Giraffe Swiss Roll 长颈鹿也疯狂

When I told my hubby that I was going to make a giraffe swiss roll, the first thing he asked was "Do you have live giraffe extract?"

Huh? What do you mean?

"Then you need to go to the zoo to collect urine and faeces..."

Oh come on, use your imagination!

Hubby was only convinced that I wasn't joking when I proudly showed him my completed masterpiece - my very first swiss roll and very first giraffe cake!

Recently there were a lot of swiss rolls floating around in the blogosphere and I decided to join in the fun. The inspiration of most bakers seemed to originate from 2 baking books, it appeared that 孟老師的美味蛋糕卷 and Junko's 彩绘蛋糕卷 were the "culprits" at work, making aspiring bakers go gaga over swiss rolls. I have neither of these 2 much treasured baking books on swiss rolls but luckily there is such a thing called Google. :)

The first time I tried this recipe, I was overwhelmed by the instructions (in chinese) and didn't read them carefully enough, hence there was one step which was wrongly executed. The pattern batter was too runny for piping and I didn't grease the baking paper well enough hence the giraffe pattern stuck to the baking paper! I was sad but undeterred, so I re-read the recipe a second time and tried it again the next day and finally got it right! It was quite challenging for me especially since I have never even attempted making a plain swiss roll before. :)

I adapted the recipe from here (written in Chinese) and I have written out my own detailed instructions in English below. You can also refer to here for a pictorial illustration but be warned about the japanese style of english written on this site :p

Note on 3 April 2012 - I noticed that quite a few blogs have lifted the text literally word for word for this recipe even inheriting my grammatical mistakes (I shall not name your blog but you know who you are), without even seeking permission or at least leaving me a comment on my blog. No doubt the original recipe was not from me, but it was either in Japanese or Chinese and I have taken great pains to test out the recipe, adapt it and translate it step by step in English. If you have adapted the recipe from mine, fine, please write down your own step by step instructions. But if you have used the recipe without adaptation, then kindly link back to this page and do not just copy without thinking! Thank you.


Ingredients
Egg Yolk Batter
3 egg yolks
15g sugar
60ml water
40ml corn oil/vegetable oil
72g plain flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
8g cocoa powder (I used Van Houten)

Pattern Batter
1 egg white
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp plain flour
2 tbsp of egg yolk batter

Egg White Batter
3 egg whites
50g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method
1. Prepare a rectangular swiss roll tin. Outline the giraffe pattern on a piece of baking paper and place it in the baking tin (You can google for the giraffe skin, copy and paste it in powerpoint, print it out and outline it on baking paper). Then place another fresh piece of baking paper on top. Use a baking brush dipped with a small teaspoonful of oil to grease the second layer of baking paper which is on top of the giraffe pattern. The baking paper must be well-greased if not the giraffe pattern will stick to the baking paper upon removal.

2. Steps for Egg Yolk Batter - Using a cake mixer, beat the egg yolks, then add in the sugar followed by vanilla extract, water and oil and beat well. Finally add in sifted flour (do not add cocoa powder yet) and mix well til creamy. Set aside 2 tbsp of the batter for use in step (3).

3. Steps for Pattern Batter - Using a cake mixer, whisk 1 egg white til foamy, then add in 2 tsp sugar slowly and whisk til stiff peaks. Add in 2 tbsp egg yolk batter taken from step (2),  followed by 1 tsp plain flour and mix well.  Pour the pattern batter into a piping bag and pipe out the creamy-white lines/ silhouettes of the giraffe pattern. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degree celsius for about 1 min and remove from oven.

4. Steps for Egg White Batter - Using a cake mixer, whisk 3 egg whites and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar til foamy then add in 50g sugar slowly and whisk til stiff peaks.  

5. Add 8g sifted cocoa powder to the remaining egg yolk batter from step (2) and mix evenly using a spatula. This becomes the cocoa mixture.

6. Add the egg white batter from step (4) to the cocoa mixture from step (5) in three portions and mix lightly each time using a spatula til it is well-combined. Do not overmix otherwise the bubbles will be deflated.

7. Pour the final batter into a swiss roll tin and use a spatula to level and even out the surface of the batter. Gently bang the cake tin on the table a few times to remove any bubbles trapped in the batter. Bake at 190C for about 14 min.

8. When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and quickly invert it onto a cooling rack such that the giraffe pattern is facing up. Peel off the baking paper on top carefully, making sure that the pattern remains intact.
 

9. Trim the 4 sides of the cake using a sharp serrated knife. Prepare a fresh sheet of baking paper, turn the cake over such that the giraffe pattern is facing down on the baking paper. Spread a layer of filling on top and gently roll it up into a swiss roll. Secure the swiss roll with the baking paper around it and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour to chill.

Note: I used apricot jam as the filling but you can use any filling you like as long as it goes well with the swiss roll. The orginal filling for this recipe is 160g whipped cream + 15g fine sugar + some canned cherries.