Chocolate Swiss Roll (巧克力瑞士蛋糕卷)

If you've never made Swiss roll before, or never made one successfully, please don't try my chocolate Swiss roll recipe.

Making chocolate Swiss roll is a bit tricky. Why? Because cocoa powder complicates things. If you want a straightforward recipe, go for vanilla roll. That's almost idiot-proof (not that idiots are the lowest common denominator).

Cocoa powder makes the cake less stretchable, so you have to be careful not to overbake the cake. Even slight overbaking makes the cake crack when you roll it.

Cocoa powder also makes the crust sticky, so you have to be careful not to underbake the cake. The more underbaked the crust is, the stickier it is.

The cake is perfectly done when it just turns springy in the middle. After it's cooled down, the crust should be a bit sticky around the edges. That's OK because the ends will be trimmed, or tucked inside/below after the cake is rolled.

If the entire crust isn't sticky, that's not a good thing at all. The cake is too dry and will likely crack when you roll it.

If the entire crust is sticky, it's gonna stick to whatever it rests on. Of course, that's not a problem if you ice the cake. Or if you go for the skinless look and roll the cake inside out.

Even when you've got the cake baked just right, you may still have a problem when you're rolling the cake. Why? Because the crust doesn't really stick to the crumb, so it comes off very easily. The loose crust is caused by cocoa powder which, as I said, complicates things.

Chocolate cakes have haphephobia (fear of being touched). Direct contact with the crust must be minimized if you don't want to damage it. How? Like this:

⋈ Put the cake on a piece of parchment paper, face down. Spread with whatever filling you like.

⋈ Start rolling the cake by making a fold in the cake. The fold must be very small, or the cake will be oval instead of round after rolling.

⋈ After the first fold is tucked in tightly, lift and tilt the parchment paper with your left hand (if you're right-handed). As the cake moves forward, it may bulge here and there. Gently flatten the bulges with your right hand so that the roll is tight and even. If you're making a very long roll, you'd need a rolling pin (or the core of your parchment paper or aluminium foil) to do this.

Because the cake doesn't handle well, it cracks (when you roll it) if it's too thick. And if it's too thin, the inside may be too dry when the crust is just right. Hence, you must scale the recipe according to your pan size. You don't want too little or too much batter in the pan. 

Why make such a fuss over a cake? Why not just let it crack? You can hide the cracks with icing, icing sugar, chocolate rice/shavings, nuts, whatever. Nobody would know, right?

Yup, covering up is an easy way out. But you'd have bought a chocolate Swiss roll if you had wanted the easy way out. Or at least made a Swiss roll without cocoa powder. Or just eat the bloomin' cake without rolling it!

For those who want to make a good but uncomplicated Swiss roll, click here for my vanilla recipe.  For those who want to make a chocolate roll for the sake of making it, because eating is only half the fun:

CHOCOLATE SWISS ROLL (巧克力瑞士蛋糕卷) (Recipe for one 12" roll) 15 g corn oil 10 g alkalized cocoa powder, Green & Black's brand 15 g castor sugar 10 g water pinch salt 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 30 g egg yolks 15 g cake flour 70 g egg whites 30 g castor sugar 75 g whipped cream If you double the recipe, you need a pan that's 18"x 12". 1. To make cake, preheat oven to 200°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Grease 12" x 9" pan with butter. Line pan with 12" x 12" parchment paper. 2. Heat oil till hot but not smoking (if you put your hand near the oil, you should feel searing heat). Add to cocoa powder. Whisk thoroughly. Add 15 g castor sugar. Whisk thoroughly. Add water. Whisk till thick paste forms. Add salt, vanilla extract and egg yolks. Whisk till sugar dissolves. Sift half of cake flour into mixture. Mix with whisk till even. Sift remaining cake flour into mixture. Mix with whisk till even. 3. Whisk egg whites on medium-slow speed till thick foam forms. Gradually add 30 g castor sugar whilst continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites are at soft peak stage. Reduce speed to slow and continue to whisk till firm peak stage (when whisk is lifted, egg whites form peak that's hooked). 4. Loosen egg yolk mixture from bottom of mixing bowl with whisk. Add egg whites in 2 batches. Mix with whisk after each addition till batter looks even. Scrape down and fold with spatula till batter is truly even. 5. Pour batter into cake pan. Spread with spatula as evenly as possible, pushing batter into corners of pan. Jiggle vigorously till batter is level. Tap pan against worktop twice. 6. Bake cake on middle shelf till middle of cake is springy when pressed, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Drop pan from 1' high 3-4 times. Unmould cake onto wire rack. Peel parchment paper from sides of cake. Leave till cool. 7. To assemble Swiss roll, place cake on clean parchment paper, face down. Peel parchment paper from bottom  of cake. Spread evenly with whipped cream. Roll cake as shown in video. Do not remove parchment paper till cake is transferred to serving plate (so that cake may be moved easily without touching the crust). 8. To cut Swiss roll neatly, chill till filling is set. Cut with serrated knife, wiping knife clean with paper towels after each cut. Transfer to serving plate. Discard parchment paper. 9. To store overnight, place Swiss roll in cake pan. Place pan in plastic bag, making sure bag doesn't touch Swiss roll. Refrigerate. Remove from fridge about 15 minutes before serving. Cut immediately. Transfer to serving plate. Discard parchment paper. Serve when cake is soft but filling is still cold.

Vanilla Swiss Roll (香草瑞士蛋糕卷)

There're a few common problems with making Swiss rolls: (1) The cake is hard and dry. (2) The crust sticks to the paper the cake is wrapped in. (3) The crust cracks when you roll the cake.

Good Swiss roll starts with, of course, a sheet cake that's fluffy. You know what's wrong with a lot of Swiss roll recipes? They have way too much flour.

A cake that's 1-2 cm tall should have very little flour because it doesn't need much structural support. If it has as much flour as a cake that's 5-7 cm tall, it would be dense and hard.

There's no point in baking a cake that's fluffy but dried out. What makes my cake moist? Oil. It has more oil than flour. If you're on a low-carb, high-fat diet, this is the cake for you!

Water doesn't help make a sheet cake moist. Why? Because the cake is so thin, H₂O in the batter evaporates very quickly. It's gotta be fat that keeps the cake moist. 

Of course, don't overbake the cake or it'll be dry no matter how much fat it has. Timing is critical because a 1-2 cm thick cake may overbake in 1-2 minutes. Make sure the cake is removed from the oven once the middle is springy when pressed lightly.

How to stop the crust from sticking to the paper it's wrapped in? Easy. Just don't wrap the cake in paper.

A lot of Swiss roll recipes tell you to roll the cake whilst it's piping hot, when it's most flexible and least likely to crack. This (the rolling, not telling) is done after placing the cake on a piece of parchment paper, and then dusting the crust with icing sugar.

The cake is rolled along with the paper, which stops the cake from sticking to itself.

The sugar is supposed to stop the crust from sticking to the paper, in theory. In practice, however, it doesn't because the cake releases moisture as it cools down. The paper traps the moisture that makes the crust wet and, hence, sticky.

How about wrapping the cake in a tea towel which breathes better than parchment paper? That works if the cake is quite dry when it's removed from the oven. But who wants a dried out Swiss roll, right? If it's moist as it should be, it'd still stick to the tea towel.

I let my sheet cake cool down on a wire rack after it's baked, without rolling or covering it.

Is my cake dry after it's cooled down? Not at all, because it has loads of fat and it's not overbaked.

Does my cake crack when I roll it after it's cooled down?

Nope, it doesn't because it's very flexible. The cake can stretch and bend into a roll without breaking. The flexibility is due to the way the eggs are beaten. The whites are whisked to firm peak stage, then the yolks are added one at a time and whisked thoroughly. Compared to the whole egg or chiffon method, this makes a cake that's more stretchable.

Some people wrap their Swiss roll, after rolling, to set the shape. If you want to do that, I suggest you use a tea towel. Parchment paper, if tightly wrapped around the cake for a few hours, will stick to the crust.

I prefer not to wrap the cake. There's really no need to do so provided the filling is firm when I'm rolling the cake.

If you use dairy cream filling, it must be firm when you're spreading it on the cake. And you must work quickly so it's still firm when you roll the cake. If it isn't, put the cake in the freezer for five minutes or so.

Here's how I make a Swiss roll (without pushing him down a mountain):

VANILLA SWISS ROLL (香草瑞士蛋糕卷) (Recipe for one 13" roll) Cake 140 g egg whites 60 g castor sugar 60 g egg yolks 40 g cake flour 1/16 tsp fine salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 60 g corn oil butter for greasing pan Filling 80 g chocolate spread       or 215 g whipped cream (click here for recipe) 1 can (312 g) mandarin orange, drained and chilled This recipe is double the pygmy-sized cake in the video. 1. To make cake, preheat oven to 200°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Grease 13" x 10" pan with butter. Line pan with 13" x 13" parchment paper. 2. Whisk egg whites on medium-slow speed till thick foam forms. Gradually add castor sugar whilst continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites are at soft peak stage. Reduce speed to slow and continue to whisk till firm peak stage (when whisk is lifted, egg whites form peak that's hooked). 3. Add yolks to whites in 4 batches. Whisk on slow speed till evenly mixed after each addition. Sift half of cake flour into mixture. Add salt. Mix with whisk till almost even. Sift remaining cake flour into mixture. Mix with whisk till just even. Add vanilla extract and corn oil. Fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times. 4. Pour batter into cake pan. Spread with spatula as evenly as possible, pushing batter into corners of pan. Jiggle till batter is level. Tap pan against worktop twice. Bake on middle shelf till middle of cake is springy when pressed, 10-11 minutes. Remove from oven. Drop pan from 1' high 3-4 times. Unmould cake onto wire rack. Peel parchment paper from sides of cake. Leave till cool. 5. To assemble, place cake on new sheet of parchment paper, face down. Peel parchment paper from bottom of cake. Spread evenly with chocolate spread or whipped cream. Place mandarin orange, if using, in middle of cake. Roll cake as shown in video. 6. To cut chocolate spread Swiss roll neatly, dip serrated knife in hot water before each cut and wipe dry/clean with paper towel. For orange and cream Swiss roll, chill till cream filling is set, then use a serrated knife that's wiped clean after each cut. 7. Orange and cream Swiss roll is best eaten after an overnight rest in the fridge, when the filling has had time to perfume the cake. Chocolate spread Swiss roll should be chilled or eaten once it's made. Otherwise, oil separates from the spread and seeps into the cake, making it hard.

Banana Chiffon Cake (香蕉戚风蛋糕)

If you like your banana cake very fluffy and very "banana-y", you must try my version. Other recipes may be as fluffy but not as banana-y, or as banana-y but not as fluffy.

Making banana cake more banana-y is easy. I simply put loads of very ripe bananas in it.

Most recipes for banana cake have about 1 part banana to 1 part flour. Some may go up to 2:1. Mine has 175 g bananas to 70 g flour, so the ratio is 2.5:1.

When banana cake has a lot of bananas, it becomes dense and wet. IOW, it turns into banana bread. That's a good thing if you like heavy and squat banana bread but I don't.

How do I stop banana cake from turning into banana bread?

By making the cake rise, so it's not dense. And making the cake dry out, so it's not too wet.

To help the cake rise well, my recipe has a fair bit of baking soda and baking powder. Egg whites whisked till firm peak stage also lend a hand. A chiffon pan helps too because the funnel makes the batter heat up evenly.

I use a fairly low temperature, 160°C. If the temperature is higher, the inside of the cake would still be wet when the top is brown. Mashed bananas dry out slowly, so the cake must be baked longer, at a lowish temperature. If the cake is too wet when it's removed from the oven, it'll shrink as it cools down or after it's unmoulded.

Besides the baking time and temperature, putting less wet ingredients in the cake also helps make the cake less wet. There's no water or milk in the recipe, and there's only a small amount of oil.

A fluffy cake is fluffy because its structure is weak. To stop the structure from collapsing when it's at its weakest – just after the cake is removed from the oven –  it must cling to the sides and bottom of the cake pan. The pan, therefore, mustn't be non-stick and it must be inverted once it's removed from the oven. A funnel in the middle gives the cake more surface area to cling to.

Banana cake is best served without frosting, so there's nothing to mask the flavour of the bananas.

Are you ready to eat the most fluffy and most banana-y ever banana cake? Hey, you have to bake it first.

BANANA CHIFFON CAKE (香蕉戚风蛋糕) (Recipe for one 18 x 8 cm cake) 2-3 very ripe bananas, peel to yield 175 g 60 g egg yolks 15 g castor sugar 40 g corn oil 70 g cake flour 1⁄4 tsp baking powder 1⁄2 tsp baking soda 1⁄8 tsp salt 140 g egg whites 1⁄16 tsp cream of tartar 50 g castor sugar Preheat oven to 160°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Blend 175 g bananas, egg yolks, corn oil and 15 g castor sugar till smooth and thoroughly incorporated. Sift cake flour, baking soda and baking powder into mixture. Add salt. Mix with whisk till just even. Separately whisk egg whites till frothy. Add cream of tartar. Whisk till egg whites form thick foam. Gradually add 50 g castor sugar, still whisking. Continue to whisk till egg whites reach firm peak stage. Add egg whites to yolk mixture in 3 batches. Mix with whisk till almost even after each batch. Scrape down and fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times. Pour batter into 18 x 8 cm 2-piece chiffon pan that's not non-stick, rotating pan as you pour so that batter is spread evenly. Jiggle pan till batter is level. Bake in bottom of oven for about 1 hour, till cake is well browned and, when pressed lightly, springs back and squishes softly. (Loud squishing means the cake is still too wet.) Remove cake from oven. Invert onto something narrow and tall, e.g. jam jar or inverted glass. Leave till cool. Cut cake out of pan. Serve.

Bamboo Charcoal Cake (竹碳蛋糕)

Black is mysterious. Black is sophisticated. Black is . . . sexy.

What makes my cake black? It's bamboo charcoal that's been pulverized into a very, very fine powder.

You can see what my charcoal cake looks like but you can't taste it. Let me taste it for you.

Chomp, chomp, chomp . . . .

Hey, charcoal cake tastes like regular cake! It's just like vanilla cake except for the colour.

Chomp, chomp . . . zzzzz . . . .

Did you know charcoal powder makes you sleepy?

I didn't the first time I ate charcoal cake. I had a (small) piece late in the afternoon, then another (small) piece after dinner. That night, I struggled to stay awake after 10 pm and had to crawl into bed an hour later. I don't usually retire till well after midnight.

Besides treating insomnia, charcoal powder is a good antidote. It inactivates poisons by binding with the toxins.

Did you hear about the woman who, after taking some poison to kill herself, decided to eat some charcoal cake?

Said woman figured she could eat all the cake she wanted since she was about to die. So she ate and ate and ate . . . not realizing she was eating an antidote to the poison.

Guess what? Yup, she didn't die because she ate too much cake. The moral of the story is: Good things happen to those who eat lots of cake.

OK, I just totally made that up. If you were poisoned, you'd need loads of charcoal powder, loads more than there would be in a cake or two.

Treating a gassy stomach, OTOH, doesn't need much. Inhale a big slice of charcoal cake and the excess gas in your tummy would be gone. Isn't that nice? You can still eat cake when your tummy feels bloated!

If you've just had a French manicure, remember to wear gloves when you're handling charcoal powder. OTOH, if your black varnish is peeling around the edges, you could rub some charcoal powder on your nails.

Run out of eyeliner? Hey, what do you think Cleopatra used? Maybe not bamboo charcoal but it was definitely charcoal of some sort around her eyes, on her brows, and as a teeth whitener.

Charcoal powder has so many uses. Isn't it wonderful?

Baking good charcoal cake is easy when you have my tried and tested recipe. Frosting the cake isn't difficult either. Remember less is more or the cake's unusual colour wouldn't stand out. A few blackberries or black raspberries would add a nice accent. Anything else would spoil the minimalist look . . . .

Hey, I just had a brainwave! I'm gonna serve charcoal cake at my funeral . . . well, I won't be there . . . I mean I will be there but . . . . I guess I'll have to leave instructions. There must be a cake for every important occasion, right?


 

BAMBOO CHARCOAL CAKE (竹碳蛋糕) (Recipe for one 20 x 12 cm cake) 1 tsp bamboo charcoal powder 45 g full-fat milk add to charcoal powder; stir thoroughly 10 g castor sugar 45 g egg yolks 35 g corn oil, plus extra for greasing 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 45 g cake flour 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/16 tsp salt 105 g egg whites 1/16 tsp cream of tartar 35 g castor sugar 150 g whipped cream Trim 5 mm thick corrugated cardboard to fit sides of 23 x 15 cm cake pan. Wrap each piece of cardboard in aluminium foil, shining side facing out.  Line bottom of 20 x 12 x 7.5 cm cake pan with 2 layers of parchment paper. Lightly grease top layer with oil. Preheat oven to 160°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Whisk 10 g castor sugar with egg yolks till dissolved. Add corn oil. Whisk till just combined. Add charcoal milk and vanilla extract. Whisk till just thoroughly mixed. Sift cake flour and baking powder into mixture. Add salt. Whisk till just thoroughly mixed. Separately whisk egg whites till frothy. Add cream of tartar. Whisk till thick foam forms. Gradually add 35 g castor sugar whilst still whisking. Continue to whisk till firm peak stage. Thoroughly whisk yolk mixture, scraping bottom of bowl. Add half of egg whites. Mix with whisk till almost even. Add remaining egg whites. Mix with whisk till almost even. Scrape down and fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times. Pour batter into 20 x 12 x 7.5 cm cake pan, slowly and from about 30 cm high. Jiggle pan and tap lightly against worktop till batter is level. Place in bigger cake pan. Tuck cardboard between 2 pans. Bake in bottom of oven till cake doesn't make squishing sound when gently pressed around the middle, 50-55 minutes. Remove pans from oven. Set aside outer pan and cardboard. Drop pan holding cake from about 30 cm high, twice. Invert pan onto wire rack. Leave till just cool. As soon as cake is cool, slide knife along sides of pan. Unmould cake. Remove parchment paper. To frost cake, slice cake horizontally into 3 equal pieces. Invert what was top of cake so that cut side faces up. Spread evenly with whipped cream, about 2 mm thick. Top with what was middle of cake. Spread whipped cream as before. Place what was bottom of cake on cream, cut side down. Spread whipped cream as before. Chill till cream is firm. Trim 1 cm from edges. (Trimmings are, of course, perfectly edible.) Refrigerate till ready to serve.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake (草莓奶油蛋糕; Strawberry Cream Cake)

Japanese strawberry shortcake is a layered sponge cake filled and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. It is what I call a ménage à trois made in heaven, because each party brings out the best in the other two.

The red and white cake is very popular in Japan, especially for Christmas. I guess having the same colour scheme as Santa Claus wins a lot of votes during the Yuletide season.

There're a few ways to make a sponge cake. Some people make a dry cake, then spray/brush/drizzle it with a syrup. Others try to make a moist cake by using oil or butter, and water or milk.

I find the syrup option a bit tricky because it's a fine line between moist and soggy. Adding a non-fat liquid isn't ideal either because water, and milk, dilutes the fragrance of the eggs and oil/butter. It also makes the cake shrink more after cooling down.

My sponge cake has lots of oil, more than most other recipes. And there's liquid glucose, my "secret ingredient", to make it really fluffy, moist and fragrant.

Liquid glucose helps make sponge cake moist because it's hygroscopic, i.e. it absorbs and holds water. How does it make the cake soft and fluffy? By helping the cake rise. The higher the cake rises, the softer and fluffier it is. How does glucose help make the cake fragrant? By doing away with the need for any water or milk. Glucose itself is quite tasteless.

If I had a recipe for boiling water, some readers would say, "I don't have water. Can I use something else?" So someone is bound to ask if glucose may be replaced with sugar, or golden syrup, or something, or other. Here's the answer:



If you want to try my sponge cake recipe, be warned that it's quite princessy. This is a recipe you'd want to follow to a T. If you don't – or think you have but actually haven't – you may have a few problems, such as (but definitely not restricted to):

⋈ If the batter is very bubbly after oil is added, that's a very, very bad sign. Something is measured wrongly, or the eggs are underwhisked, or the flour isn't thoroughly mixed, or all of the above. The cake likely will not rise well.

⋈ If the batter is lumpy, you'll find lumps of flour sitting in the bottom of the cake. (These lumps are very evil. They group themselves together to make sure you see them and taste them.)

⋈ If there's too much egg white, the cake will look like an award-winning Shar-Pei (although this is a good thing if you're making a cake that looks like a Shar-Pei, award-winning or otherwise).

⋈ If the oven is too hot, the cake won't rise well. If the oven isn't hot enough, the cake won't rise well either. Yup, this cake is as fussy as Goldilocks.

Of course, don't let my warning scare you. At the end of the day, how difficult can baking a cake be, right?

Once you've got the sponge cake nailed, the rest is easy. If, like me, you don't know how to ice the sides of the cake nicely, then don't. The cake looks prettier anyway with the sides cut off. Icing the top is like spreading butter on toast, so that shouldn't be a problem.



My sponge cake is delicious plain but it's at its best embellished with whipped cream and strawberries. 1 + 1 + 1 = >3 and all that jazz, you know? Japanese strawberry shortcake isn't only good for Christmas. I reckon the classic is good whenever strawberries are in season. And since strawberries are never out of season nowadays, the red and white cake is good all year round.

JAPANESE STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE  (草莓奶油蛋糕; STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE) (Recipe for one 20 x 12 cm cake) 10 g glucose 150 g eggs 60 g castor sugar 60 g cake flour 1/16 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 45 g corn oil 200 g fresh dairy cream, 35% fat, cold 1 tbsp castor sugar 1/3 tsp vanilla extract 100 g large strawberries hull, rinse and dry with paper towels; slice 3 mm thick 4 small strawberries with green leaves rinse and dry with paper towels; cut into 2 halves 1. Place bowl for whipping cream in fridge. Preheat oven to 185°C. Line bottom of 20 x 12 x 5 cm cake pan with parchment paper. 2. To make sponge cake, beat glucose, eggs and sugar till ribbon stage. Sift flour into mixture in 3-4 batches, adding salt along with the last batch. Mix gently with whisk after each addition, stirring just top half of batter, till smooth. Drizzle with vanilla extract and oil. Mix with whisk, again stirring just top half of batter, till you don't see streaks of vanilla extract or oil. Fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop a few times. 3. Pour batter into cake pan, slowly and from about 30 cm high. Tap pan against worktop a few times. Place pan in bottom of oven. Place baking tray in top of oven. Bake till batter doesn't move when gently jiggled, 15-20 minutes. Remove baking tray. Continue baking till cake is nicely browned and springs back slightly when pressed gently, another 10-15 minutes. 4. Remove cake to wire rack. Leave till pan is just cool enough to handle, 10 minutes or so. Run knife along sides of cake. Flip cake onto wood surface. Remove pan. Place cake on wire rack, right way up. Leave till completely cool. 5. To make whipped cream, place cold cream in thoroughly chilled bowl along with sugar. Whisk till cream is stiff. Add vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly. 6. To assemble, remove parchment paper from cake. Slice cake horizontally with serrated knife or cake slicer into 2 equal halves. Spread 1/3 of cream on bottom half, evenly. Arrange sliced strawberries on top of cream. Spread with half of remaining cream. Place remaining cake on cream, cut side up. Spread with remaining cream. Place cake in freezer till cream is very firm, 10-15 minutes. Level and smooth top cream layer. Trim edges with serrated knife, wiping knife after each cut. Arrange strawberry halves on cake. Chill till ready to serve, covered if keeping overnight or longer. Meanwhile, enjoy trimmings.