Happy Birthday Kexian!

Me, and my girlfriends celebrated our Kexian's birthday last weekend. Without fail, I now would try to bake them a cake when anyone's birthday comes along. :)

Ok, this is definitely not made by me. :P I'm just sharing the dessert we had in the restaurant where we had our dinner at Robertson Quay. It's a cosy small Japanese Cafe that serves reasonably priced and great food as well. What is unique about this cafe is that they stock up lots of Japanese related reading materials such as comics, novels and magazines for you to browse. You can even buy home these books although they are not new ones at reasonably price!

The above is their homemade matcha ice-cream with azuki beans and jelly. Below is coffee jelly with vanilla ice-cream. I must say coffee flavoured (kopi-o, meaning dark coffee without sugar) jelly pairs really well with vanilla ice-cream!

The third dessert would have to be this strawberry swissroll I've made. :)

Somehow this idea of making a swissroll just came to me while I was browsing around cakeshops, trying to look for ideas for her birthday cake.

After my 80% success in my previous swissroll attempt, I decided to go for it again. This time round, I used this recipe from Aunty Yochana's pear swissroll with some of my own modifications. I was so happy as this was the first time my swissroll didn't crack at all! From my experience, I'd found that it is much easier to roll it with the greaseproof paper/a towel into the swissroll. After sometime when it has cooled and you are ready to spread the icing, then you unroll it, spread the icing and roll it again. As it had retained its shape during the first rolling, somehow it would be easier to roll it back without having any paper/towel as your guide the second time. Unless you are very experienced or have a very good technique, then probably you would not have to roll it first. Well, this is from my observations. Feel free to share your method or experience if you think yours is better. :)

Do remember never to chill the buttercream. This is different from whipping cream. I made this mistake of chilling it, when I was about to spread the icing, it had became too hard. Luckily, it was still salvageable by waiting for it to soften and beating back again. Hmm well, a lesson learnt cos' I'd never have thought about it. Hehe..

Ok, let me share this recipe with you people first. :)

Ingredients for Swissroll:

3 eggs

60g castor sugar

70g cake flour

40g canola oil

1 tsp strawberry emulco

2 drops of pink colouring

Ingredients for buttercream:

375g icing sugar, sieved

225g unsalted butter

Pinch of Salt

Some fresh strawberries, cut into slices
1 tsp strawberry emulco
2 drops of pink colouring

1 tsp vanilla essence

Toasted almond flakes
Strawberries for decoration

Method:

1. Whisk eggs and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Gently fold in flour, pink colouring and oil and mix thoroughly, taking care not to deflate the eggs
3. Pour batter onto tray and level it (I used 11-inch by 14-inch pan)
4. Bake at preheated oven for 180°C for about 8 - 10 mins.
5. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.
6. For buttercream: Cream icing sugar with salt. Divide into two portions. For one portion, add colouring, emulco and strawberries and mix well. For the other portion, add vanilla essence, leave out the colouring.
7. When the sponge is cooled or slightly warm, lay onto a piece of greaseproof paper.
8. With the help of the greaseproof paper, roll the sponge into a swiss roll (the paper would be rolled in as well).
9. After about half hour, open up the swiss roll and spread strawberry buttercream onto the swissroll and roll it up again.
10. Spread vanilla buttercream on the surface of swissroll. Decorate the sides with almond flakes. Decorate with strawberries or any fruits/toppings that you like!

Note: As I had used buttercream instead of whipping cream, the cream would harden if you chill in the fridge, tasting like sugar icing, which to me, is nice as well. You may also use whipping cream.


Recipe Source: Aunty Yochana's Pear Swissroll (Cake)
Buttercream: 500 Cupcakes and Muffins by Fergal Connolly


I really like this pink swissroll that I can't resist taking lots of photos ofits many angles. :) Glad that Kexian likes it except the chocolate biscuit. :P