Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream and Strawberry Filling

Swiss roll cake is always one of our family favorites. I usually try, if I have enough time to prepare, to make cake for a birthday celebration in our house. This year, my youngest requested for a Swiss roll cake for his birthday. He requested for a coffee roll cake and other variant of roll cake. However, since his birthday this year fell on the busy period of Easter celebration, and also an appointment with family friends, I negotiated with him to make 2 chocolate Swiss roll cake filled with fresh whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

At the beginning, he was dissapointed. However, when the cake was being made, he started to get enthusiastic and started to help around with the cake. And when we could cut and try the cake, he was completely happy. I was also happy with the results. 

Let's get directly to the recipe of the cake, so you can try to make it at home. 

Ingredients

(A)

4 egg yolks
20 gr fine sugar
25 gr vegetable oil
50 gr milk
50 gr cake flour

(B)

4 egg whites
0.5 teaspoon cream of tartar
45 gr fine sugar

Ingredients of the Filling

300 ml cream (minimum 35%, the one we use for making whipped cream)

20 gram powder sugar

Fresh strawberry - washed and dried with paper napkin

How to make the cake:

1. Preparation: Line the pan with baking sheet. Make sure the baking sheet is bigger than the baking pan/tray, so that we can take out the cake easier. This time, I used a rectangular tray from IKEA. 

2. Mix all (A) ingredients except the flour. Sift the cake flour in, and mix it until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside.

3. In another bowl, mix the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar, mix until it becomes soft peak.

4. In the mean time, preheat the oven, upper-and-lower heat at 160 degree Celcius.

5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture (B) into the egg-flour mixture (A). After it is well incoporated, add every time 1/3 of the egg whites mixture (A) into the mixture gradually and fold it in well. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.

6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan lined with baking paper and use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly. Note that the mixture is not really flowing, so you have to help the mixture to spread itself evenly.

7. Bake the cake at 160 degree Celcius, for around 20 minutes or until the tooth pick test comes out clean.

8. Let it cool in the oven with the oven door a little bit open for around 5 minutes.

9. Take the cake out of the pan and let it cool further on the cake rack. When it is still warm but cool enough to touch, roll the cake and let it sit in a roll shape. 

10. When the cake is already cool, unroll it, spread the cream filling (see below on how to make it) and then add 1 line of strawberries. 

11. Roll the cake and wrap it with the baking paper. Store it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving it, to make sure that the shape will hold.

How to make the filling:

Beat the fresh whipped cream and powder sugar until they are incorporated and forming a smooth whipped cream consistency.

Enjoy the cake!

Durian Mille Crepe

During my husband's birthday gathering last year, my youngest son and I planned a different "cake". We usually baked either Lapis Surabaya cake (spiku) or Japanese cheese cake. But this time, inspired by the Durian Mille crepe that our aunt bought for us during our visit to her warm home in LA, USA, we exchanged our usual cakes with this one. 

My sons love durian. While some hate the taste or sometimes even only the smell of durian, my children love durian. When they were younger, they also hated it. It smells, mommy. However, after a visit to Medan (a city in Indonesia), where they got their share of tasty local durian, they started to love it. My youngest favorite is when the durian is processed into other delicious food, such as, mille crepe or just a simple durian ice dessert (Ice durian with crushed ice and flavored condensed milk).

This time, I made two durian crepe using the below recipe. I made it into two smaller size because it is easier to handle than bigger diameter crepe. Also, with the heavy durian filling, I think smaller size crepe is already filling enough for a portion of dessert.

For the durian, I used durian Palu. Frozen of course, because I could not find a cheaper fresh one here with guaranteed quality. But durian Palu is delicious and in this case, I would mix it with fresh whipped cream.

We have had quite a feast with this durian dessert during the gathering and I was happy with the happy faces after they ate the dessert.   

Ingredients of the Crepe
75 gr butter (melted)
200 gr all-purpose flour
6 eggs
800 ml warm milk (I used pasteurized full milk - be careful not to use hot milk since it will cook the eggs)
80 grams of sugar (around 6 tbsp sugar - for less sweet crepe)
1 pinch of salt

Method (Crepe)

1. Mix the flour, eggs, sugar and the salt in a bowl.
2. Warm the butter and milk. Put aside when it starts steaming.

3. Slowly add the milk mixture into the egg mixture while keep mixing the batter.

4. Keep the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours. (I left it overnight, to divide my work load.)
5. Prepare 2 non-stick frying pans (I used two small non-stick pans, one is a bit bigger than the other). Heat the smaller pan and add a bit of butter. Melt the butter and spread the butter evenly.
6. Using a soup ladle pour 1 portion of the mixture to the pan and swirl the pan a few times to ensure that the mixture is spread evenly. Cook until the upper side of the crepe is not wet anymore and the colour change to light brown.

7. Slowly flip the crepe into the other (bigger) pan. This is the trick I used, so I do not have to flip it using spatula. Cook the other side for around 10 seconds, than flip it again to a tray lined with baking paper for cooling.

8. repeat steps 5-7 until all mixture is finished. I made around 40-50 crepes from the batter.

11. Let all crepes cool before arranging the crepes.

Ingredients of the Cream
900 ml fresh whipped cream + 3 tbsp sugar
300-500 grams durian without seed

Method (Cream)

1. Beat the durian until it becomes soft, put aside.
2. Beat the fresh whipped cream and sugar until it becomes fluffy. Tips: Remember the whipped cream has to be cold and also the mixer should not be warm.
3. Add the durian into the whipped cream and fold it.

How to arrange: 
Additional ingredient: Ready to use Azuki bean paste (red bean paste)

1. Prepare a big plate covered by baking paper.
2. Put 1 crepe on the plate.

3. Spread a part of durian whipped cream sporadically.

4. Cover with 1 crepe.

5. Read steps 3 and 4 until the last crepe.

Enjoy the durian mille crepe!

Potato Cake

Everybody was sick these last two weeks. In the beginning, it was only Timothy. As usual, kids going to the day care at their early age will be prone to virus and bacteria. And they get sick easily and also the whole house is usually infected.

So the first week, we took turn to stay at home with him. After that, Patrick was sick also. So, there was a day when the kids stayed at home with me. Since Timothy and Patrick had almost no appetite, and we still had a lot of potatos, I decided to ask Patrick to make potato cake together. It was quite interesting for him to help me with the measuring. However, he got bored quickly and I ended up finishing the cake myself.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
5 eggs
180 gr sugar
1/2 tsp vanille
135 gr all-purpose flour
500 gr potato (boil the potato, drain the water and mash the potato)
2 tbsp margarine (melted)
100 gr grated cheese (I used more than 100 gram, around 175 gram in total)
25 gr raisin
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Method
1. Mix te eggs, sugar, and vanille until the mixture is smooth.
2. Add the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Mix well the mixture.
3. Add a part of the egg-flour mixture and mix that into the mashed potato to get a good consistency of the potato mixture.
4. Add the potato mixture back to the egg-flour mixture and  mix it well.
5. Add 3/4 of the grated cheese and all the raisin.
6. Pour the mixture to the bread pan and put in the pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celcius for 45 minute.

This potato cake is easy to make and you do not need any expensive tool to make. That is why, I do not afraid to let Patrick involved in making this cake. As long as you mix it well, the cake will turn out good. Not like making Lapis Surabaya cake or Japanese Cheesecake. Those cakes need to be made with care.

We love to eat the cake warm. I let Patrick brought it to school as a snack. Timothy can finish a big portion, although he will do his ritual first: picking the raisins before eating the rest of the cake.

Enjoy the cake!

Biji Salak/Sweet Potato Snack in Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk

Last week, I saw the photo uploaded by a good friend of mine, Fransisca. We met for the first time when we were very little, I think. My childhood friend, mostly because of our mothers who were schoolmates and best friends.

Fransisca uploaded an Indonesian snack called Biji Salak. Literally translated: seed of salak fruit. But it is technically not from the fruit. It is called biji salak because of the shape, I think. Anyway, I did not check the history of the food.

Her photo gave me inspiration (Thanks, Sis!). I had sweet potato at home. But since usually I only served it as steamed sweet potato, I have not made any for some time. A little bit boring, I think, every time serving it as steamed one. But, seeing her photo, I wanted to try to serve it as Biji Salak for Patrick and my husband. So, this was my last weekend project, hm part of the project, since we made also Gudeg. But that one is another story.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredient

Sweet potato *(depends on how much you want to make or have, I used around 650 grams, and it served around 7 portions)

Tapioca flour *(There are different proportion between sweet potato and the flour in different recipes, I used the following ratio 1:10 for the flour:sweet potato)

1/4 tsp salt

1000 ml water

150 gr palm sugar

2-3 tsp brown sugar

200 ml coconut milk

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

How to make

1. Wash the sweet potato

2. Steam the sweet potato and than peel the sweet potato

3. Mash the steamed sweet potato

4. Add the 1/4 tsp salt and flour to the mashed sweet potato. Mixed it using hands until uniform

5. Shape the mix into balls by rolling it using hands

6. Boil water *(use water as necessary, the amount of water should be able to cover the sweet potato balls)

7. Wait until the water is boiled *(do not put in the balls when it is not yet boiled, it will make the balls break)

8. After the water is boiled, put in the balls inside the boiling water. Do not turn off the fire.

9. When the balls are floating on the water surface, wait for 1-2 minute before taking them out of the boiling water.

10. Keep around 1 ltr of water and boil it again with the palm sugar and brown sugar.

11. After it is boiled, add in the sweet potato ball.

12. In other pan, boil the coconut milk and 1/4-1/2 tsp salt. Put it aside.

How to serve

1. Serve the sweet potato in the palm sugar soup

2. Add 1-2 tbsp coconut milk *(you can use it to decorate also if you like)

And, it turned out that Patrick found it nice. Hm, may be he was just hungry. But I am happy that my friend's photo has given me additional food variation idea for Patrick, although we live thousands of kilometers away. I miss you a lot, my friend. GBU.