Charcoal Swiss Roll

Another bake this weekend! 😊

Lil' Sis is always complaining that there is nothing for her to eat in school and that her school's canteen is exploding with people, so we try to bake weekly so that she can bring something to school as lunch on light days. But this time round, the cakes were gone even before Monday is here.... cause it's way too yummy!!! Too bad for Lil' Sis this time, go queue with all the people for your lunch~

About a year ago, we tried to bake swiss roll and failed very very very badly. The cake looked a lot like omelette and it had a lot of cracks when we tried to rolled it. We swore to never try swiss roll again since they are usually cheap and yummy even when we buy them from stores (especially those that we get from Malaysia, super good!). We came across this post online and decided to give swiss roll another try which turned out to be a successful bake to our surprise! Even the filling which was to use whipping cream, something that we are afraid of doing as we failed many many times with anything involving whipping cream, was a success! Wooohooooo~~ It wasn't a difficult at all too, other than trying to scrub all the stains on our bowls left behind by the charcoal powder. Do give it a try even if you have failed baking swiss roll previously just like us. The end product of this will definitely amaze you!

Charcoal Swiss Roll

Cake

Ingredients for cake

A

• 60g egg yolks (about 4-5) - please use the exact weight
  (we used about 68g)
• 50ml milk 
• 50ml vegetable oil, preferably something that is light and neutral tasting

B

• 70g cake flour with 8% protein 
• 10g charcoal powder
• 3/4 tsp baking powder 
• pinch of salt to taste 

C

• 140g egg whites (about 4-5) - please use the exact weight
  (we used about 120g)
• 80g caster sugar 

Method for cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Line one 35 x 25 cm baking tray with baking paper.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients of A and use a hand whisk to mix until all are combined.
4. Combine all in B. Sift mixture B into mixture A and use a hand whisk to mix until well incorporated.
5. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites (under C) in low speed until foamy. Increase beating speed to medium - Avoid using high speed as it will form large bubbles. While beating, add sugar (under C) gradually and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
6. Using a hand whisk or a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites (C, from step 5) to the flour mixture (A+B, from step 4) in 3 portions. Making sure most of the white is not visible after folding. 
7. Pour batter into baking tray. Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly and gentle tap the filled tray on the kitchen top to remove any large bubble.  
8. Bake for 15 mins or until the cake is well risen and fully cooked. 
9. When done, remove cake (with its baking paper) from the tray immediately and transfer it onto a wire rack to cool. 
10. After 5-10 mins of cooling, flip the cake onto a clean baking paper and remove the used baking paper at its bottom. 
11. Allow the cake to cool completely. 

Filling

Ingredients for filling

• 120ml (1/2 cup) whipping cream
• 10g icing sugar

Method for filling

1. Use an electric mixer with a whisk attachment or a cream whipper on medium speed to whip cream and icing sugar until stiff peaks form.

Assembling

1. Place cake with its flawless (you can choose which side to use if both sides of your cake look good) side down on a clean baking paper. Use a knife to trim off about 0.5 cm from all the sides of the cake.
2. Spread thin layer of cream evenly on the cake. Roll the cake from the shorter end along the longer side to form a Swiss roll. Wrap in cling wrap and allow the cake to firm up into its shape for 2-3 hr in a fridge or until firm enough to slice.
3. Slice and enjoy the cake. Store uneaten cake in an airtight container and in a fridge for up to 3 days.

Recipe adapted from:

Bake for Happy Kids

We did not reduce the sugar for this cake too and the sweetness was just nice! Only Mama Lin commented that it was too sweet for her, but she still happily gobbled down the cake just like the rest of us. Looking forward to baking it again! 😄

Sour-Cream Chocolate Cake

Almost two years since our last update, omg! 😆

We have been very very very lazy in updating this blog, but we are still baking frequently especially when Phoon Huat is having sales soooooo often!

Ever since joining a Facebook group that is dedicated to baking, we were always influenced by all the posts posted in the group as they all look super nice and yummy. There is always a certain 'trend' going on and a lot of bakers would be baking the same category of bakes and post in the group such as chiffon cakes (😍😍😍), breads, cheese tarts (in time with BAKE cheese tarts opening) and many many more. We've tried chiffon cakes from recipes posted there and they were really good!

Other than all baking related posts, there are also several bakers who are really good in piping buttercream flowers and they look really pretty! Oink was inspired by those pretty buttercream flowers, especially those made with Korean buttercream as the texture looks slightly different from standard buttercream - glossy, dewy, almost like real flowers. After much research, we (finally) made buttercream for the first time and we were quite surprised that it is quite similar to the Korean buttercream as seen from the posts even though it has a different name to it. Yummy too, quite like buttercream on old school cakes! Oink also succeeded in piping pretty flowers even with no experience of piping! So happyyyyyyy! 🎉🎊🎉🎊 Will definitely share the photos next time!

As we like our buttercream flowers to be of a light colour, we were looking for a good dark-coloured cupcake to pair it up with the flowers. We stumbled upon this chocolate cake recipe and decided to try it and it turns out soooo good that we couldn't stop thinking of it! This is absolutely the kind of base we would use together with our buttercream flowers, or even just baking it to eat the cake on its own! The whole process is one of the easiest too!

Check out the recipe below~

Sour-Cream Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for Chocolate Cake

• 150ml sour cream or crème frâiche
• 2 eggs
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 200g plain flour
• 40g cocoa
• 200g caster sugar
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 200g unsalted butter, softened

Ingredients for Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Line and grease 2 x 20cm (8 inch) round cake tins.*
   *We lined cupcake trays instead!
3. In a small bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat paddle attachment. Beat on low speed until the butter is incorporated into the dry ingredients.
5. Slowly add the egg mixture and beat until the batter is thoroughly mixed.
6. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared cake tins and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.**
   **We baked for 15 min since we made cupcakes instead of full cakes.
7. Place the cake tins on a wire rack and let the cakes cool in the tins for about 10 minutes, before turning them onto the wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe adapted from:

Eat, Little Bird

We wanted to reduce the amount of sugar at first, but thankfully we didn't as the cake did not turn out to be too sweet. Just nice to our liking, slightly more towards the bitter side. It is a very moist cake and we can have several of it in one go. As we were so in love with the cake, we ended up ditching the plan to make the icing and just ate the cake on its own. Maybe the next time, we will decorate it with our buttercream flowers!

We will definitely try to update this blog more too! 😊