Purple Sweet Potato Swiss Roll

It's the end of the month again, just a couple more days before we enter August and here I am scrambling to post my third and final entry for this month's Aspiring Bakers Event. For this month's event, everyone is challenged to try their hand  in swiss roll making. Most home bakers are intimidated by swiss rolls. I was too. Though baking the cake itself is easy, most dread when it comes to rolling for fear of the cake tearing. From my own experience and from other bloggers too, I found recipes that use egg white separation method (ie. chiffon cakes) make cakes that are springier and more flexible for rolling.

Here I made a Purple Sweet Potato Swiss Roll, adapted from a chiffon cake recipe. Just look at that lovely soft  purplish lavender hue ... it's all natural, no artificial coloring was added.  So pretty, so sweet and so girly, don't you think. The more I look at it the more besotted I am with the colour.  The swiss roll was yummy too. Soft, moist, and light.   

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food.


Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Roll
(Recipe adapted from 'Little House' here)

Note: I have slightly altered  the recipe from the original to include an extra egg yolk, and baked the cake in a swiss roll pan instead of a chiffon cake tin.

Ingredients:

100g purple sweet potato

6 tbs milk

4 egg yolks

20g brown sugar

1/8 tsp salt

50ml canola oil

85g cake flour

4 egg whites

50g white sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 350F (177C).

- Wash the sweet potato well and steam until very soft. Using a fork, mash the sweet potato with milk  or alternatively, blend in a food processor until smooth. 

- Whisk together the egg yolks, brown sugar, salt and oil until combined. Add the sweet potato mixture and beat until blended and smooth. Sift in the flour and beat until smooth. 

- In another bowl, beat the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until stiff and glossy peaks formed. Add 1/3 of the beaten  egg whites to the yolk mixture and gently mix to loosen a little, then gently fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites until well combined and smooth.

- Pour the batter into a lined (12 x12 inch) swiss roll pan. 

- Place the pan into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cake is cooked through (test with slewer).
-  Lift cake from  pan and let cool on a wire rack.
- Once cooled, turn cake on a  clean baking paper and remove the lining. Invert it again. Carefully scrape/slice away the skin.  Spread filling of your choice.  Roll up, trim away the ends. Done!

Black Sesame Chiffon Roll

 

I love anything with black sesame seeds. Not only are they a good source of  minerals and dietary fiber, they also make your hair thick & black as believed by the Chinese. I personally like the rich earthy nutty taste they impart when incorporated in desserts & confections.  Although black sesame seeds are relatively cheap and can be found in every supermarkets & grocers, it is not so with black sesame paste, I noticed- at least in my town. And the black sesame paste does not come cheap either. Anybody has a good homemade black sesame paste recipe to share? 

 

This black sesame roll cake was made from a chiffon cake recipe adapted  from Keiko Ishida's 'Okashi-Sweet Treats Made with Love'.  I have substituted ground black sesame for the whole black sesame seeds called  for, and I used a swiss roll pan instead of a chiffon tin, and adusted the baking temperature and time. 
I must say I really love this cake and enjoyed savoring every bite (but of course I'm biased - like I've mentioned earlier, I love anything with black sesame). My Daughter G exclaimed 'Yuck!' at  the mention of black sesame but funnily helped herself to not one but two slices!  Ah, this daughter of mine!  


Black Sesame Chiffon Roll

Ingredients:
70g Cake flour
5 Egg yolks
20g Brown Sugar
20g Black sesame paste
20g Ground black sesame seeds
60g Water
40g Canola oil
90g Castor Sugar
10g Rice Flour
180g  Egg whites (from about 5 eggs)



Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180°C.
2) Combine egg yolks, brown sugar and black sesame paste in a bowl and mix well. Add water and canola oil and blend together. Add sited flour and mix until batter becomes sticky. Set aside.
3) Combine sugar and rice flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and  rice flour mixture and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remainder and beat until egg whites are glossy with stiff peaks (the whites will not fall out when the bowl is overturned).
4) Add one third of  beaten egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly. Then add in the remaining egg white mixture. Fold gently until incorporated completely.
5) Pour batter into a baking paper lined 12x14 inch swiss roll pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cake is done (test with a skewer). Remove cake from pan and cool on wire rack.
6) Spread cake with whipped cream and carefully but firmly roll  it up. Leave to rest in a refrigerator to firm up before slicing to serve. Enjoy!

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food.

Lime Curd & Cream Cheese Swiss Roll

I had some leftover lime curd and cream cheese frosting from the courgette cake I had made earlier. What better way to use them all up by making yet another cake! But this time I made a simple swiss roll (recipe here). The tart taste of the lime curd intermingled beautifully with the voluptuous richness of the cream cheese frosting. This is one scrummy swiss roll if  I may say so myself!

I'm submitting this entry to this month's Aspiring Bakers themed 'Swiss Rolling Good Times' hosted by 'Obsessedly Involved With Food' (Details here).

Swiss Roll with Stawberry Jam Filling

Out of the blue my Daughter, G requested for a swiss roll cake. Peculiarly she dislikes cream filling in swiss rolls and insisted that the swiss roll I make is filled with strawberry jam. And mind you not any strawberry jam will do. It has to be ARTIFICIAL strawberry jam; you know, those cheapo bright red coloured jams with zero fruit content. Yes, my G is quirky sometimes. But I can see why she preferred the artificial strawberry jam. The cheapo jam does not contain any fruit pieces and hence, no seeds will get in the way, so to speak. The jam is just basically a  strawberry flavoured jelly and it is also what I suspect most bakeries are using in their filled donuts and cakes. I've to admit I quite like it myself, reminds me of the donuts I used to eat by the bagful during my student days  :P

Here it is, simple swiss roll recipe (adapted from Baking Library here) with artificial strawberry jam.


Ingredients:

80g egg yolks, room temperature
25g castor sugar
2tbs + 1 tsp corn oil
2tbs + 1 tsp water or milk
75g cake flour
160g egg whites
60g castor sugar

strawberry jam, or any jam or filling of your choice


Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180 °C and line a 12 x 12 inch tin or 10 x 14 inch swiss roll tin with baking/parchment paper.

2) In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 25g castor sugar, vegetable oil and water until combined. Sift in cake flour and mix until smooth.

3) In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs whites starting with low speed. When the egg whites turn frothy, slowly increase the speed to high and wisk until egg whites reach soft peaks stage. Gradually add the 60g sugar and continue whisking until egg whites are stiff but still not dry. The egg whites should stay intact when the bowl is overturned.

4) Fold one third of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture to lighten the mixture. Then incorporate the rest of the egg whites one third at a time.  Fold in gently and scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula until batter is well combined and uniformly coloured. Becareful not to deflate.

5) Pour batter into the prepared swiss roll tin. Level the batter and bake for 8 - 11 minutes. Cake is done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow sheet cake to cool.

6) Carefully turn the baked sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again, carefully. Now, peel of the top piece of baking/parchment paper. The skin would be stuck to the baking/parchment paper and would be removed.

7) With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), make a shallow slit across the breadth of the cake with a knife, one inch from the edge. Spread on the strawberry jam. Roll the cake up tightly and trim off the ugly ends. Serve.