My Matcha Wedding Cake Journey
Okay, so this whole matcha wedding cake thing started pretty unexpectedly. My good friends were getting married, super low-key, and somehow, the cake duty landed on me. They know I mess around in the kitchen, bake a bit here and there. But a wedding cake? That’s a whole different league, right? And they wanted matcha. Not vanilla, not chocolate. Matcha.
First thing, I hit the internet. Looked up a ton of recipes. Some looked way too fancy, others kinda dodgy. You know how online recipes can be. I ended up picking bits and pieces from a few different ones, trying to figure out proportions that wouldn’t end in disaster. Finding good matcha powder was another mission. Didn’t want that dull, brownish stuff. Had to hunt down some decent ceremonial grade stuff, spent more than I planned.
Then came the actual baking. Decided on a three-tier situation. Nothing huge, but still ambitious for me.
- Baked the first layer. Came out okay. Phew.
- Second layer… disaster. Forgot to adjust the baking time, I think. A bit dry. Binned it. Baked another one. Better.
- Third, smallest layer. Nailed it. Felt like a pro for about five minutes.
Leveling the tops was messy. Cake crumbs everywhere. My kitchen looked like a green warzone.
Next up: the frosting. Went with a cream cheese frosting because, well, cream cheese frosting is amazing. Getting the matcha flavor right without it being bitter or too weak took some serious tasting and tweaking. Add a bit more matcha, taste. Too strong. Add more powdered sugar, more cream cheese. Taste again. Finally got a balance I could live with. The color was a nice, soft green.
Putting It All Together
Assembling it was nerve-wracking. Dowels? Yeah, had to figure that out. Cut some thick plastic straws to size – saw that trick somewhere. Stacked the first two layers. So far, so good. Adding the top tier, my hands were literally shaking. It looked a bit wobbly, not gonna lie. Used a load of frosting to kinda glue things together and smooth the sides. Forget super sharp edges, I was going for ‘rustic charm’. Yeah, let’s call it that.
Decoration… kept it simple. Some extra frosting swirls, dusted a bit more matcha powder on top. Didn’t want to push my luck. The real challenge? Getting it to the venue. Wrapped it up as best I could. Put it in the passenger seat, buckled it in like a baby. Drove about 10 miles per hour the whole way. Every pothole, every turn was pure stress.
Made it in one piece, though. Set it up on the table. Stood back. It wasn’t perfect bakery-level stuff, but it looked like a proper cake. My matcha wedding cake. The bride and groom loved it, which was the main thing. Everyone said it tasted great. Honestly, mostly I was just relieved it didn’t collapse. It was exhausting, messy, stressful… but seeing them cut into it? Pretty cool feeling, actually. Would I do it again? Maybe. But I’d need a long break first.
