Matcha nude cake with courgette

With these recipes, you can finally join the enthusiastic contestants of Heel Holland Bakt for once, but without worrying about whether they’re fun enough. These are, after all, the most festive recipes from all the past seasons.  

Don’t let the courgette put you off. It makes the cake deliciously moist and, honestly, you can barely taste it. It does more for the texture than the flavour, and that’s important too.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease the springform tins with oil and line the bases with baking paper. Grate the courgette with a fine grater and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. You need approximately 150 g grated courgette. Grate the green zest of the lime and squeeze the fruit.

2. Beat the eggs and soft brown sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer until light and airy. With the mixer on its lowest setting, add the sunflower oil in a thin stream. Beat in the Greek yoghurt and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Fold in the courgette and lime zest. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and 1 tablespoon of matcha powder over the mixture and fold it through as lightly as possible.

3. Divide the batter evenly between the three springform tins and bake the cake layers for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. The cake is done when a skewer comes out clean and dry. Leave them to cool in the tins for 15 minutes, remove the tins and leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.

4. Beat the mascarpone and butter for 10 minutes until light and airy in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Add the icing sugar one spoonful at a time and add the remaining matcha powder. Beat for another 10 minutes until you have a light and airy cream.

5. Spread a thin layer of matcha cream over one cake layer, place a second cake layer on top, spread it with matcha cream again and finish with the final cake layer. Cover the entire cake with matcha cream. Leave to set in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Sprinkle with matcha powder and decorate with shiso cress.

Title: Heel Holland Bakt mee Feest
Author: Various authors
Publisher: Kosmos Uitgevers
Price: €20,-