticated version in colour, tone and taste!
Chele says
Love the colours of this bake. Looks so elegant.
Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes says
This look so moist! Great job, thank for sharing . . . can I have a slice? LOL!!! Enjoy your weekend!
celia says
What a stunning contrast of colours, Choc! I can’t get over how bright the green is!
Foodycat says
The colour of the filling is insane! How gorgeous! I have some instant matcha powder that I use for both drinks and cooking, although it makes my teeth green.
C says
Wow, love the look of that swiss roll! I’ve never managed to make one successfully so am comletely in awe of you. I love the colour contrast too. Never tried matcha either – is it completely different in flavour from normal tea? I’m not much of a tea fan to be honest!
Chocolate Here says
Wow just look at the colors. Might have to nab this for our Irish Foodie Cookalong :-0
Hazel says
This is something that I wouldn’t normally go for, however, your wonderful description definitely whets my appetite! A very attractive dessert indeed.
Dom at Belleau Kitchen says
this looks so beautiful!… I love a chocolate roll and this looks divine, can’t wait to receive it in the post!
Suelle says
I love the colour contrast! The swiss roll looks wonderful.
Kath says
This looks fantastic, very eye catching and mouth wateringly lovely.
Brownieville Girl says
Looks really appeitzing – I just love the bright green with the chocolate brown.
Like Johanna I haven’t tried matcha yet – I’ll be keeping any eye out for some from now on!
P.S. I think you did a great job rolling it up.
Johanna GGG says
never had matcha but I always like the look of it – great in this swiss roll – and I admire your rolling as I have not had much success rolling (though I have only tried roulades which are similar)