July 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - SwissRoll Ice-Cream Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

It's done, I promise! I am so excited about this challenge and I can't wait to see how my creation turns out, but I am going to have to be patient for a few days more... sadly, I don't think my choice of flavours (matcha, ginger, and warabi mochi in place of the chocolate sauce - see, I am bursting to tell you about it!) would go down too well with the kids and although I'm confident that I could polish this off single-handedly, I am trying my best not to give in to my greedy tendencies ;-) So, we must wait until Friday, when the cake will be presented in honour of a friend's special birthday... Apologies for not being able to provide photos of the finished dessert at this point, but here's a sneaky peek just to show that it is indeed done and sitting in the freezer:


Actually, this month's challenge opened up a whole new part of summer for me - many months back I bought a second-hand ice-cream maker, which I put in a safe place and promptly forgot about!


It is very unlike the ice-cream maker I have in storage in the UK. It doesn't have a bulky core to take up room in the freezer, just a steel basin. You fill the basin with your chilled custard (or sorbet) base, attach the battery-powered motor/paddle, set it to work and put the whole unit to do it's job in the freezer. It does take longer to freeze the ice-cream than a regular maker (between 1 and 4 hours, depending on how much you are making), but of course there is no waiting for the core to freeze (or thaw enough to be able to clean it!). While preparing the ice-creams for this challenge, I was extremely thankful (having left completing the challenge to the end of the month, e now thas per usual) that I could whip up several different flavours back-to-back :-D

Thank you, Sunita, for a wonderful, wonderful challenge! My kid's will love you forever as, thanks to you, they are now enjoying thinking up their own original flavours for me to churn for them in time for dinner :-D

Here's the recipe we were provided with (I used Sunita's Swiss roll recipe as written as I hadn't decided on flavours, but used my own recipes for the ice-cream and will tell you about them when I post again after the tasting):

Notes-

• You do not need an ice cream maker for this recipe. But if you will be using one, make sure you churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions after mixing the ingredients.
• Whipping cream is a lighter version of double cream, with at least 35 per cent fat, and it whips beautifully without being quite so rich.
• Vanilla extract is made from vanilla beans that have been steeped in alcohol while vanilla essence is commercial manufactured by chemicals.
• Caster sugar is finely ground granulated sugar. It can also be found as “superfine sugar”, “fruit sugar” or “quick dissolving sugar”. If you can’t find it, you can make your own by whizzing some regular granulated sugar in the food processor or blender.
• Keep aside enough time for cooling and chilling the rolls and also for the layers to firm up before adding the next one. Moreover, the ice creams have also got to be made before assembling. I spread out the challenge over two days. I made the cakes and ice creams on the first day, and the fudge topping and assembly on the second day.
• While adding the final layer with the second ice-cream, make sure not to add it right to the brim. It may spill and will not look good.
• While inverting the final dessert onto the serving plate, if the cling film refuses to budge from the bowl, just wipe the outside of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will release from the dessert very easily.
• Take the dessert out of the freezer at least 10 minutes before serving, of course depending on how hot it is in your neck of the woods.
• Dip the knife in hot water for easy slicing.

Mandatory- I want all of you to have fun with the recipe, so will be allowing a lot of variations. But please keep the final product true to the original idea. This means that-

• You must make the Swiss rolls, a filling for them, two ice creams and a fudge sauce, from scratch.
• You must set the dessert in a bowl/pan etc in the order given in the recipe-Swiss roll, first ice-cream, the fudge topping and, finally, the second ice cream.

Variations allowed-

• You can either follow the given recipes for all the components or change the flavour of the Swiss rolls, filling, ice creams and fudge topping.
• You can make it in whatever shape and size you want.

Preparation time-

For the 2 Swiss rolls-

30 mins each + cooling time (at least 30 minutes) before filling and rolling. The filling can be made while the cakes cool.

-For the ice creams- 5+10 minutes + freezing time

For the fudge topping- 5 minutes + cooling time

Assembly- At least an hour of freezing time between each layer (I took much more)

Equipment required-

• A large mixing bowl
• Spatula/mixing spoon
• Sieve
• A small saucepan
• Containers for ice creams
• Cling film/plastic wrap
• Greaseproof baking paper
• Food processor/grinder
• Electric/hand held beaters
• Whisk
• 2 Baking pans, 11 inches by 9 inches each
• Kitchen towels
• Cooling rack
• A pudding bowl / any other bowl, pan in which you are going to set the dessert. I used a 2 litre capacity, 9 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep.
• Freezer
• Oven
• Serving plate
• Knife

Swiss roll ice cream cake (inspired by the recipe of the same name from the Taste of Home website)

The Swiss rolls-

Preparation time- 10 minutes

Baking time- 10-12 minutes

Rolling and cooling time- at least 30 minutes

Filling-5-8 minutes

Filling and rolling- 5-10 minutes

Ingredients-

6 medium sized eggs

1 C / 225 gms caster sugar /8 oz+ extra for rolling

6 tblsp / 45gms/ a pinch over 1.5 oz of all purpose (plain) flour + 5 tblsp/40gm /a pinch under 1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together

2 tblsp /30ml / 1 fl oz of boiling water

a little oil for brushing the pans

For the filling-

2C / 500 mls/ 16 fl oz of whipping cream

1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

5 tblsp / 70gms/2.5oz of caster sugar

Method-

1. Pre heat the oven at 200 deg C /400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.

3. Add the flour mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water.

4. Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.

5. Place a pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.

6. Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it.

7. Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.

8. Repeat the same for the next cake as well.

9. Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processor till nicely mixed together. If you are using vanilla extract, just grind the sugar on its own and then add the sugar and extract to the cream.

10. In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.

11. Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.

12. Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of ½ an inch should be fine).Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Assembly-

1. Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).

2. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.

3. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).

4. Soften the vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm ( at least 1 hour).

5. Add the fudge sauce over the vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm . ( at least an hour).

6. Soften the chocolate ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .

7. Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.

8. Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.