The Pink Whisk Brilliant Baking Step-by-Step Cake Making (10 page)

3 The ganache is made using a combination of dark chocolate and cappuccino flavoured buttons (see
Suppliers
).

4 Assemble the cake in the same way but decorate with chocolate covered coffee beans, white chocolate chips and chopped cappuccino buttons.

Whisking Method

Beaten eggs are the key to successful cakes in this category – either whisking whole eggs with sugar or beating egg whites to incorporate the air for your cake. They need a gentle touch to retain as much air as possible but are well worth the effort!

Swiss Roll

I don’t think you can beat the taste of a freshly made Swiss Roll. Believe me, they are a cinch to make and nothing to be afraid of. There’s no fat added in the form of butter, so if kept a Swiss Roll will stale quickly – not much chance of that in my house! Don’t let the lack of a Swiss Roll tin put you off – baking or roasting trays are often just the right size.

Makes one swiss roll

Prep: 25 minutes plus cooling

Bake: 15 minutes

Oven: 160°c (fan)/180°c/350°F/Gas Mark 4

Ingredients

Cake

4 eggs, large

100g (3
¹
⁄
₂
oz) caster (superfine) sugar

100g (3
¹
⁄
₂
oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

Filling and rolling

A little caster (superfine) sugar for rolling

175g (6oz) raspberry jam (about half an average-sized jar)

Equipment

Electric handmixer

Swiss Roll tin (pan) or shallow-sided roasting tray approx. 33 × 23cm (13 × 9in)

Spreader

1 Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan)/180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease the tin and cut a piece of baking paper about 3cm (1
¹
⁄
₄
in) larger than the tin all the way around. Push the paper into the tin, smoothing out at the corners.

TIP

Greasing the tin before lining with paper will help stick and mould the paper to the tin – otherwise it’ll keep jumping out at you!

2 Place the eggs and the caster sugar in a large bowl. Air is the only raising agent in a Swiss Roll so get whisking! Don’t let the eggs and sugar sit in the bowl together for too long or else the sugar will draw moisture from the eggs and it will take much longer to whisk them up until thick and volumised.

3 The eggs and sugar will start to go pale and thicken, but keep going: it can take up to 10 minutes to whisk in enough air. When the mixture is ready lift out the whisk, the mixture should trail away in a ribbon and stay visible on the top of the mixture. If it sinks straight back in and disappears it still needs more whisking.

4 When the egg and sugar mixture is thick and aerated enough gently sift over the flour.

5 Fold the flour into the mixture using a spatula or metal spoon. Cut through the mixture and turn, lifting the mixture from the bottom of the bowl. Cut through any pockets of flour as you find them. Gently is the way to do it to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.

TIP

If the flour is just tipped in the weight of it will make it sink straight to the bottom in a clump and will be difficult to fold in.

6 Once it’s fully combined gently transfer the mixture into the prepared tin. Ease the mixture into the corners of the tin by tilting gently, trying to avoid popping any of the bubbles.

7 Bake the cake for 15 minutes. It should be a light golden brown on the top and you should still hear a little ‘pfft’ when you touch it lightly with a fingertip. We need this moisture for flexibility and rolling. Dry it out completely and it would have to be folded not rolled!

8 The cake should still be warm and it’s time to get ready for rolling: take a piece of baking paper slightly larger than the size of the cake and set it on the work surface. Scatter it liberally with caster sugar – this will stop the cake from sticking to the paper.

9 Remove the cake from the tray, still in its baking paper. Gently ease the lining paper away from each edge of the cake, then flip it over so that the top of the cake sits on top of the caster sugar covered sheet. Carefully peel away the paper from the base of the cake. It will still be warm so do be careful.