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Soft genoise sponge is filled with matcha milk jam coated with matcha glazed and finished with desiccated coconut.
What is matcha lamington?
A Lamington cake is a classic Australian dessert that consists of squares or rectangles of sponge cake that are coated in a layer of chocolate icing and then rolled in desiccated coconut. Match Lamington has a distinctive taste of matcha with the classic lamington cake, creating a unique and delicious treat that combines elements from both Japanese and Australian culinary traditions. I spread some easy matcha milk jam on the cake and then coated it with white chocolate matcha glaze on the outside.
Important tips
1. Use ceremonial matcha
I have made this matcha lamington several times. A few times I made them with culinary-grade matcha, and while they were okay, the color was much more muted and the matcha flavor wasn’t as prominent
2. Freeze the cake
I know it can be a hassle, but freezing the cake before coating is really important. First, it prevents the cake from crumbling when you coat it in the glaze. Secondly, the glaze won’t bleed into the cake crumbs, making the crumbs look splotchy with a green color
3. Use white chocolate-based for coating
The white chocolate-based matcha glaze doesn’t bleed easily into the cake compared to the glaze made with icing sugar and milk/water
4. Work quickly but gently
Don’t let the cake soak in the glaze for too long. You need to glaze and coat with coconut immediately. Don’t let the glazed cake sit around for too long
Matcha Lamington
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 4 large eggs room temperature 58-60 gr each with the shell
- 80 gr granulated sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 120 gr cake flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 53 gr cooking oil
Filling: (optional)
- Matcha milk jam or use raspberry jam or other jam of your choice if you want some filling
Matcha glaze:
- 100 g white chocolate
- 7 g matcha powder add more if you want more intense flavor
- 70 g heavy cream
- 10 gr powdered sugar
Coating:
- 1 cup Desiccated coconut divided, or more as needed
Instructions
- For a half recipe, I use 7 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 2 1/2 inch pan (which holds about 2 1/2 cups batter). For a full recipe (as shown in the recipe above), use 8 x 8 inch pan
- Lightly grease the pan and line the pan with parchment paper sling overhanging on the side for easier removal from the pan later
- Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven, 330 F (165 C) for convection oven
Prepare the easy matcha milk jam the day before if possible (optional)
- Use this recipe to make the matcha milk jam
Prepare the genoise sponge:
- Sift cake flour and salt and mix to combine. Sifting will get rid of the lump when you fold in the flour into the cake batter later
- Put eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed (speed 4 on KA) for 1 minute using a whisk attachment and then increase to high speed (speed 8). Beat until the mixture is thick, creamy, and pale, approximately about 6 minutes, and then lower the speed to low and beat another 2 minutes to get rid of large air bubbles.
- When you lift the batter with the whisk, the batter that drops down will leave a trail that remains visible for about a minute before slowly disappearing. You have to beat it to this ribbon stage or the cake will not turn out right
Fold the flour mixture into the batter:
- Once it has reached the ribbon stage, turn off the mixer. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and very gently but work efficiently, fold the flour mixture into the batter using a rubber spatula using a swipe down and fold over method and turn the bowl with you other hand as you fold the flour into the batter. Then add the next batch of flour and continue to fold.
Fold the oil mixture into the batter:
- Once you no longer see any loose flour in the batter, scoop out about 1/3 cup of the batter into a different bowl. Add oil and stir to combine thoroughly. Pour this mixture gently over the batter and use a spatula to fold again until combined. Make sure they are thoroughly combined into the batter or your cake will have separate layers later
Baking:
- Pour the well-combined batter into the prepared pan. Use a skewer and do a zig zag pattern on the batter to pop any large bubbles. Place the pan on the middle rack. Bake for 25-30 minutes for a full recipe. For half recipe, bake for about 20-25 minutes. Do a test by using a skewer and poke into the middle of the cake. It should come out clean with few crumbs are okay, as long as it's no longer wet
- Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes however. The cake will rise and has a dome top during baking but it will shrink a bit after being cooled down and has a nice flat top without any crack
Cool down:
- Once the cake is done baking in the oven, turn off the oven. DO NOT open the oven door yet. Let the cake cool down in the oven for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and cool down in the pan on the counter for another 10 minutes. Loosen the edge with an offset spatula and turn it upside down into a cooling rack and let the cake cool down completely upside down, this will help to flatten the top of the cake if it's slightly dome
- The cake is ready to be used once they have cooled down completely. Wrap them up in a cling wrap if it has cooled down completely and you won't be using it on the same day. They can be kept at room temperature for 3 days
Assembling:
- Make sure the cake has cooled down completely. Use a serrated knife to trim off the cake to make sure it is level on all four sides. I didn't trim off the brown crust, you can if you want to
If you want to use a filling:
- If you want to spread some filling, slice the cake in half horizontally using a serrated knife. Spread the matcha milk jam on one of the surfaces evenly. You can also use any jam or chocolate spread of your choice
- Place another cake on top. Place this in the freezer or 30 minutes for easier cutting into cubes without making a mess.
- After 30 minutes, cut the cake into 16 cubes for a full recipe, 8 cubes for a half recipe. Arrange this back on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to freeze for another 1 hour before coating with matcha glaze. Why? This part helps to prevent the matcha glaze that we will coat on the outside of the cake not to bleed through the cake later and the cake won't crumble easily when you dip. Do not skip this step.
If you don't use a filling:
- Cut the cake into 16 cubes for a full recipe , 8 cubes for a half recipe. Put this on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze for 1 hour before coating with matcha glaze. Why? This part helps to prevent the matcha glaze that we will coat on the outside of the cake not to bleed through the cake later and the cake won't crumble easily when you dip. Do not skip this step.
Prepare matcha glaze:
- Put white chocolate, matcha powder, and heavy cream in a heat-proof bowl. I melt this using bain-marie method. Place the bowl on top of gently simmering water on the lowest heat, in a saucepan, and let the chocolate melt until almost all are melted. Remove from the heat and stir until it melts completely
- You can also melt this in the microwave, in a 20-30 second interval and stir each time until the chocolate just about to melt. Then continue to stir until all is melted
- Let this cool down for 15 minutes before coating the cake cubes
Coat the cake:
- Pour 1/2 of desiccated coconut in a bowl and reserve the rest for later. We don't want to make all the coconut "dirty" with cake crumbles or glaze bits
- The cake should be firm now. Use two forks to help you coat the cake piece with matcha glaze on all sides. Work quickly but gently. Don't soak the cake in the glaze for too long. Shake off any excess
- Gently put this inside a bowl filled with desiccated coconut. Coat it with coconut on all sides
- Put this on the baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the cake cubes, matcha glaze, and coconut
- Remember to dip the cake in chocolate and coat with coconut immediately. Don't let the cake sit for too long with the glaze as it may bleed into the cake crumbs, making it look like it has patches of green here and there
Chill the cake:
- Transfer the cake to an air-tight container. Put this in the fridge immediately to chill so the glaze sets quickly and won't bleed into the cake. Let it chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour
To serve:
- They can be served straight from the fridge or let it come to room temperature if you prefer
RECOMMEDED TOOLS
*Nutrition facts are just estimates and calculated using online tools*
How to bake matcha lamington
1. In this step-by-step photo, I did a half recipe. I use 7 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 2 1/2 inch pan (which holds about 2 1/2 cups batter). For a full recipe (as shown in the recipe above), use 8 x 8 inch pan
2. Lightly grease the pan and line the pan with parchment paper on all sides. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven, 330 F (165 C) for convection oven
3. Optional: Use this recipe to make the matcha milk jam for the filling
4. Sift cake flour and salt and mix to combine. Sifting will get rid of the lump when you fold in the flour into the cake batter later
5. Put eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed (speed 4 on KA) for 1 minute using a whisk attachment and then increase to high speed (speed 8) and beat for about 6 minutes and then lower the speed to low and beat for another 2 minutes to get rid of large air bubbles. When you lift the batter with the whisk, the batter that drops down will leave a trail that remains visible for about a minute before slowly disappearing. You have to beat it to this ribbon stage or the cake will not turn out right
6. Once it has reached the ribbon stage, turn off the mixer. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and very gently but work efficiently, fold the flour mixture into the batter using a rubber spatula using a swipe down and fold over method. Then add the next batch of flour and continue to fold.
7. Once you no longer see any loose flour in the batter, scoop out about 1/3 cup of the batter into a different bowl. Add oil and stir to combine thoroughly. 
8. Pour this mixture gently over the batter and use a spatula to fold again until combined. Make sure they are thoroughly combined into the batter or your cake will have separate layers later
9. Pour the well-combined batter into the prepared pan. 
10. Use a skewer and do a zig zag pattern on the batter to pop any large bubbles. Place the pan on the middle rack. Bake for 25-30 minutes for a full recipe. For half recipe, bake for about 20-25 minutes. Do a test by using a skewer and poke into the middle of the cake. It should come out clean with few crumbs are okay, as long as it’s no longer wet
11. Let the cake stand in the pan for 5 minutes then lift the cake up by grabbing the parchment paper and cool on wire rack completely
12. Make sure the cake has cooled down completely. Use a serrated knife to trim off the cake to make sure it is level on all four sides. I didn’t trim off the brown crust, you can if you want to
13. If you want to spread some filling, slice the cake in half horizontally using a serrated knife. Skip this part if you are not using a filling and just cut the cake into cubes
14. Spread the matcha milk jam on one of the surfaces evenly. You can also use any jam or chocolate spread of your choice
15. Place another cake on top. 
16. Place this in the freezer or 30 minutes for easier cutting into cubes without making a mess.
17. After 30 minutes, cut the cake into 16 cubes for a full recipe, 8 cubes for a half recipe. Arrange this back on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to freeze for another 1 hour before coating with matcha glaze. Why? This part helps to prevent the matcha glaze that we will coat on the outside of the cake not to bleed through the cake later and the cake won’t crumble easily when you dip. Do not skip this step.
18. Put white chocolate, matcha powder, and heavy cream in a heat-proof bowl. I melt this using bain-marie method. Place the bowl on top of gently simmering water on the lowest heat, in a saucepan, and let the chocolate melt until almost all are melted. Remove from the heat and stir until it melts completely. Let this cool down for 15 minutes before coating the cake cubes
19. Pour 1/2 of desiccated coconut in a bowl and reserve the rest for later. We don’t want to make all the coconut “dirty” with cake crumbles or glaze bits
20. The cake should be firm now. Use two forks to help you coat the cake piece with matcha glaze on all sides. Work quickly but gently. Don’t soak the cake in the glaze for too long. Shake off any excess
21. Gently put this inside a bowl filled with desiccated coconut. Coat it with coconut on all sides
22. Put this on the baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the cake cubes, matcha glaze, and coconut
23. Transfer the cake to an air-tight container. Put this in the fridge immediately to chill so the glaze sets quickly and won’t bleed into the cake. Let it chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. They can be served straight from the fridge or let it come to room temperature if you prefer
How to store
1. They can be kept in an air-tight container for about 3 days in the fridge
2. For longer storage, keep them in the freezer for up to one month. Simply thaw at room temperature before serving
Did you make this matcha lamington recipe?
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