Yule Log Cake

To welcome DH home, I made a Chocolate Nutella Yule Log Cake :)

I was hesitant prior to making this as I've failed my swiss roll previously.  Searched online to find out more about rolling the cake as per my understanding, there are 2 ways of rolling:

1. To roll the cake fresh from the oven while it is still hot.

2. To cool the cake completely before rolling.

I may have overbaked my cake last time so this time round, I eye-balled the cake and baked at exactly 12 mins.  And instead of waiting for it to cool, I decided to use the first method and rolled it while it was still hot.  It did crack a little but at least it was rollable.

The skin got stucked to the parchment paper when I unrolled it but since I was planning to have the cake frosted, I could't be bothered to sprinkle some sugar onto the parchment paper before rolling (see notes below).

This was baked in 11" x 14" pan but since it was an impromptu decision to bake this cake, I do not have any cake board nor cake box to contain the cake.  Searched high and low for a suitable box and found this microwaveable container (about 6" x 6").  Lined the base with aluminium foil and proceed to frost the cake.  However, I wasn't able to put any decorations on it as the lid was just touching the tip of the cake.

These were the balance cake that couldn't fit into the container so we had it for our afternoon tea.

Served it with some decorations and the kids were thrilled!

Without any whipping cream on hand, I decided to try out buttercream frosting.  Instead of using melted chocolate, I added Nutella to the buttercream to get a nice brown.  Both DS2 and I prefer fresh cream but DD1 loves it and licked up every single bit of cream on her plate.

The kids helped with the decorations and this was what they came up with.  Abit overwhelming as they were trying to put every single decoration onto the cake.

I used the same sugar roll recipe but modified it into a chocolate cake instead.  Also, I do not have enough cake flour so I substituted the balance with all purpose flour.  Not too bad for my standard (alright, I must admit I'm not a fussy eater) but kids commented they couldn't taste the chocolate at all.

Yes, I've finally made my very first swiss roll successfully!  After this episode, I feel more confident making swiss roll ^-^

Chocolate Swiss Roll

Ingredients

4 egg yolk

45g cake flour
40g plain flour

15g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

40ml corn oil

4 egg white

60g caster sugar

Butter cream/whipped cream/jam

Method

1. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
2. Whisk egg white for a while then add in caster sugar gradually. Whisk till medium peak.
3. Drop in the egg yolk one by one into the beating egg white until finish and beat on low for another 3 mins.
4. Stop the machine, fold in the sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Fold in cornoil and pour into a 11" x 14" tray and bake at pre-heated oven of 200C for about 10 - 12 mins.
6. When the cake is cooked, let it cool in the oven for 5 mins. Turn cake out onto a piece of parchment paper (*see notes below) and immediately roll up the sponge cake together with the paper.  Leave to cool completely.
7. Unroll the cake carefully and spread a layer of whipped cream/butter cream/jam onto the sponge cake.  Roll it up again and chill in fridge before serving.

Notes

Sprinkle some sugar onto a parchment paper before inverting the cake and roll up into a swiss roll. This helps to prevent the skin from sticking onto the parchment paper.