I haven’t made a Pokemon-themed dessert in a hot minute, but I wanted to try my hand with one after I made this really tasty olive oil cake, and wanted to find a way to showcase it! So I figured, why not make a cake inspired by the adorable Pokemon, Smoliv? Smoliv is a Normal/Grass-type Pokemon that is basically a tiny walking olive with a smaller olive on top of its head. It is absolutely adorable to look at, and simple enough in design that I could replicate it(somewhat) as a mousse cake. For my mousse cake, we have an olive oil cake, an olive oil mousse, olive oil-matcha glaze, and an olive oil-matcha truffle as garnish. Regrettably, I should have used fig leaf instead of matcha for the green notes of this dessert, but I did not think to do that until after the fact. Fig leaf, unlike matcha, would have had these coffee-like notes and is more prominently used than matcha in the Mediterranean and therefore would naturally pair better with the olive oil. But at least now I know for the future iterations of this cake that may or may not come about!

For the recipe, we have an olive oil cake, olive oil mousse, olive oil-matcha mirror glaze, and whipped olive oil-matcha ganache truffles. The cake and mousse are a priority in this case, since the cake needs to be baked and cooled and the mousse needs to be made, with the cake pressed into it, to form the body of your dessert. The entire mousse needs to be frozen solid first just so that glazing it would be as un-messy as possible. For the topping, we have essentially a base olive oil-matcha ganache, that is split then dyed separately, and piped together on top of the mousse cake to finish. Just for the details, since the olive on Smoliv’s head does have a little pit in it, I used a wetted chopstick to form a similar hole on top of each of my Smolivs to finish!

Makes 5 to 6 cakes:
For the olive oil cake:
1/4 cup semolina flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 eggs
1oz olive oil
1oz cup whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, whisk everything together until combined. Pour the cake batter into a lined quarter sheet tray and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Allow the cake to fully cool before cutting out 5 1-inch rounds.

For the olive oil mousse:
2oz whole milk
1oz olive oil
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1oz white chocolate
4oz heavy cream, whipped stiff

In a pot, whisk the milk, olive oil, cornstarch, sugar, and salt until there are no more lumps. Place the pot on medium-high heat and continue to whisk until the mixture comes up to a boil. Take the olive oil custard off heat and whisk in the white chocolate until that is fully melted in. Pour the mixture into a bowl, and allow it to fully cool. Then fold into it the heavy cream to form your mousse.

For initial assembly:
With silicone egg molds, fill five of them 2/3 the way full with the mousse. Press into each the rounds of the cake. Then pipe into each of the five cavities the rest of the mousse. Using an offset spatula, level off any excess mousse. Freeze these solid before attempting to unmold. Keep the mousses frozen solid for ease of assembly.

For the olive oil-matcha glaze:
1/4 cup whole milk
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp matcha powder
2 tbsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
a pinch of salt

In a pot, melt everything together on medium heat until the gelatin and white chocolate are dissolved. Keep the glaze at 90 degrees F for ideal glazing. Pour the glaze over the frozen mousses, allowing the excess to drip off and the glaze to set firm before transferring the mousses to another serving surface.

For the matcha-olive oil truffle:
4oz white chocolate
1oz olive oil
1oz whole milk
a pinch of salt
1 tsp matcha powder
1/4 tsp green spirulina*

In a pot, heat up the white chocolate olive oil, milk, and salt until everything is dissolved together. Take the mixture off heat and stir into that the matcha powder first. Divide the mixture in two, and mix into the rest of it the spirulina – allow both mixtures to fully cool before creaming with a spatula until spreadable. Transfer the matcha-only mixture to a piping bag with a leaf piping bag. Transfer the other mixture into a piping bag with a round tip. Pipe the leaf piping bag mixture on top of each of your cakes first, then the round one after. Using a wetted skewer, form the pits on top of each of the piped truffles to finish.