Every year, I make it a point to dedicate a birthday bake to my family members’ birthday. Today, is little Chloe bear’s birthday… blatantly, my favourite niece… she is always full of smile, sunshine, and most importantly, most forgiving of the lot….
I used the recipe for a swiss roll (pan size 25cm x 25cm), doubled the recipe and then assembled it into a cake. This is a very soft and fluffy cake. Following is the original recipe adapted from Junko 彩绘蛋糕卷 2 for a swiss roll
Ingredients:
Cake
– 5 eggs (divide into 1 and 4 egg whites. Reserve 1 yolk – yes, the rest of the 4 yolks will not be used)
– 65g castor sugar
– 60ml water
– 45ml salad oil (I used canola oil)
– few drops of vanilla extract (for my double recipe, I used 1 tsp lychee extract, and 3/4 tsp vanilla extract)
– 80g cake flour (for cake)
– 2tsp cake flour (for designs)
– 1 tsp corn starch
– few drops of red food colouring mixed with water (I should have added more.. after adding the egg white, my cake turned yellow again)
Sugar syrup
– 10g granulated sugar
– 20ml hot water
– 1/2 tbsp kirsch liquer
Filling
– 150ml whipping cream
– 70g strawberry jam (after sieve)
– 10 strawberries
Directions
– line a 25x25cm pan with parchment baking and preheat oven to 170 degrees C
– Add 1 yolk, 35g of the castor sugar and half of the salad oil in a mixing bowl and beat until light and frothy. Add the water, remaining salad oil, extract, and mix well. Sieve in flour and incorporate well, and add red rood colouring (I call this egg yolk mixture)
Drawing the designs
– Prepare 2 small bowls and spoon 2 tsp of egg yolk mixture into each bowl
– add 1 tsp of cake flour into each of the small bowl then tint each bowl with red food colouring. One bowl should have a darker colouring than the other bowl but please ensure both the bowls have colours darker than the cake
– beat 1 egg white till it becomes frothy and add a little bit of corn starch and continue beating until you achieve stiff peak (I call this A)
– add a quarter of the egg white volume into each of the small bowl
– put the mixture from the 2 bowls into separate piping bag, and start piping the designs
– baking the drawings in the oven for 1min30sec
Preparing the egg whites and completing the cake mixture
– beat 4 egg whites till about 70% done (for me, I used my eye to gauge.. it’s like opaque frothy and not yet soft peak). Then add in the remaining A from the earlier egg white mixture, and continue beating till you get soft peak. Add the remaining castor sugar and beat till egg white is silky and stiff and add the remaining corn starch and beat till incorporated
– add meringue into the remaining egg yolk mixture in 3 additions. Fold gently ensuring you do not break the bubbles
– bake for 14 minutes (somehow, I baked 18 mins for this recipe. I baked till the top is uniformly brown)
Finishing
– remove cake immediately from pan by letting it cool on a rack. Ensure that the design is facing upwards. I simply put my rack on top of the tray and tip it upside down
– remove parchment paper immediately and then cover back
– leave cake to cool completely
– preparing whipping cream and beat till stiff (I did not have the jam, so i added 14 g of castor sugar to every 150ml of whipping cream, and added lychee extract)
– lay cake (design downwards) on a fresh piece of parchment paper and brush cake (no design side) with sugar syrup
– spread whipping cream and lay strawberries
– roll cake and leave to chill
Swiss roll is one of my favourite bakes because the designs on the cake is limited to your creativity… I’d even seen an Obama swiss roll done by a Japanese baker! probably next time, when I am more skilled…
Have fun!
Pollution index: 139 (unhealthy)
