Patterned Swiss Roll Cake

For this month's Home Baker's Challenge, Pallavi Purani gave us some delicious cakes to bake this month. On the list was Patterned Swiss Roll Cake. I recently watched Martha Stewart making Chocolate Swiss Roll cake on TV and mentally bookmarked it. I used Martha's cake recipe and the pattern recipe and technique from here.

I wanted to do a Spring pattern appropriate for this time of the year. I actually made this cake twice in 2 days because the first time I made, the cake broke when I tried to flip it from the baking sheet. I almost cried when that happened. I asked Gayathri on some tips and tricks she used to make her patterned cake. She was kind enough to answer all my questions, so mustered my courage and made it again.

Everything, thankfully, turned out OK the second time. At least the cake stayed intact and didn't break, but only thing I wasn't happy about was that the cocoa powder I used to dust the cake changed the color of the flower pattern on the cake. May be I would lightly dust with powdered sugar instead next time.

Ingredients:
For the Pattern:
Egg White - 1
Sugar - 2tbsp (30gms)
All purpose flour - ¼cup (40gms)
Butter - 1½tbsp (20gms)
Color - as needed (optional)

For the Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake:
Eggs - 3 large + 2 egg yolks
Sugar - ½cup
All purpose flour - 1/3cup
Cocoa powder - ¼cup
Salt - a pinch
Butter - ¼cup, melted and cooled completely

For the Sugar Syrup:
Sugar - ¼cup
Water - ¼cup
Vanilla extract - 1tsp

For the Filling:
Heavy Cream - 1¼cup
Sugar - 1tbsp

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 450°F.
• Spray a 12x17 baking sheet with cooking spray. Place a parchment paper and spray again.
• Keep a parchment paper slightly bigger than the baking sheet and a clean kitchen towel ready. Sprinkle both with cocoa powder or powdered sugar.
• Make the Pattern (Step 1): In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy and add the other ingredients. Mix well to combine. Add the color of choice. If using more than 1 color, then divide the batter and add the colors accordingly. Pour the batter into a piping bag with a small tip (Wilton tip no.: 1 or 3 or 5) or a small ziploc bag -- snip a tiny bit in the corner.
• Print your design out and place it under the parchment paper. Trace the design with the batter to the best of your ability. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for 15~20 minutes.
• Make the Cake Batter: Combine flour, cocoa powder and salt in a small bowl and keep ready. 
• Bring 2" water in a saucepan to a simmer. Place the eggs and egg yolk in a mixing bowl or the bowl of stand mixer. Place the bowl over the simmer water (make sure that the bowl does not touch the water) and whisk constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture feels warm to touch, about 3~4 minutes.
• Beat the egg mixture using a whisk attachment on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, then on high speed for 4 minutes until the mixture is pale and thick.
• Sift the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gently until everything is combined.
• Pour the melted and cooled along the side of the bowl and mix until combined.
• Remove the baking sheet out of the freezer and pour the batter on top. Using an offset spatula, spread the batter into an even layer all the way to the edges.
• Bake the Cake: Bake in the preheated oven for 6~7 minutes. Make sure that the cake is not overbaked -- this will cause breakage when rolling.
• To make the Swiss Roll (Step 2, 3 & 4): Remove the cake from the oven and run a knife along the edges. Carefully flip the cake onto the parchment paper. Then flip it again onto the kitchen towel.
• Carefully roll the cake into a tight log along with the towel. Let the cake cool completely -- rolling when warm gives the cake 'shape memory' -- so it will be easy to re-roll again with filling.
• Make the Sugar Syrup: Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Let this cool completely.
• Make the Filling: Whip the cream with the sugar until soft peaks form.
• Final Assembly (Step 5): Carefully unroll the cake. Brush generously with the cooled sugar syrup.Spread the filling evenly leaving ½" border all around. Roll the cake (without the towel) enclosing the filling into a tight log. Wrap it in the towel, securing with clips or cloth pins to retain the shape. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before cutting.

Sending this cake over to Gayathri's Kid's Delight event -- Chocolate. Kid's Delight is an event started by Valli.







Here are 2 patterns that I made up: Bunny and Spring Flowers.