This green tea swiss roll cake combines the slight bitterness of matcha with sweet and light strawberry. It makes for a delicious springtime flavor combination!
I spent the last semester of my college undergrad studying in Tokyo. It was a dream come true. I had been interested in Japanese culture since I was a young child.
There are a growing number Japanese cuisine inspired recipes on my site. From the super popular Japanese Milk Bread to the anime favorite Melon Pan, there are so many sweet baked treats to explore! Here’s another tasty cake to add to the list!
Matcha Swiss Roll Cake
Japan is beautiful to visit all year round. From the snow in Hokkaido during the winer months to the beaches of Okinawa during the summer, there is so much see and do.
Hands down, my favorite time to visit is during cherry blossom season. Matcha and cherry blossom is a popular combination used in cakes, ice creams, and breads.
Since cherry blossom is hard to come by in the United States, I swapped in the strawberries.
Green tea and strawberries pair well together. The slight bitterness of the matcha is complemented by the sweet and fresh flavors of the strawberry.
Matcha Strawberry Cake Components
Matcha jelly roll cake
The green tea cake is baked in a 18×13-inch rimmed baking sheet, also known as a jelly roll pan. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or use a silicone mat.
The cake is flavored with matcha powder. Matcha powder is Japanese green tea pulverized into a finely powdered tea. Learn more about my favorite matcha powders in this matcha sugar cookie recipe post.
The cake batter is fairly simple to mix together. No stand mixer needed. Although, it would be helpful to use an electric hand mixer to whip the egg whites.
Best of all, the cake bakes in less than 10 minutes!
Strawberry Mousse
The strawberry mousse is made by combining whipped cream with sweetened strawberry puree and gelatin.
Don’t omit the gelatin! The gelatin strengthens the mousse mixture, allowing the filling to be sliceable.
The listed recipe uses silver strength gelatin sheet. You may substitute standard powdered gelatin. For conversion:
- 1 (0.25 oz) envelope granulated/powdered gelatin is equal to 1 Tablespoon gelatin.
- 1 Tablespoon gelatin is equal to 3 sheets of silver strength gelatin
The strawberry mousse recipe calls for 1/2 sheet of silver gelatin. That is equal to 1/2 teaspoon of powdered gelatin.
How to assemble Green Tea Swiss Roll Cake:
- Spread cake batter into an even layer on a parchment lined 18×13-inch jelly roll pan. If you have a silpat mat or nonstick silicon baking mat, that would work best. Bake until cake springs back when touched.
- While the cake is still hot, turn cake over onto a clean kitchen towel. Slowly and gently remove parchment (or silicon baking mat) from cake. Don’t worry if your cake layer ends up looking distorted and destroyed. This part of the cake will be covered with the mousse filling.
- Use the kitchen towel to roll the cake into a log. Let the cake rest like this until it has cooled to room temperature.
- Unroll the cake and remove the kitchen towel. Add a generous amount of strawberry mousse filling.
- Use an offset spatula to spread filling to an even layer.
- Use your hands to gently roll the cake back into a log. Place the seam at the bottom of the cake to prevent it from unraveling. Cover log with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for the mousse to set up.
Matcha Green Tea Swiss Roll with Strawberry Mousse
Ingredients
Matcha Green Tea Cake:
- 1 cup (112 g) cake flour
- 2 Tablespoons (14 g) matcha powder*
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 5 large eggs, separated
- 3/4 cup (156 g) granulted sugar
- 1/4 cup whole milk
Strawberry Mousse:
- 1 2/3 cup strawberry puree
- 1 gelatin sheet**, bloomed
- 1/3 -1/2 cup (63 g-104 g) granulated sugar, depending on sweetness of strawberries
- 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
Instructions
Matcha Green Tea Cake:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 18x13-inch jelly roll baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat mat. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cake flour, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks, granulated sugar, and milk until pale in color.
- In another clean bowl, whip egg white to medium-stiff peaks.
- Add dry flour mixture to yolk mixture. Fold to combine. Add whipped eggs in three additions. Gently fold to incorporate egg whites.
- Pour batter to prepared baking sheet. Use an offset spatula to spread batter into an even layer. Bake for 8-10 minutes until cake springs back to touch. Remove from oven and run a mini offset spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen cake.
- Invert cake into a clean kitchen towel. Slowly and gently remove parchment (or silpat) from cake. Use the kitchen towel to roll cake into a log. Let the cake rest on a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
- Once cake is cool, unroll the cake and remove the kitchen towel. Add a generous amount of strawberry mousse filing. Use an offset spatula to spread filling to an even layer.
- Use your hands to gently roll the cake back into a log. Place the seam at the bottom of the cake to prevent it from unraveling. Cover log with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow mousse to set up.
Strawberry Mousse:
- In a clean bowl, mix together strawberry puree and sugar. Adjust the amount of sugar depending on the sweetness of your strawberries. Take about 1/4 cup of strawberry mixture and place in separate bowl. You will use this for the gelatin.
- Fill a small bowl of ice cold water to bloom gelatin for about 3 minutes. Squeeze out excess water from gelatin. Place soft gelatin sheets into bowl of reserved strawberry mixture. Microwave mixture 10 seconds at a time until gelatin has melted. Pour mixture into the rest of the strawberry puree. Set aside. Allow mixture to sit and come back to room temperature.
- In another bowl, whip chilled heavy cream to medium peaks. Add whipped cream to cooled strawberry mixture in three additions. Gently fold cream into mixture.
Notes
This swiss roll looks very beautiful! That light pink strawberry mousse must go really well with the green tea. I wish I can have some now. Thanks so much for sharing! Btw, amazing blog!
Thanks so much Lokness! I looked through your blog and you have some pretty tasty recipes!! :)
Looks so good and beautiful swiss roll I ever seen,can’t wait to try this recipe ;)
Thanks Ridwan! That means so much :) I can’t wait for you to try it out, too!
Wow Maryanne, this looks so great! I really have to make this for my husband, he loves Japanese food and everything Japan. He will love this too, and even though he doesn’t like sweets.
btw, are you going to the Ramen Festival this weekend? You have to!
Hi Ellen! Thanks!! I’m still thinking about it…I LOVE ramen but I’m afraid it’ll be too crowded. What day are you going?
I’m not sure yet, Paulus is coordinating it with our friends. I will text you as soon as I know more! I definitely think it will too crowded, but on the other hand it’s the place to be if you love ramen. And they are serving a ramen burger, we want to try that!
This looks delicious! And perfect for spring…where do you buy/ how do you make strawberry puree?
Hi Emma, to make strawberry puree you simply put strawberries in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until smooth.
look super delish! is there anyway that we can substitute the heavy cream with something else?
No, the heavy cream is needed to make whipped cream. It is necessary to make the mousse. I’m sorry, there are no substitutes.
That looks super yummy! I don’t have matcha powder on me, but I wonder if cocoa powder would work?
Can’t wait to try it out!
Thanks! I haven’t used this recipe with cocoa powder, but I’m pretty sure it would work. Let me know how it goes!
I bought matcha Mocafe brand one, it was the very first time I try matcha, and I really felt like I was drinking seaweed :( . Does it has to taste like that? or is it this brand?
Hi Michell, I don’t suggest using the Mocafe brand matcha. I would stay far away from it. I’m sorry you had such a terrible introduction to matcha. It’s one of my favorite flavors and it definitely should not taste like seaweed.
oh! and I wanted to bake something with matcha, then I found your recipe (looks great!!) and i decided not to give up on rolls (I always fail making them) but I’m afraid it taste like seaweed too :s ….
I suggest using the matcha brand I have listed in the recipe. It’s pure matcha leaves.
Thank you so much! I’ll try to find that brand :)
Greetings from México :)
Hi! Can I substitute the strawberries with canned peaches? It’s not strawberry season here in our place :( Or would it be better if I used strawberry jam?
Thanks!
I wouldn’t substitute canned fruit. They have too much moisture and sugar. If strawberries are not season, you can try using another fresh fruit in its place. I don’t suggest using strawberry jam. It will affect the texture.
Hello there. The recipe looks fab. May I know if the gelatine sheet for the mousse is critical as I do not have it at home with me now. If not, I will just have to hold my urges to make it now. Heehee. Thank you.
wow, looks like a real sponge !! I am wondering how is the taste of this marvelous roll cake, it should be delicious <3
I baked this and it’s very delicious!!!
Thanks for trying out the recipe!
Hi, looks so yummy!! is it possible to make this gluten free? I was thinking of making this for a friend, and she is gluten intolerant :/
You can try using gluten-free all-purpose flour like Cup4Cup.
Hi Maryanne,
gorgeous pictures~~~
I can’t wait to try this recipe, however, when I clicked the print button, it says page not found. T.T
https://www.thelittleepicurean.com/2014/03/matcha-green-tea-swiss-roll-strawberry-mousse.html/print/
Help please~~
Hi Ria. Try again. The print button should work now :)
Yay! Print button worked!
Thank you so much. Making it this weekend. ;)
How do I replace the gelatin sheets in the strawberry mousse with fruit pectin?
I have only tested this recipe with gelatin. You can use agar in place of gelatin, however, I don’t think it will yield the same results with fruit pectin.
This is a great recipe. I couldn’t find agar at any stores so I just used a little over a tablespoon of fruit pectin and the mousse seemed to set just fine. Make sure to get the fruit pectin for recipes with less sugar or else your mousse will be sickeningly sweet.
Great to hear that it worked! I’ll keep that in mind next time!
Hi MaryAnne,
Your Swiss roll is lovely. Can you please advise me as to how to create so many small bubbles in your sponge.
The bubbles are small and lovely. Also the surface of your sponge is bubbly, and there is no ‘Skin’or brown crust on top of your sponge.
Thank you,
Susan
When beating the egg whites- make sure they are at room temperature. Start beating at low speed until the eggs are foamy. Once foamy, increase speed. This should ensure small, even bubbles.
The “skin” or brown crust on the sponge is caused by sugar. When this happens, I just scrape off the skin :)
Tried it and tasted so good. However the cake is a bit dry. Can I add some oil in the recpite?
Hello. That looks so good. Thanks for sharing. I only have gelatin powder in the house. How many grams of gelatin powder should I use to yield the same result? Thanks
Use 1 tsp gelatin powder
Hi there, what size jelly roll pan do you use?
18×13-inch
I have PerfectaGel Gold Gelatin Sheets. Do I need to make an adjustment given that you use the Silver Gelatin Sheets? Thanks so much!
Yes, you need to adjust the amount of gelatin. Please check the conversion here: https://blog.modernistpantry.com/advice/the-confusion-over-conversion/
Whoops, sorry. I meant I have the Bronze sheets.