When I open Harajuku Cream Handle (a cheap, Taiwanese knock-off of Momofuku Milk Bar that shall actually never come into fruition for many potential lawsuit-related reasons), the matchamisu naked layer cake is going to be displayed to the world in all of its gorgeous, bare glory. Ew, that sounded horrible and I regret saying that but oh well, it’s been put into the universe and we shall see what becomes of that. Anyways, matchamisu has been something a lot of people have been doing as of recent. Not to be a hipster, but I have been making that since like two years ago (the proof is on Instagram, motherfuckers), so I am very familiar with the idea of how to make this. However, since I am doing a cheap knock-off of the naked layer cakes served at Momofuku Milk Bar, I wanted to really embrace the technical complexity behind tackling a cake like this.

The layers, staying true to the Momofuku Milk Bar philosophy, has to have a cake, a soaking liquid, two fillings, one that is more spreadable than the other, and a crunch. For my cake, I’m doing matcha American-style cake. I thought about doing chiffon, but since two of the three layers are going to be crumbled up or semi-crumbled up cake, the delicate nature of chiffon would not hold up. For my soaking liquid, obviously matcha, but to spruce it up, I’m doing matcha-goat milk latte. For one of my fillings, a white chocolate-goat milk-bee pollen ganache. For the crunch, bee pollen-goat milk crunch. The second filling is matcha infused mascarpone cheese. So we are going to layer that shit up, and make ourselves a naked layer cake.

For four mini cakes:
For the cake:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups goat milk
3 1/2 tablespoons matcha powder
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 egg whites

Whip egg whites with the 1/2 cup sugar until it is stiff. Sift together dry ingredients. Combine everything and pour onto a lined shallow baking tray (I used 18 x 13 inches). Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Cool completely.

For the matcha-goat milk latte:
1 cup goat milk
1 tablespoons matcha powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar or honey

Combine ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cool completely.

For the goat milk-matcha ganache:
2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 cup goat milk
2 1/2 tablespoons matcha powder

Melt together the goat milk and chips and add in the matcha.

For the matcha-goat milk crunch:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons goat milk powder
2 tablespoon matcha powder
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Combine ingredients and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Break apart the crumble into roughly thumbnail sized pieces.

For the cheesecake mousse:
8 oz cream cheese (bonus points for mascarpone, but it’s not necessary)
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip together ingredients. I used cream in my original recipe, but that made it runny, so just stick to the ingredients on the list so that you don’t have semi-soup by the time you serve the cake.

Assembly:
Use mini ring molds to cut out eight perfect rounds of cake (I used these ones). Then you line each ring mold with a parchment sheet (fun fact, I forgot to do this and had to first freeze the cakes, then wrap them in parchment, and add on more layers later), and place crumbled bits of cake (not the rounds, but the remnants) in first, pressing them down so that you can cover the entire bottom of the pan. Soak it in the latte. Then spread on the cheesecake mousse, then the crumble, then the ganache, then add on one round layer. Repeat, then add on the last layer for an individual serving. Soak, then garnish with ganache and the crumble. Freeze for at least 1 hour before removing the ring mold and the parchment.