The latest baking trend over social media is the Hurricane Swiss Roll. I tried about 3 times with extra batter from baking sponge cakes and never succeeded in getting a nice roll with the skin tearing or the sponge being too thick or the filling spilling over the roll. This time, I got quite a nice roll and I finally managed to keep the skin. Here’s how.
(Makes a standard swiss roll)
Ingredients
For the swiss roll
- 75g top flour
- 60g milk
- 40g canola oil
- 35g castor sugar and 35g castor sugar
- 4 eggs separated
- 2 tbsp lingonberries jam melted with 2 tbsp of water
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)
For the passion fruit curd
- 3 large eggs
- 125g caster sugar
- 125g passion fruit puree
- 200g unsalted butter
For the filling
- 1 cup whipping cream
- fruits or jam of your choice
For assembly
- Baked swiss roll
- Whipped cream
- 1 cup passion fruit curd
- Fresh mango, cut into strips
- Ligonberries from the jam
Method
For the swiss roll
- Preheat the oven at 160 degrees and line the base of the baking tray with baking paper.
- Melt the lingonberries jam in 2 tablespoons of water and sift to separate the liquid and the ligonberries.
- Sift the flour and set aside.
- In a small pot, heat the oil to about 70 degrees or until you see streaks in the oil.
- Pour in the sifted flour and whisk to combine.
- Add the milk and sugar and whisk to combine.
- Add the yolks and whisk till combined.
- In a clean mixing bowl, whisk egg whites till foamy and add the cream of tar tar (this is optional, it works to stabilise the egg whites) and whisk till soft peak.
- Add the sugar a spoonful at a time and beat till firm peak.
- Add a third of the meringue into the batter and use a hand whisk to combine the egg whites and the batter. You do not need to be too gentle a this time because this step is just to make the batter to be at a similar consistency with the meringue for easier combining.
- Fold in the rest of the meringue gently till the egg whites is no longer visible. Do not over mix. Pour about two-thirds of the white batter into one of the prepared baking tray.
- To the remaining one-third, add the ligonberries jam liquid and add some red colour paste if desired and fold to combine.
- Pour this red batter into a piping bag and pipe over the original batter as evenly as possible.
- Using the back handle of your spatula, run the handle along the length of the baking tray, without lifting the handle, run it along the length in the opposite direction (imagine drawing straight lines as close to each other as possible). Do this until you have finished drawing close lines for the whole length.
- Without lifting the spatula again, run the handle, this time along the breadth of the baking tray, run along the breadth in the opposite direction, repeating until you have covered the whole tray.
- Tap the tray lightly on the counter top to let air escape.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes and turn the tray around and bake for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove tray from oven and leave to cool for 2 minutes.
- Sift icing sugar all over the top of the cake, place a dry tea towel on top of the cake, place a tray of similar size to the baking tray and invert the tray so the baking paper is now facing up.
- Peel off the baking paper and sift icing sugar all over the cake and roll up the cake together with the tea towel and leave to cool. This is to set the ‘memory’ for the cake, so it is easy to roll up later.
For the passion fruit curd
- Mix all the ingredients except the butter in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk continuously till the mixture thickens. To do a quick test, coat the back of a wooden spoon with the thickened mixture and run your finger across the spoon. If the ‘finger path’ remains, your mixture is ready.
- Take the mixture off the heat and add in the butter (cut into cubes) and whisk to incorporate.
- Pour into a container, cling wrap the mixture, with the cling wrap touching the surface of the curd, and chill in the fridge to set and until ready to use.
- You only need a cup for the swiss roll, for the extra, you can keep chilled in fridge and use it as a bread spread or use it to fill profiteroles.
For the whipping cream
- Beat the whipping cream to medium peak and set aside till ready to assemble.
To assemble
- Unroll the cake as much as possible, being careful not to break the cake.
- Spread cream and ligonberries from the jam evenly over the cake.
- Place mango strips along the length you are rolling it up.
- Reroll the cake with the help of the tea towel.
- Leave to chill in fridge before cutting off the edges to reveal the mango and the hurricane effect.
Possible hiccups
For the swiss roll
- The cake may crack when you try to roll it up if it is too thick.
- The skin of the cake may stick to the baking paper when you remove them from the tray, so be sure to sift icing sugar all over the cake before placing tea towel on top and rolling the cake up. The cake should also still be warm when you are rolling it to set the ‘memory.’
- Do not put too much filling because the cream may be squeezed out of the cake and create a mess.
For the whipped cream
- Over whipping the cream will cause the cream to split, so make sure to whip just to medium peak.
For assembly
- The mango may not be at the correct position and it takes some practice. I now know where to position my fruits in my next bake. Practice makes perfect!!
I like how versatile swiss rolls can be and one can even draw on the swiss rolls, which I might try in my next bake.