HoneyBee Swiss Roll Cake

I have finally did it! Something I have been wanting to do for awhile...another Swiss roll cake decoration!

 Doesn't this picture just cheer you up a little? It almost seems like a little kid doing a new kind of art work, lol! Since my last couple of attempts with the Pikachu Mango Swiss Roll and my MIL's birthday cake, I promised myself that I must do it again. :) I knew I had to do a picture with a bee in it, heehee.

This time I followed the recipe given in my cookbook. And mind you, its in Japanese and I am half guessing the words and trying to translate it online, lol! And the best part is I actually modified the recipe and so as to increase the volume to fit my bigger baking tray...scary right, lol! :P Anyway, the recipe calls for a simple vanilla cake using egg separation method, almost like chiffon cake technique. Here is my recipe, translated by yours truly (use it at your own risk, heehee) :

Ingredients for Vanilla Swiss Roll ( 10 inches by 14 inches cake tray) :

Egg Yolk Batter:

4 egg yolks

40g caster usgar

75ml water

50ml vegetable oil

1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract

100g Cake flour

For decorations and drawings

• (A) Four separate small bowls with 1tsp of above batter placed in it(for red, pink, yellow & brown food coloring) Note that I use 1 tsp of cocoa powder instead of brown coloring
• Add 1/4 tsp of cake flour into each bowl and mix well (Next time I will omit this as I find it hardens the batter a little and thus separating the decoration from the Swiss roll)
• (B) Another bowl with 2 tsp worth of above batter place in it (for green food coloring) Note that original recipe calls for green tea powder but I used green food coloring.
• Add 1/2 tsp of cake flour to the bowl and mix well.
• 1 egg white beaten with a pinch of cream of tartar & 10g caster sugar till stiff peaks. Take 1/3 of this egg white and mix in (B) mixture while the remaining 2/3 is divided equally among the 4 bowls in (A) and mix well.
• Place your desired picture on the baking tray and place a greased parchment over it and grease it again. Preheat the oven to 165C.
• Pipe the decorations on the parchment as required and bake in the preheated oven for a minute. Repeat till the whole picture has been piped out and baked except for some of the outlines which will require black food coloring later.

Egg White Batter:

5 egg whites
40g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

• Beat egg white till foamy, add cream of tartar and continue to whip. Gradually add in the sugar and continue to beat at high speed till it reaches stiff peaks.
• Fold white into the reserved main egg yolk batter gently in 3 separate portions till all is incorporated.
• Pour batter over the baked decoration and filled up the baking tray. Level it nicely and then place in preheated oven to bake for about 12 to 14minutes till the top is golden brown.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from tray and peeling off the parchment.

This is how it looks like once all the decoration has been baked on to the cake and yet to be rolled up and outlined. Note that outlining the picture should only be done after you have filled and rolled up the Swiss roll. Simply just use some food coloring with 1/2 tsp of water and a fine tip brush will do.

Please pardon some of the "untidiness" you can spot from the Swiss roll. It can be really hard to control the cake batter to make it perfectly the way you want it to look like. I'm sure those bloggers that have attempted this will know what I mean. :P There were a few mistakes I made while making this, biggest one was forgetting to grease the parchment and causing some of the batter to stick! *sigh* Anyway, I am still happy with the end result...even thought it took me a whole 3 hours to complete it! ;P

I have filled the cake with simple whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries, plus a thin layer of chocolate ganache...which explains why there's this brownish color on the inside. :P

My kids loved the cake...taste wise that is, they don't really fancy much of mummy's "art" work. :P The cake is indeed very soft...and no cracks when rolled. Shall make it again with other flavors next time.

Thanks for staying and reading my long post. And hope my explanation is clear enough for those who wants to try out. :P

Needless to say, I'll be submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food.

Have a good weekend folks!