Daring Baker's Challenge, July 2010: Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

After a two-month break from the Daring Bakers and three missed challenges this year altogether, this challenge was in many ways a crucial one. At the beginning of this month, I found myself at a turning point. A tough decision had to be made - to miss yet another challenge and consequently lose my Daring Baker "license", or to muster up the strength and participate in the challenge. It took me almost a whole month to figure out what to do, which is why I once again found myself baking (or should I say freezing?) and assembling this lovely cake the very last minute.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, I very recently found out that I have some health issues, potentially serious ones. At this time I'm still not sure what the exact diagnosis is, but I do know that I have to follow a very strict diet plan. Needless to say that scrumptious desserts and ice cream bombe cakes are out of the question. Since my husband and I live alone and most of our friends and family are already enjoying their holidays at the seaside, it seemed a terrible waste to make this lovely cake and then throw it away. Although my hubby has a very healthy appetite, eating a whole cake would be a bit too much for him to handle. He did, however, offer to do it if I eventually decide to participate in the challenge. :) Since he was really supportive and full of understanding regarding our new eating habits, I finally decided to participate in the challenge and cheer him up with a cake I knew he'd love. I did, however, scale down the recipe and make some minor adjustments in order to get one small cake.


The recipe itself was very good, clear and well written with many useful explanations. Our hostess did a very good job indeed! All the measurements were correct and everything turned out beautifully. I do, however, have a small complaint regarding the swiss roll. I sprinkled some sugar on a kitchen towel and turned the cake on it, like the recipe says. I don't know if this step has some kind of a purpose, but in my case it resulted in the cake sticking to the towel so badly that I literally had to peel it off. I was left with ruined kitchen towel and an ugly cake. If you think about it, it makes sense. If you put a hot cake onto a layer of sugar, the sugar melts and sticks to the cake and the surface. So, my advice is to avoid this step if possible.

As far as the flavors are concerned, I really liked the original ones and decided to stick to most of them, with some minor changes. I omitted the chocolate ice cream all together because it would be such a pity not to use some fresh summer berries while they're at their best. For the swiss roll, I made a vanilla cream cheese filling. For the hot fudge sauce I used the challenge recipe and it was really good. I added yogurt to both ice creams just to add a bit of freshness and lightness to the flavor. So I ended up with a yogurt vanilla ice cream and a red currant ice cream.


I made just one swiss roll and assembled the cake in a small bowl, so my final ice cream bombe was 16cm in diameter and 8cm high. I still had leftovers, but those freeze very well so it's all good. Besides, it's handy to have some home made ice cream in the freezer, don't you think?

So, here's my scaled recipe with all the adjustment I made. If you'd like to make a regular size cake, just double the ingredients or take a look at the original recipe.


Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake
(original challenge recipe)

Swiss roll
3 medium sized eggs
110 g caster sugar + extra for rolling
25 g all purpose flour
20g natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp of boiling water
a little oil for brushing the pans

Preheat the oven at 200°C. Brush the baking pan (11x9 inches) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick. When the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds. Sift together the flour and cocoa powder and fold this mixture into the eggs gently with a spatula. Fold in the water. Pour the mixture into a baking pan and spread it out evenly. Place the pan in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.

Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it. Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the

baking paper. Trim any crisp edges. Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.


Vanilla Cream Cheese Filling
125g cream cheese
100ml whipping cream
1/2 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces
2 tbsp of caster sugar

Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processor till nicely mixed together. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and vanilla sugar until soft and creamy. Add the whipping cream and beat until very thick.

Open the swiss roll and spread the cream cheese filling, making sure it does not go right to the edges. Roll the cake up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Yogurt Vanilla Ice Cream
60g plain yogurt
220ml whipping cream
1/2 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces
50 g granulated sugar

Grind together the sugar and vanilla pieces in a food processor. In a mixing bowl, whisk yogurt and vanilla sugar lightly till everything is mixed together. Add whipping cream and beat until very soft peaks form.

Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.


Chocolate Hot Fudge Sauce
115g of caster sugar
1,5 tbsp of natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp of cornstarch
180ml of water
1/2 tbsp butter

In a small saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornflour and water.Place the pan over heat, and stir constantly until it begins to thicken and is smooth (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and mix in the butter. Keep aside to cool.

Red Currant Ice Cream
50 g of red currant puree
2 tbsp lemon juice
60g plain yogurt
40g granulated sugar
220 ml whipping cream

In a mixing bowl, whisk the yogurt, red currant puree, sugar and lemon juice until everything is mixed together. Add whipping cream and beat until very soft peaks form.

Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.


Assembly

Cut the swiss roll into equal slices, approximately 1,5 cm each. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with plastic wrap. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).

Soften the yogurt vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the plastic wrap and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm (at least 1 hour). Add the fudge sauce over the yogurt vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm (at least an hour). Soften the red currant ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set.

Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.