White roll vs Chocolate roll

Swiss roll is one of my favorite cake to eat but not to make. I had really bad experience in making swiss roll few years back. The roll was dry and crack...it was ugly and taste yuks. My mum bought me a recipe book specialising in Indonesian swiss roll. So 2 weeks ago, I gave myself and the swiss roll another go. I was hoping with this new recipe, I could get it right. Not too bad this time at least not crack and taste real good. Thank to my mum recipe book. But the problem with this recipe, it uses lots of egg yolks and wasted the egg whites. So after browsing my friend's blog, I found a swiss roll recipe that uses just egg whites. What a perfect match, so I made 1 roll with just egg yolks and 1 roll with just egg whites.

Chocolate Swiss roll

10 egg yolks

100 grm caster sugar ( I only used 60 grm)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cake emulsifier

1 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

20 grm flour

10 grm milk powder

135 grm butter, whipped

1 tsp chocolate paste

Filling of your choice for ex. Chocolate buttercream, strawberry jam or any of your favourite jam.

1. Preheat oven to 180C

2. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and cake emulsifier until thick and fluffy. Add condensed milk, flour and milk powder and mix well.

3. Add whipped butter and mix well. Take 1/4 of the mixture and add chocolate paste, mix well. Put the chocolate mixture into an icing bag.

4. Prepare 22x26x3 cm tin with butter and baking paper. Pour the yellow mixture into the prepared tin. Pipe the chocolate mixture onto the yellow mixture.

5. Bake for 15 minutes or until cook. Remove from oven onto a baking paper.

6. Spread with jam or buttercream ( the cake has to be completely cool before you spread with buttercream). Roll tight.

7. Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.

I was quite happy with this roll...it was easy to roll and taste good. I still need more practice with the rolling...still not satisfy with the look. The buttercream looked messy. Here is another roll recipe copied from my friend's blog. This recipe only uses egg whites.

Strawberry white roll

100 grm flour

25 grm corn starch

1 tsp baking powder

70 grm caster sugar (I skipped the sugar)

100 ml orange juice (1 orange)

grated orange rind (1 orange)

1/4 tsp salt

350 ml egg whites ( 10 eggs)

100 grm caster sugar (used only 70 grm sugar)

100 grm strawberry, chopped

1. Prepare 32 x 2 cm square pan, grease and line with baking paper.

2. Spread strawberry over pan.

3. Sift flour, corn starch & baking powder, set aside.

4. Stir together 70 grm sugar, orange juice, orange rind & salt until sugar dissolved.

5. Fold in flour in 2-3 phase stir until combined, set aside.

6. In another bowl beat egg whites and slowly drizzle in sugar. Beat until forming soft peaks.

7. Gently fold egg whites into mixture in 2-3 phases.

8. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and smooth the top.

9. Bake for 25 minutes or until top is golden.

10. Remove from oven & unmold the cake into a non stick mat/paper.

11. Spread buttercream or jam, roll up.

This is a very healthy roll uses fruit juice and egg whites with no butter at all. It tastes very light and fruity, very different from the chocolate roll that uses egg yolks. The chocolate roll tastes heavier and of course less healthy. They both are really good, some people prefer richer taste and some people prefer it light. If you are watching your weight and calories intake then white roll is the choice. For me, I prefer the chocolate roll but my lovely family love them both...means they want me to do them both :-)

Enchanted Birthday Cake

This was my first attempt in making enchanted cake. This cake is a birthday cake for my nephews, 2 birthday boys (4 and 10 years old). My sister in law requested me to make a birthday cake for her 2 boys so I thought books and dragon would be interesting. Daniel loves books and Andrew is a very playful boy. I saw this idea from flickr and I re-created the cake with my own characters.

The story behind this cake...this is a story of 2 elves that tried to tame their dragon. Their dragon was a very playful dragon (just like little puppy) but very distructive because of its size. The older elve was fallen a sleep while reading a book about 'how to train your dragon' and the younger elve was boiling some magic potion for the dragon.

The wooden floor was hand painted fondant. The book was carved vanilla sponge infused with lemoncello syrup and iced with lemon buttercream then covered with white fondant. The dragon was made of fondant and dusted with lustre powder. All the decorations were made of fondant. The writing on the cake was my husband's writing...I think his writing is marvelous.My favourite character in this cake is the dragon and the sleeping mouse. I was quite pleased with the result...not bad for the first attempt. Hope you enjoy it too...

Mini Quiche

This is an easy and yummy recipe for quick snack or even lunch. It packs with calcium and protein, serve with garden salad for fibre. I promise it is so easy that you love to make it over and over again.

Spinach and ham quiche

6 eggs

1 cup (250ml) milk

1 1/2 cups (185 gr) grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup (40 gr) fresh white breadcrumbs

3 spring onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

300 gr english spinach, cooked, finely chopped

125 gr chopped ham

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Brush a 24 mini muffin tray with melted butter or oil.

2. Beat the eggs and milk together in a large bowl until just mixed. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir the mixture until it is well combined and then pour it into the prepared tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until just lightly set.

3. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely and them turn out carefully. serve warm or at room temperature.

Note:

- With this recipe, I made around 40 mini quiches.

- The ham and english spinach can be replaced with bacon and silverbeet if preferred.