Matconana cake with matcha, coconut, and banana by Paola Chang

Paola Chang has been directing Lab Sucré since 2015, a signature pastry shop in Buenos Aires where she hybridizes her double Argentinian and Korean culture with her training in Europe and Asia. With an eminently French European technical base, an approach to local tastes and calls for Asian ingredients and cakes are the formula for her creations.

As the chef explains in so good #27, “I try to make a less sweet, lighter pastry, with lighter sponge cakes and egg-free mousses. We have a wide variety of fruit products, and we do not use preservatives or artificial flavors”. In terms of aesthetics she says , “I am very attracted to geometry and minimalism. I try not to over-garnish too much, to be simple and let the product speak for itself”.

Below, we share exclusively on our website the recipe for her Matconana Cake, which, like the rest of the preparations presented in the magazine, “is a reflection of my character, my culture, my hybridity, and my way of expressing pastry. On the one hand, I seek simplicity in the presentations, on the other complexity in the development of each assembly, thus achieving a balance”. To do this, she plays with two tropical fruits, bananas and coconuts, which interact with a third element, matcha tea, the ingredient that ends up giving that beautiful green color to the final composition.

Matconana cake

(Recipe for 10 units)

Misugaru sablée (mix of roasted Korean grains)

132 g softened butter
99 g icing sugar
2 g salt
33 g misugaru
28 g starch
258 g flour
57 g egg

Mix butter, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs little by little. Add the dry ingredients, previously mixed and sifted. Spread between two non-stick papers 2.5-3 mm thick and cool. Cut strips of 23.5×2.5 cm and cover the walls of the ring. Cut discs of 7 cm and place in the center. Join and cut the excess. Blind-bake at 160º C for 8 minutes. Cool and reserve until use.

Cooked bananas

(20grs per unit)

300 g diced bananas
as needed butter
as needed sugar
as needed lemon juice

Cook the bananas with the rest of the ingredients and reserve until use.

Coconut cream

(35grs per unit)

94 g eggs
85 g sugar
42 g cream
85 g grated coconut
34 g lemon juice
43 g rum

Mix eggs, sugar, and cream. Add grated coconut, lemon juice and rum. Place in each tartlet 35 grams of coconut cream and 20 grams of cooked bananas. Bake at 160C for 15 minutes. Remove the rings and finish cooking for another 10-15 minutes.

Banana center

(10grs per unit)

112 g diced bananas
7 g sugar
4 g butter
5 g lemon juice
9 g gelatine mass

Cook the bananas with the sugar, butter, and lemon juice. Press on them without leaving them liquid and incorporate the gelatin mass at 60C. Separate into 10 g discs and freeze.

Toasted coconut milk

95 g toasted coconut
450 g water

Heat water and mix with toasted coconut. Let rest for 10 minutes and process. Sieve.

Toasted coconut mousse

200 g toasted coconut milk
40 g sugar
40 g gelatin mass
220 g semi-whipped cream

Heat the milk with the sugar until it dissolves. Reduce the temperature to 60ºC and add the gelatin mass. Add the semi-whipped cream at 25ºC. In a 7 cm mold, place 40 gr of mousse and the center of the banana. Freeze.

Whipped matcha ganache

63 g cream
14 g glucose syrup
5 g matcha
84 g white chocolate
157 g cold cream

Heat the cream and glucose syrup. Emulsify with white chocolate and matcha. Add the cold cream and mix. Let rest for 12 hours in the refrigerator.

Neutral gloss

165 g water
127 g sugar
52 g gelatin mass
60 g neutral gel

Make a syrup with the water and sugar. Add neutral gel. Reduce the temperature to 60ºC and add the gelatin mass. Use at 27ºC.

Montage

Place the coconut mousse on the cake. With a 4 cm high acetate, wrap it on the outside forming a cylinder. Beat the matcha ganache and, with the help of a pastry sleeve, place the cream bordering the sides of the coconut mousse, reaching the top of the acetate. The center of the dessert should look white. With a curved tip tool, smooth the edges. Blast chill. Cover with neutral shine gel. Decorate with a chocolate plaque and misugaru.