Matcha Watermelon Cake

I'm all about reading unmotivated/demotivated posters and memes currently... Sometimes, I get these spurts of energy to do stuff and then I fall into a lull, and just want to sit on my couch with a bag of Cheetos on my belly and lick cheese dust off my fingers. I'm also in a fairly chill rotation right now with no stress, no early mornings or late nights.

I should be feeling pretty good, but it's kind of like that stillness before the storm. In two weeks, I'll be on internal med rotation and all hell will break loose. It'll be back to panda eyes, frizzy hair, caffeine IV drip and mismatched clothing. <-- haha, sometimes I seriously don't notice what I put on in the morning at 4.30am and I'll go to work in an all olive green ensemble looking like a pickle (true story).

I'm taking advantage of all this free time to do lots of baking though! I recently made a lot of matcha stuff, just because I love matcha and want more of my friends to be exposed to it! I have a whole recipe page dedicated to it here. For this post, I have a light as air matcha almond cake base, sandwiching a watermelon layer with almond scented whipped cream. It's then topped with fresh strawberries, almonds and dried petals. The cake is quite reminiscent of Japanese/Asian bakery cake density...something like a chiffon cake. The watermelon really works as a layer here. It's super refreshing and unexpected. My roommate and I devoured this cake in 2 days... but then we're also your no-so-typical-vigorous eaters ;).

Matcha Watermelon Cake

inspired by black star pastry
makes a 5 inch layer cake

Cake	Frosting
2 eggs, room temp 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup almond finely ground meal (plus more) 1 tbsp Panatea matcha 3 tbsp flour 3 egg whites, room temp 1/8 tsp cream of tartar 2 tbsp white sugar 1 slice watermelon	1.5 cups heavy whipping cream 4 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp almond extract 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 pint strawberries sliced almonds dried petals (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and place parchment paper on bottom of a 5 inch spring form pan.
2. Beat eggs, powdered sugar, almond flour on low-med until pale yellow. Mix in matcha and flour. Transfer to another bowl and wipe clean mixer bowel (or if you're lucky, whip out your other mixer bowl)
3. Whip on low egg whites and cream of tartar. Add sugar and whip on high until stiff peaks form. Fold egg white mixer and matcha cake mix gently until all incorporated
4. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30-40 mins. At 20mins you make need to foil the top because it will brown easily. Test with skewer for done-ness. Once out of the oven, immediately flip over on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely in it's pan
5. While you're waiting for your cake to cool, cut a 5 inch watermelon slice about 1-1.5cm thick. Sprinkle both sides with sugar ~1 tbsp and allow to macerate on a rack for 30 mins
6. Mix heavy whipping cream, sugar and extracts on high until stiff (but not too long that it separates). Set aside
7. Stick cake once cooled into the freezer for 10 mins, so it is easier to slice in half. If you used 2 pans, then forget about this step.
8. Place top layer of cake cut side up and spread frosting over it. Sprinkle almond meal over it (absorbs extra watermelon juice). Pat watermelon layer with kitchen towel and place over frosting. Sprinkle almond meal over watermelon and then spread more frosting over it. Top with final layer and more frosting.
9. Refrigerate cake for 1-2 hours to firm up. Cut up strawberries into quarters and halves. Decorate cake with sliced strawberries, sliced almonds and petals. Will keep for a few days!

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Tomato Watermelon Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette

It's that lazy Sunday where I don't really feel like doing anything but eat frozen chocolate covered bananas in bed. I've had a week filled with cooking and baking disasters. I just kept burning everything I made. Like my batch of green tea macarons :( So labor intensive and then gone to waste by 5 minutes of extra time in the oven. Ughhh macarons!! So when it came to the day of my bf's birthday two days ago, I was super super hesitant to cook dinner. But, I did it anyway...because "best gf". you know? Ha

Anyway, I wanted to make sausage and biscuits, because he loves that gloopy stuff. Baking the biscuits was a disaster. My first batch well... I might as well have made hockey pucks. I know when I have a bad week, I just need to stay out of the kitchen! Luckily, this salad turned out pretty decently. And I say lucky, because I spent a few hours cleaning the mess I made in the kitchen after dinner :(

Tomato Watermelon Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette

serves 3-4

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