Chocolate Swiss Roll (New Method)

Hi all, hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend. :) Anyway, over the weekend, I managed to meet up some of my Junior College friends. Boy was it good to see them again. :) Although we rarely meet up, probably once or twice a year. But every time we see each other, it feels like we just met a couple weeks back. We don't blame each other for not being able to meet up more often or making that extra phone call. Its just a magical mutual understanding between us friends that we know we are all leading a busy life and know how it is. Even though we haven't spoken for months, there was never any awkward moments when we talk. Its just so natural and nice feeling. Guess good friends never fails huh? Anyway, to give my old friends a small treat, I decided to make a Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake for everyone to enjoy.

I know, not another chocolate Swiss roll! As mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to show everyone this new method of making a sponge cake which was taught in the 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 cookbook. This method is also called the "分蛋式海绵蛋". I wouldn't have think much about it until Grace from Kitchen Corner mentioned to me that this method yields the softest and best sponge cake. I trust her of course and tried it. True enough, it is soft and it doesn't deflate so much like the chiffon method. Now I am only wondering would Rose's sponge cake method be any better then this? I guess I just have to try both recipes a couple more times to REALLY finalize on the "superior" one! But trust me, both recipes are good. :)

Recipe for Chocolate Swiss Roll (modified to suit my tray size)
Set A:
37g unsalted butter
120g egg yolk (about 7)
37g caster sugar
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
30ml ice water

Set B:
180g egg white
90g caster sugar

34g Cake flour
34g plain flour

Filling:
120ml fresh whipping cream, whipped
80g semisweet chocolate, melted (must be slight warm when used)
~6 to 8 fresh strawberries

Method:

• Melt the butter from Set A under double boiler and let cool until needed.

• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and greased it again. Preheat oven to 170C.
• Picture 1: Again under double boiler, beat the egg yolks and sugar (from Set A) till triple in volume and thickens as shown in Picture 2.
• Picture 3: Sift the cocoa powder into the thicken egg yolk mixture and mix gently, making sure it is not deflated. Then add in the ice water and stir in gently till combined.
• At the meantime, beat the egg white with gradual addition of the sugar in Set B and beat till mixture is stiff peaks.
• Picture 4: In 3 separate portions, add the egg whites into the yolk mixture, folding gently till all is added in.
• Picture 5: Sift in the flours in 3 separate portions as well, using the electric mixer at its lowest speed. Do this till there is no visible lumps of flour and making sure not over beating and deflating the mixture.
• Take about 2 tbsp worth of the batter and mix into the melted, cooled butter. Make sure it is well mixed and then add it back to the cake batter and gently stir to blend.
• Picture 7: Finally, pour the batter into the baking tray and level out with a scraper.
  

• Picture 8: Then bake in the oven for 12 minutes or till tester comes out clean.
• Add the warm chocolate to the whipped cream id desired to make chocolate cream and spread the filling evenly on the cake once it is completely cooled. Place the fresh strawberries at one end of the cake and roll it up from the end where the strawberries are and chill it for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Hope my photos and steps will give you folks a better idea of this method. If it's not clear enough....feel free to drop me a comment if you have queries. :)

As you can see, my Swiss roll was a bit of a rough work. :P I was again rushing to finish it off in that 2 hours time frame (plus all that photo taking. :P) But coating the roll with chocolate rice was a great idea...some how it gives me a nostalgic feeling every time I have chocolate rice, lol! It reminds me of all those cakes from those traditional bakeries we used to eat during childhood. :)) So sharing this classic cake with my old friends was just perfect don't you think?

The sponge cake was soft with a nice "spring" to its texture. And furthermore, it rolls up very nicely with no cracks. So if you have problems with using chiffon method, why don't you give this method a try? You'll be pleasantly surprised. :)

Okay all, gotta run. Hope you have a good week ahead. Cheerio!!