The Daring Bakers Make A Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake Bombe!

When I saw this month's challenge I was both excited and a little overwhelmed. Excited because I had always wanted to make a swiss roll and overwhelmed because I knew I was going to need help - both in  the kitchen and out of it. Luckily my good friend/cousin-in-law Adena was available to step up to the challenge. If there is anyone who can give me a run for my money baking something, it's her!

At family get togethers (which always involve food) we always call each other in advance... "What are you bringing?" "I dunno, what are you bringing?" It's a nice little healthy competition, and we both enjoy finding a recipe that the other one loves. Adena makes this lemon cake which I honestly dream about. If she will ever let me have the recipe I promise I will post it!

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.-

Anyway, we really enjoyed this challenge! Neither of us had ever made homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker before, and it was SO EASY!!!! I can't wait to try lots of other fun flavors!!! We decided to go with a Neopolitan theme - chocolate swiss cake, strawberry whipped cream filling, homemade chocolate and vanilla ice creams, and a strawberry preserve sauce! Yum!

It's hard not to use fingers when its melting and falling all over  the place!! 

Making the swiss cake was fun, albeit a challenge. Dividing batter evenly between two pans when you only actually have one is kinda tricky!! Guess that gives me liberty to go out and buy another of these, huh? (Do you think Williams & Sonoma will give me one, now that I've given them a plug? I sure hope so!) The peeling of the parchment paper from the cake was also tricky, I felt like I was doing surgery to try and keep as much cake as possible. Also, the recipe states that you need to roll the cake in a towel to cool. I recommend using a tea towel, or another such towel that is made of a finely woven material. The towels I used had more texture, and while they didn't actually leave any fibers on the cake (that I know of) I felt like the possibility was very high.

The cake turned out spectacularly! I really should have left it in the fridge to harden longer, but I honestly thought it was done. It had been in for 4 hours, like the recipe stated. I really had no choice though, I had already told the family that we were having swiss roll ice cream cake at 8PM, and you cannot make a statement like that and then not follow up it! The cake needed to be served!! And even while it was oozing chocolate ice cream everywhere, and fell apart so terribly that getting a decent photo of it was near impossible, it tasted...heavenly!!

Swiss roll ice cream cake

6 medium sized eggs

1 C caster sugar + extra for rolling

6 tblsp  all purpose (plain) flour + 5 tblsp natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together

2 tblsp boiling water

a little oil for brushing the pans

For the filling-

2C whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberry preserves

5 tblsp caster sugar

·       Pre heat the oven at 200 deg C /400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 9x11 ) 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.

·       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.

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

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

·       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.

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

·       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.

·       Repeat the same for the next cake as well.

·       Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processer 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.

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

·       Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.

·       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.

The vanilla ice cream-

2 and ½ C whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ C granulated sugar

• Grind together the sugar and vanilla in a food processor. In a mixing bowl, add the cream and vanilla –sugar mixture and whisk lightly till everything is mixed together. If you are using the vanilla extract, grind the sugar on its own and then and the sugar along with the vanilla extract to the cream.
• Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.

Strawberry Sauce - 

1 pint strawberries, cleaned and stemmed

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cut about 1/3 of the strawberries of half. 

In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine all the strawberries, sugar and vanilla. 

Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

In a blender, puree about 1/3 of the sauce, then mix back into the remainder. 

Allow to cool before using. Store in fridge.

The chocolate ice cream-

2C whipping cream

1 C caster sugar

3 tblsp natural unsweetened cocoa powder

·       Grind together the sugar and the cocoa powder in a food processor .

·       In a saucepan, add all the ingredients and whisk lightly.

·       Place the pan over heat and keep stirring till it begins to bubble around the edges.

·       Remove from heat and cool completely before transferring to a freezer friendly container till firm around the edges. If you are using an ice cream maker, churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instruction, after the mixture has cooled completely.

·       Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.

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 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.