A popular Japanese rendition of the classic French chocolate cake, this Matcha Gateau au Chocolat is rich, moist, and intensely flavorful from white chocolate and green tea powder. This smooth, heavenly dessert is best enjoyed slightly warm with a hot beverage.
Are you a big fan of matcha desserts? If yes, I have a treat for you: a heavenly Matcha Gateau au Chocolat (抹茶ガトーショコラ) or Matcha Chocolate Cake. Smooth, rich, and deep with matcha flavor, it’s everything you need for a perfect cake that make your day. Imagine cozy up with a slice and a cup of coffee or green tea in hand. What simple joy in life!
What is Gateau au Chocolat
Before we begin, you may wonder about the origin of this dessert. Gateau au Chocolat is a French term for a chocolate cake. Every country must have its version of a popular chocolate cake.
In Japan, French-style pastries, Gateau au Chocolat, or what we call Gato Shokora (ガトーショコラ), is very popular, and we even have a green tea version made with white chocolate and matcha. That’s what we’re making today.
How to Decide Which Matcha to Use
I receive matcha-related questions a lot, so I want to cover this topic in this post. There are a few important tips to consider when you shop for matcha online.
Tip 1: Matcha quality is everything
When you buy matcha online, you can’t taste it so you have to rely on the color of matcha. The higher quality the matcha is, the brighter and more vivid the “matcha color” (yes, we go with the term “matcha color”).
The good quality matcha has:
- A beautiful and vivid green
- A lovely fragrance
- More umami
- Less bitter taste
The low-quality matcha has:
- A yellowish/brownish green
- Less fragrance
- Less umami
- More bitter taste
If you buy from a good trustable tea shop, even the “low quality” matcha is a decent choice. You should also look for the country of origin for the matcha product. And remember to check the expiration date.
Many of you ask why your matcha dessert doesn’t have a nice color. The culprit is very likely the quality of the matcha.
Tip 2: Don’t buy matcha in a big bag or large volume
Premium quality matcha rarely goes on sale. Even if it does, do not buy in big volume because you need to use it in 2-3 weeks once you open the package. Matcha oxidizes and turns to yellow-green color as time passes. Unless you’re running a commercial bakery, I wouldn’t buy a big bag of matcha for home use.
Tip 3: Make sure it’s 100% matcha
Many of you may not notice – some matcha may contain sugar or milk powder. These products are for making latte. To make matcha desserts, you will need 100% pure matcha. Sugar and natural flavorings should not be included in the ingredients.
Where to Get Matcha
Your local Japanese grocery stores should carry a few brands of matcha. But if there are no stores in your area, you can try purchasing online and I have a few recommendations.
- Ippodo Matcha (一保堂; My favorite tea shop in Japan/NYC where I get all kinds of tea and matcha)
- Naoki Matcha (I’ve tried many of their matcha products for sponsorship, and they are all excellent quality)
- Maeda-en Matcha (Japanese grocery stores in the US usually carry this brand)
How to Make Matcha Gateau au Chocolat
Ingredients You’ll Need
- White chocolate – please use “baking” white chocolate
- Unsalted butter
- Matcha
- Eggs
- Cake flour – You can make cake flour with all-purpose flour and cornstarch (see the recipe)
- Milk – I made this cake with whole and 2% milk and both work great!
- Salt
Cake Pan Size
I use the same 6×3 inch round cake pan that I use for Basque Cheesecakes (Regular and Matcha). If you want to use a different size pan, please adjust the ingredient amount and baking time. You will need to double the recipe for an 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan, and triple the recipe for a 10-inch or 11-inch cake pan. Please note that the thickness of the cake will be varied.
Overview: Cooking Steps
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Then, add the matcha and mix well.
- Whisk egg yolks and sugar, and add in the matcha mixture.
- Add milk and sift the flour into the mixture.
- Beat the egg whites and fold into the batter.
- Bake and let cool completely. Enjoy!
Important Tips to Remember
- We use a double boiler to melt the chocolate and butter. A double boiler consists of a pot and a heatproof metal or glass bowl that fit together snugly—the top bowl holds the ingredient(s); the bottom holds simmering water. Unlike a water bath, the water in a double boiler doesn’t touch the top bowl.
- Beat egg yolks and sugar until the mixture becomes pale yellow and thick and forms a ribbon.
- Don’t over-mix the cake batter after the flour is added. Overmixing can lead to cakes that are tough, gummy, or unpleasantly chewy.
- You can beat egg whites with a whisk but your arms may fall off. It is easier to use an electric hand-held mixer or a stand mixer.
- Fold (not mix!) the beaten egg whites into the cake batter. What you’re doing is making the batter light and fluffy by incorporating air into the mix. I’ll explain in detail in the recipe card below.
- We will be baking at 2 different temperatures; first 350ºF (180ºC) for 15 minutes and then reduce to 325ºF (160ºC) for 20 minutes. No need to insert a skewer into the cake as the chocolate is woozy inside. The cake should be slightly wobbly when you take it out of the oven.
- It’s best to let cool completely, for about 4 hours, because the inside is wobbly and woozy when it’s finished baking so it’s impossible to cut. You can keep the cake in the refrigerator overnight.
- I highly recommend microwaving a slice for 5 seconds (from the fridge) to warm up the matcha chocolate cake. It literally melts in your mouth!
Favorite Matcha Recipes on JOC
- Matcha Basque Cheesecake
- Matcha Chocolate
- Matcha Cookies
- Matcha Donut (Baked)
- Matcha Ice Cream
- Matcha Madeleine
- Matcha Marbled Pound Cake
- Matcha Mille Crepe Cake
- Matcha Swiss Roll
- Matcha Souffle Pancake
- Matcha Tiramisu
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Matcha Gateau au Chocolat
Video
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz white chocolate (I used 1 white chocolate bar weighing 4 oz/113.5 g per bar and removed 1 square of chocolate to get the correct weight; or weigh it with a kitchen scale)
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder)
- ¼ cup whole milk (or substitute 2% reduced fat milk)
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (yolks and whites separated)
- 3 Tbsp sugar (for the egg yolks)
- 3 Tbsp cake flour (weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off; DO NOT use a different type of flour; you can make your own Homemade Cake Flour)
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 3 Tbsp sugar (for the egg whites)
For Serving
- 1 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar (optional; for dusting)
Instructions
Before You Start…
- Please note that this cake requires a cooling time of 4 hours. Once cooled, you can serve it or chill it overnight in the refrigerator.
- Gather all the ingredients. I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Line a 6-inch (15-cm) round cake pan with parchment paper (I use a 6- x 3-inch pan). I spray oil on the pan first so the parchment paper will stick to the pan. Note: If you’re using a larger pan, see the Cake Pan Size section of my blog post for how to adjust the recipe.
To Mix the Batter
- Break or chop up 3.5 oz white chocolate into smaller pieces and put them in a heatproof large metal or glass mixing bowl (make sure the bowl is moisture- and grease-free).
- Cut 3 Tbsp unsalted butter into small cubes and add to the bowl with the white chocolate.
- To set up a double boiler, bring 2 inches of water in a pot to a gentle simmer and then rest the bowl with your ingredients on the pot. You want it to fit snugly without touching the water. Melt the chopped white chocolate and butter in the double boiler.
- With a silicone spatula, mix and let the chocolate and butter melt completely.
- Carefully remove the bowl from the double boiler. Make sure the steam or water doesn‘t get into the chocolate mixture or the chocolate will seize up. Add 3 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder) and mix them all together completely with the spatula, making sure there are no lumps.
- Gradually add ¼ cup whole milk as you stir. Mix it together well.
- Separate the egg whites and yolks of 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell). Put the whites in a small bowl and the yolks in a large bowl. Refrigerate or freeze the bowl with the egg whites for 15 minutes until cold. (It‘s okay if the egg whites are partially frozen). Tip: In Japan, we chill the egg whites to make smooth, fine-textured meringue and do not use cream of tartar.Next, add 3 Tbsp sugar to the bowl with the yolks.
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar vigorously with a hand whisk until the mixture is a creamy, pale yellow color.
- Add the matcha chocolate mixture to the egg yolk mixture and mix the batter well.
- Use a flour sifter or fine-mesh sieve to sift 3 Tbsp cake flour into the batter.
- Gently whisk the cake batter until the flour is just incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Add ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and mix it all together.
To Make the Meringue
- Remove the egg whites from the refrigerator or freezer and add them to a clean, large bowl. Using an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, start whipping the egg whites on medium-low speed (or Speed 4 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) until the egg whites are bubbly, opaque, and foamy.
- Gradually add 3 Tbsp sugar to the bowl while beating. Then, increase the mixer speed to high (or Speed 10 on a stand mixer). Beat vigorously until stiff peaks form (see the next step for how to check). It takes about 2 minutes of beating at high speed to reach stiff peaks. Tip: When using a stand mixer, I usually pause beating when the egg whites are almost done. I take off the whisk attachment from the mixer and use it to hand-mix the looser egg whites near the bowl‘s edge into the stiffer whites near the center until it‘s all homogenous in texture. Then, put the whisk back on and continue beating.
- To check for stiff peaks, pull up your beaters or whisk. The meringue in the bowl or on the beaters/whisk should be firm enough to hold a peak, pointing straight up (or maybe folding over a little bit just at the very tips). By this time, the meringue should have a glossy texture, too. Tip: If you overbeat the meringue, it will become very stiff and grainy and won‘t incorporate into the batter at all.
To Fold In the Meringue
- Using the spatula or a hand whisk, add one-third of the meringue into the batter. Mix well by hand until it‘s homogeneous.
- Gently fold in another one-third of the meringue. Take care not to deflate the air bubbles in the meringue and batter as you fold. Finally, add the remaining whites and repeat the folding motion until the foam is just incorporated. Take care not to deflate the air bubbles in the meringue and batter as you fold. Once it's well combined and homogeneous, fold the batter one last time and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure there is no chocolate accumulation. The final batter should fall in ribbons when you lift the spatula or whisk.
To Bake
- Transfer the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Smooth out the surface with the spatula.
- Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 325ºF (160ºC) and bake for another 20 minutes. When the cake is done baking, the center will still wobble slightly. The inside of the cake will be soft and moist, so you can’t insert a skewer to check doneness. Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a wire rack to cool completely, about 4 hours (otherwise, it‘ll be impossible to cut). If you‘d like, you can cover the cooled cake and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.
To Serve
- Remove the cake from the refrigerator (if you‘ve chilled it) and slice the cake. I highly recommend warming the chilled cake slices in the microwave for 5 seconds. Dust 1 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar on top, if you‘d like, and serve. The cake literally melts in your mouth!
To Store
- You can keep the cake in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
Hi, if I don’t have white chocolate, can I use semi-sweet chocolate instead? Thank you.
Hi, Minako! Thank you for experimenting with Nami’s recipe!
We haven’t tried it with semi-sweet chocolate yet, but we believe it would work.
Please let me know how it goes!
Hello Nami,
I made this cake last weekend for my son’s birthday. It was a big success, we all enjoyed it so much.
As always, your instructions and tips are crispy clearly to follow. I followed throughout except the last step, I sieved the cake batter into the pan in order to get lump free. I also dropped the pan right before and after baking. The cake turned out so beautiful! It was so smooth, creamy and with the flavor of matcha, is a plus.
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful details recipes and tips.
Best regards, Helen
Hi Helen! Happy Birthday to your son!🥳
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your baking experience with us!
Nami and JOC team are so happy to hear this worked out very well for the birthday cake!
Just made this. It is deceivingly delicious. My girls who commented it dont look nice …. quielty finished after the first taste.
Btw, i am using a 7in pan so I added 1.36x to your ingredients, using the same oven setting and timing as yours
Hi Gary! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear it came out delicious!
Happy Baking!😊
I’ve made this twice already (both using dark chocolate). You have done a fantastic job with your guide and photos.
I live in Japan and will hand out some pieces today to the staff I work with. I also made one for a friend for her birthday. The cake is always a hit!
Hi Milo! Awesome! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!❤️
We are so happy to hear you and your friend enjoyed Matcha Gateau au Chocolate!
This turned out wonderfully! Very rich and delicious flavour, not too difficult to make, looks and tastes very professional. I used a 7” cake tin, doubled the ingredients and added 5min to each round of baking.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! It’s instantly become a new family favourite.
Hi May! Aww💞 We are so happy to hear you and your family enjoyed Matcha Gateau au Chocolat!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback.
Hi Nami, made this cake today and it turned out fantastic! Although my matcha powder did not have the same bright green color like yours unfortunately. Only thing i was disappointed about was the fact that when I took it out of the oven, it was really tall but subsequently deflated to 1/2 the height when it cooled down. But I was very pleased with the result. Not overly sweet and the matcha taste was amazing.
Hi Iris! Nami is so happy to hear your cake turned out fantastic! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
This type of cake will sink/deflate after it cools down, but you can try these tricks to prevent it.
1) Make sure that all of your cooking tools are wiped off and dry.
2) Keep the chocolate temperature warm so that the ingredient’s temperature would not drop. You can also keep your room temperature a little warmer.
3) Do not mix too much after adding the meringue. Instead of stirring, use a flipping motion, literally folding the egg whites into the batter.
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami, I made this cake last night and finally tasted it this morning. It is delicious!!! Hubby and I both loved it! I don’t bake that often but I must say this one is a keeper and I can foresee making it many more times. Although the cake tasted really good, my cake (top layer) did not look anything like yours. The top did not brown and remained green. Would you know why that happened?
Hi Deb! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
Nami and JOC team are so happy to hear you enjoyed the cake.
The color difference could be from the difference in the oven, but if you leave the cake in the oven a touch little longer, it will brown. However, if you are happy with the texture, we recommend keeping it as is. Because if you bake it longer, the texture would be different.
We hope this helps!
Yes, I am really happy with how the cake turned out. Thanks for the tip 🙂
If I double the recipe, for you have any guidelines on how much I should increase the baking time? I love matcha and would like to give this a try!
Hi Gill! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
We did not test with the double amount, and we are not sure of the actual baking time. However, you can increase 5 more minutes on the baking time and see how it goes.
We hope this works!
hello!
I was wondering if it’s possible to use “high grade” matcha for this recipe? Do I need to reduce the amount?
Hi Nam! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Good quality Matcha would give the best flavor and color to this Gateau au Chocolat, and if you like strong Matcha flavor, we highly recommend it!
You can also reduce the Matcha amount for your taste and replace the amount with cake flour.
We hope this helps!
I can’t get baking white chocolate. Which to substitute? Couverture or compound? Thanks!
Hi Teresa! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Couverture chocolate is a better substitute for this recipe. We hope this works well for you!🙂
I don’t have any cake flour, can I just use normal self raising flour or plain flour?
Hi Ell! Sorry I forgot to add the link for homemade cake flour (I just fixed!). Cake flour is less gluten, and that’s what we normally use to make cakes in Japan. You can use plain flour, but add cornstarch to make it into cake flour. Here’s how to do it: https://www.justonecookbook.com/cake-flour/. Hope this helps!
Hi there! I’m a little confused by the third ingredient:
3 Tbsp matcha (green tea powder) (if you really want to reduce sugar, you can use 2 Tbsp or 12 g instead)
You’re using regular matcha powder, correct, not a sweetened beverage powder? So there isn’t any sugar in it anyway. So why would you reduce the amount of matcha to reduce the sugar? Maybe the sugar-reduction part was supposed to go with the sugar ingredient instead?
Outside of that, this looks lovely! I think I might make it for my birthday! 🙂
Hi Mel! I just removed that parenthesis “(if you really want to reduce sugar, you can use 2 Tbsp or 12 g instead)” because it was probably confusing to others too.
The reason I wrote that initially is that almost always people ask if they can reduce sugar… and I was trying to be proactive and mentioned that IF you’re reducing sugar, use less matcha (suggesting 2 Tbsp/12 g of matcha) because sugar and matcha balance will be off if you keep 3 Tbsp/18 g…
Happy early birthday! Hope you enjoy the cake! 🙂
This looks delicious! The oven temperature in the recipe – is it standard or fan-forced oven? Thank you.
Thank you! I use a regular conventional oven for 99% of my recipes on JOC since not everyone has a fan-forced convection oven (My oven can do both). See step 1: Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). For a convection oven, reduce cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC).
This looks yummy! I wonder how this would work with using powdered hojicha?
Hi Sairuh! I think it’ll work, but the strength of the tea flavor may vary, so please test and adjust to your liking. 🙂 Keep us posted with your experiment. xo
I’ve made this with houjicha and dark chocolate (didn’t change quantities) and it was great! In fact, this is my favourite of the combinations I’ve tried (also made a cocoa/dark chocolate version and the true recipe several times).
Would this work in an 8-inch round pan? Aside from adjusting the baking time, would you recommend any changes? Thanks!
Hi Lani! You’ll have to double the ingredients and increase the baking time. You will get slightly taller than my cake. Let us know how it goes!