Blood Orange and Chocolate Truffle Swiss Roll

It's been awhile since I last made a swiss roll cake. I believe my last attempt was the Oreo Swiss Roll cake, which was almost 5 months ago?! Didn't realized it was that long. :P I have been browsing around and really admire some of the bloggers posting up really nice and special swiss roll cakes. I kept telling myself I am gonna make a swiss roll. soon no matter what! But....what flavor? I just archive it thinking the idea will come to me soon. Then just last week when I was doing some grocery shopping, I was really lucky to find blood oranges selling at the NTUC finest near my place. Okay, rewind.....did I say "blood", yeah I did. You didn't hear me wrong, it's blood oranges alright. :) Blood oranges are a special variety of orange which it's flesh has this bright crimson color. To justify what I meant, here is a shot of the orange I used:

Okay, not exactly blood red, but it is more deep in color and that is the name it was given. I haven't taste this fruit for a good 4 years now and now seeing it at my local grocer just brought back some fond memories of my life in California. I immediately bought 3 and ate one up once I got home, lol! It was juicy, sweet and much more intense in it's orange taste. ;) I decided to use the remaining 2 to bake something special. Some how Swiss roll just came back to my mind. :)

I bet your first reaction must be "Are you sure it's blood orange? It's looks more like Matcha & chocolate." Haiz! Beats me! Somehow the color is way off my expectations. So if you didn't smell or taste the cake, you might probably think I cheat you guys off with a pandan or matcha cake, lol! I guess this red coloring "problem" is around in most baking goods, well unless you used food coloring, then it's another story. For example, strawberry or dragon fruit bakes, usually didn't turn out as pinkish or reddish as we hoped. :P Nevertheless, this is a true blood orange cake but feel free to swap it with matcha or pandan, hahaha!

I pretty much suck at rolling up a Swiss roll. As you can see, it's not snug enough, or perhaps it's just me being greedy and stuffing too much cream in it. :P O well, learn as I go then. Okay, here is the recipe for this cake, feel free to substitute the blood orange with any ordinary orange. :) This is pretty much the same as my orange chiffon cake recipe.

Ingredients for Blood Orange & Chocolate Truffle Swiss Roll:
Egg yolk mixture:
4 egg yolks
100 ml. Blood Orange juice
15 ml. water
85 ml. corn oil
80 gm. sugar
75g Cake flour
75g plain flour
3 gm. salt
1 tsp. Baking Powder
Zest of 1 blood orange
1/2 tsp. Orange essence oil
Egg White mixture:
5 egg white
1/8 tsp. Cream of Tartar
90 gm. sugar

100g quality dark chocolate, melted and cooled
200ml non-dairy heavy cream, whipped
125g dark chocolate truffle

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all of the egg yolk ingredients and mix well till everything is well incorporated and smooth.
  
• Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and line with parchment paper on a 13" by 14" baking tray. Grease the parchment as well.
  
• In another mixing bowl, add in all the egg white and cream of tartar and beat using a mixer at medium speed till foamy. Without stopping the mixer, gradually add in the sugar and beat till stiff peaks.
• Gently fold a quarter portion of the white mixture into the yolk mixture till well combined. Then add the yolk mixture to the white mixture and gently fold everything together till all is incorporated.
• Take about 1/5 of the batter and mix in the cooled, melted dark chocolate and stir well till well blended. Scoop this chocolate batter in to a piping bag with an 1 cm opening tip.
• Pipe the chocolate batter in diagonal lines across the whole tray. (Sorry forget to take pictures!) Then gently scoop the rest of the batter over the tray, making sure you don't mess up the chocolate diagonal lines.
• Bake in the preheated oven of 175C for 13 to 15 minutes till tester comes out clean and the surface is golden brown.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely on rack before removing the parchment.
  
• Spread the whipped cream over the surface and line a row of chocolate truffles on one end of the cake and roll up from the shorter end into a swiss roll and tug it snug with a kitchen towel.
  
• Place the cake in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hr before removing the kitchen towel to slice and serve. Enjoy!!
  

I made this for my parents when they asked us over for dinner over the weekend. Everyone loved it, including my sisters & the kids. My dad whom doesn't like cakes with cream, finished up his share happily. ;) The only down side of this cake for me is, it's kind of hard to cut the truffles after it's been chilled. :P

My girls love the cake, however they loved the truffle more. *sigh* You can get any kind of truffles, e.g. Meiji brand. Or if you are adventurous enough, make some yourself. But remember to use good chocolate for that.

Anyway, hope I have inspire you a little to think about baking up a Swiss roll cake yourself. It's all a matter of trying it yourself and practicing more when you get the chance. I know I need to! Okay, have fun baking and hope to hear that you too have roll up a Swiss roll soon. Cheers!