Log Cake Practice - Matcha Swiss Roll

Making Swiss Rolls have never been my forte. In fact, they were my nemesis among cakes. When I managed to get a pleasant looking matcha swiss roll with no cracks, I knew I have conquered them, at least for a moment.

The success in the making of this matcha swiss roll presents itself as a timely arrival for the yuletide season. Talking about Yuletide, Singapore doesn't experience winter. Well in fact, it is summer all year round here. That doesn't dampen our mood and excitement for the Chirstmas season however. We do have our fair share of countdowns and partying.

Log cakes are the choice of desserts when it comes to dining and wining in the month of December. Other sweet goods such as fruit cakes (slightly less preferred), panetonnes and puddings are less common in our culture. 

Actually, log cakes are swiss rolls formed and decorated in the shape of logs. Normally, I would associate log cakes with chocolate. For a change, it might be good to have a matcha log cake. Now that I am successful with my matcha swiss roll, all that is left is to add some red beans, coat it with a layer of frosting and dress it up. 

I am still contemplating on what log cake/s I should make. A chocolate log cake is definitely on the top of my to-do-list. Next up would be either a tiramisu, mocha or matcha red bean log cake if  I can spare the time. I am quite ambitious this december, hoping to make at least 5 different kinds of cookies (definitely includes chocolate chip cookies) and at least one log cake. It is going to be loads of baking.....Wish me luck!

Matcha Swiss Roll (Sponge recipe adapted from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷)
Serving size: 8 to 10 slices
Taste and texture: Cake base is soft and moist. Matcha buttercream is buttery and velvety.
Equipment and materials:
1) 12 x 12 inch pan or 10 x 14 inch pan
2) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
3) Spatula
4) wire whisk/balloon whisk
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Brush for oiling pan
10) Weighing scale

Sponge:
210g whole eggs, room temperature (about four 55g eggs)
20g egg yolk (about 1 yolk)
80g caster sugar
2 tsp matcha powder
80g cake flour
60g butter, melted

Swiss Meringue Matcha Buttercream:
60g egg whites
55g granulated sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened but still cold
2-3tsp matcha powder (start with 1 tsp. add more if desired.)

Making Cake Base:
Pre-preparation: Line the swiss roll tin with baking/parchment paper. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.

Combine dry ingredients: Mix the flour and matcha powder together in a large bowl to ensure they are evenly distributed.

Beating whole eggs: In a mixing bowl, beat whole eggs and egg yolk with 80g caster sugar on medium speed untill eggs are well aerated and have expanded about 4-6 times in volume. The beaten eggs should be thick and fluffy. When the beater is lifted, the falling batter leaves a ribbon like trail that does not level with the rest of the batter immediately. This is know as the 'ribbon stage'. This will take about 5-8 minutes depending on the type of mixer used. Continue to beat the foamed eggs on low speed for abother 2-3 minutes. This is to stabilize the egg mixture.

Folding dry ingredients into beaten eggs: Sift one-third of the dry ingredients into beaten eggs. Fold using a balloon whisk, gently and gradually, untill the dry ingredients are incorporated. Repeat this twice for the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a flexible spatula every now and then to incorporate flour that is stuck to the sides and that which have sunk to the bottom. We want the beaten eggs to deflate as little as possible in the folding process.

Adding the butter: Scoop a small portion of the flour-egg batter and mix it with the melted butter in a medium bowl until smooth. This makes it easier to fold the butter into the main flour-egg batter. Add this butter mixture to the main bulk of the flour-egg batter. Fold gently to obtain a evenly mixed foamy batter.

Baking the sponge: Pour cake batter into lined tin and bake at 190 degrees C for 8 to 12 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted at the middle comes out clean. The top skin of the cake should be springy when pressed. Once done, remove cake tin from oven and place on a wire rack. Cover the surface with a sheet of aluminuim foil or baking paper or a piece of damp cloth to keep the sponge moist.

Preparing the Matcha Buttercream:
Dissolve sugar in egg whites: Place 60 egg whites and 55g granulated sugar in a heatproof bowl. Sit the heatproof bowl on a saucepan filled with water. The base of the bowl should not be in contact with the water. Bring the water in the saucepan to a slight simmer. Use a balloon whisk and stir the egg whites and sugar constantly until the sugar has fully dissolved (egg white mixture should not feel gritty) and the mixture is warm to the touch (test by inserting a finger). The egg white mixture should not feel gritty.

Beating egg whites: Remove the heatproof bowl and beat the warm egg white mixture on medium high speed to obtain stiff peaks using an electric beater. At stiff peaks, the beaten egg whites will not budge when bowl is overturned. When the beaters are lifted from the beaten egg whites, the surface of the egg whites should form stiff upright peaks (not drooping peaks). The beaten egg whites should be cool to the touch (room temperature), not warm like when it was removed from the saucepan.

Adding butter and matcha powder: Beat in 125g butter into the beaten egg whites in 3 batches, ensuring each batch is incoporated before adding the next. The mixture might turn watery when butter is added. Continue beating and the buttercream will firm up. Beat until the mixture is creamy and fluffy. Lastly, sift in 2-3 tsp matcha powder and continue beating to obtain a smooth matcha buttercream. Add more matcha if desired.

Assembly:
Turning the cake out: Turn the baked sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again, carefully. Now, peel of the top piece of baking/parchment paper. The skin would be stuck to the baking/parchment paper and would be removed.

Rolling the cake: Make a few slits across the breadth of the cake at the side nearest to you with a knife. Apply buttercream evenly over the surface of the sheet cake. With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), roll the cake up tightly to form a swiss roll.

Notes:
1) Add some sweetened red beans to the matcha buttercream before rolling to get a matcha red bean swiss roll. I omitted this because I could not find any canned red beans.

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

Bakes from A New Friend - Muffins

Remember I mentioned a blog visitor of mine who emailed me in my french apple tart post? My new found friend, Stephanie, kindly passed me some homemade muffins the day before. The muffins were very nicely wrapped up in see-through plastic wrappers sealed with thin golden foil strips. I was touched by her efforts and sincerity. In return, I passed her some banana chocolate cakes I have made that day, which however, was contained in a non-fancy plastic food saver obtained from SKP.

Naturally, the muffins became my choice of breakfast the next day. In case you are wondering, the muffins I received are Chocolate Matcha and Vanilla Cranberry. These tiny cakelets are lovely - soft,  fluffy and slightly moist, not a tad oily and with the right level of sweetness. The vanilla cranberry muffins had a nice buttery aroma and the cranberries were juicy to the bite, making me wonder if they were dried fruits or the real McCoy. I love how the matcha and chocolate flavours combined to give a grassy, rich bodied cocoa taste. This unique combo definitely hit the right notes for me.

Stephanie, if you should start blogging about your bakes, these cakey muffins definitely deserved to be featured at the earliest opportunity. Thank you for these mouth-watering treats, my friend =]

Bakertan's Chocolate Factory: Part 1

Tomorrow will be the Blogger's meetup initiated by Pei-Lin. At the thought of meeting up with other fellow food bloggers, I feel kind of excited. Afterall, this is my first meetup and I always thought it would be great to meet up like-minded people sharing the same passion for food and its preparation.  

Each of us is supposed to bring along one homemade food item for the potluck. I have long decided that I would be doing chocolate truffles. Since everyone knows how to bake and is pretty proficient at it, I decided not to do any baked goods. Cooking is out of the option as I only have that few kitchen tricks up my sleeves, hardly worthy to be brought along for the potluck. Furthermore, a potluck would signify an excess of food. Chocolate truffles are hardly filling and hence would be a good idea for an after-meal dessert.  

The first time I made chocolate truffles was ages ago, dating back to about one and a half years back. Back then, my best friend was leaving Singapore for China on an overseas exchange. Hence, I made some Bailey's chocolate truffles for his farewell. My maiden attempt turned out well. Making Chocolate truffles seems like an easy affair with few ingredients to handle. However, it is time consuming having to chopped chocolates finely, melt the chocolates, make the ganache, refrigerate the ganache, scoop the truffle centers and coat them with chocolate. The weather is definitely not on my side since Singapore is humid and warm all year round. We only have one season here and that is Summer.

In total, I made 3 different flavoured chocolate truffles to bring along to the meetup: green tea white chocolate truffles, rum and raisins truffles and lastly plain dark chocolate truffles. Out of these, the green tea truffles took the longest time to prepare. I started with the green tea truffles first and gained some practice. Making the rum and raisins truffles became much easier afterwards. For the plain chocolate truffles, I used a simple chocolate mould to differentiate them from the rum and raisin truffles, since both are covered with dark chocolate.

Rolled green tea truffles centers

Notice that the truffle is sweating due to condensation.

Green tea truffle speckled with matcha powder. The idea is inspired by this website

Reminds me of mooncakes. Anyway Mid-Autumm will be coming soon..

Truffle centers actually look like pandan lotus paste

I chose 3 of the not so good looking ones and sampled them. Taste is not too shabby. Those who do not like white chocolate probably will not appreciate the sweet milky caramel taste.

Thats all for now regarding tomorrow's  preview. Will take more pictures on the remaining truffles soon....

Green Tea Truffles ( recipe adapted from Truffles: 50 Delicious Decadent Homemade Chocolate Treats by Dede Wilson)

Serving size: 11 pieces

Equipment and materials:

1) 2 Heatproof bowls
2) Spoon
3) 2 Fork
4) 3/4 inch or 1 inch Melon baller (optional)
5) Measuring spoon set
6) Baking/parchement paper
7) Foil/paper mini cupcake liners
8) Saucer
9) Clingfilm
10) Baking trays
11) Diposable food gloves
12) Knife for chopping chocolate

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
120g white chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)
1/2 to 1 & 1/2 tsp matcha powder
120g white chocolate pistoles or finely chopped
a little matcha powder to sprinkle on green tea truffles

Method:

Making the chocolate ganache: Place 120g of finely chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place cream in a saucer and heat it till it is almost coming to a boil on medium heat. Off the flame and remove the saucer. Pour the cream over the finely chopped white chocolate and allow chocolate to sit for a while in the heated cream. Stir gently to allow chocolate to melt and blend in with the cream. When chocolate is blended with cream, the resulting mixture will be cream coloured. The mixture cream chocolate mixture is known as a white chocolate ganache.

If white chocolate is not completely melted: Place heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly onto the saucepan and the base of the bowl should not be in contact with the water in the saucepan. Bring the water in the saucepan to a low simmer on low heat. This is known as a double boiler. Stir the white chocolate and cream mixture until the white chocolate melts completely to obtain a smooth ganache.

Cooling and flavouring ganache: Remove heatproof bowl from the heat and allow ganache to cool. Add in 1/2 tsp of matcha powder to the cooled ganance. Mix evenly. Add more matcha powder to taste if required. White chocolate is very sweet so strike a balance between the green tea flavour and the milky sweetness of the white chocolate. Allow ganache to cool. Place a piece of clingfilm over the bowl and press onto the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate ganache till firm.

Shaping matcha white chocolate ganache balls: When ganache is firm, use a melon baller to scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) portions onto a tray lined with baking paper. Return to refrigerate these portions for 10 minutes or till firm. Using the disposable food gloves, roll the portions into round balls. Refrigerate for another 10 minutes or till firm.

Coating ganache balls with white chocolate: Melt remaining 120g white chocolate in another heatproof bowl using the double boiler method on low heat. Using the tines of 2 fork, dipped the round ganache balls into the melted white chocolate to coat. Lift the dipped ganache ball up from the melted white chocolate. Rotate and transfer the coated balls at the same time between the 2 fork to ensure ganache balls are well coated all around. Transfer coated ganache balls to a tray lined with baking paper. While chocolate coating is still soft, sprinkle a pinch of matcha powder randomly on top of each coated ganache ball. Allow the white chocolate coating to set at cool room temperature. Alternatively, refirgerate coated ganache balls untill firm.

Storing chocolate truffles: Line truffles with mini cupcake papers and store truffles at cool room temperature covered or in the refrigerator for several days. Serve truffles at room temperature, not chilled and directly from the refrigerator to enjoy the flavour.

Notes:

1) It takes some practice to melt white chocolate. White chocolate has to be melted using low heat over a double boiler and constantly stirred gently. If the water in the double boiler comes to a strong boil, the heat may cause the white chocolate to burn. Burnt white chocolate is dry and cannot be melted anymore. From experience, white chocolate is the hardest to melt among all chocolates.

2) As an alternative, roll the ganache balls onto matcha powder. It will work fine too.

3) Another alternative would be to roll the ganache balls onto grated white chocolate. This was the intention in the book by Dede Wilson