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December 29, 2008
Mocha Roll! (sort of...)
After many many years of desperately wanting a kitchenaid mixer but being too cheap to buy one myself, Scott bought one for me this past Christmas. HELLO BAKING...here I come.
My first attempt using my lovely mixer was the mocha roll . Baking the mocha roll was inspired by two people: Tzu, who baked a pumpkin cheesecake roll while I was watched (and when I asked for a recipe said it was a family recipe = very sad ginger), and Jeremy who hearts mocha rolls and can eat a whole one by himself (scary).
So...since Tzu didn't give me a recipe, I tried (but not very successfully) to remember everything she did. The one thing that stuck out in my mind: beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately (I seriously thought this might be the secret...haha). Matt (the husband) told me that the roll was basically a sponge cake. So, when the time came to find a recipe, off to the internets I went: "mocha sponge cake", "mocha roll", (in some desperation)"pumpkin roll...?" But NONE of these recipes separated the egg yolks and egg whites out! SO...I did some researching and I learned this (basically from The Dessert Bible): There are really four types of "foam" cakes, and their types are based on how the eggs are incorporated and how much fat is added:
1. Angel food cake - no egg yolk, no extra fat, only egg whites.
2. Genoise - whip whole egg and add some butter
3. Sponge cake - beat either whole egg, or only egg yolk and then fold in egg whites. No extra fat.
4. Chiffon cake - sponge cake and then add some extra fat (like vegetable oil).
Many times, recipes just lump the latter three as sponge cake. But really, they are different. And the way they bake and how "sturdy" they are is based on how much fat is in there.
Anyway...so Tzu's recipe had vegetable oil. And I only remember this because I commented on how little butter was in the recipe, and she pointed out the copious amount of vegetable oil she added. SO...what I concluded out of all of this is that...the pumpkin roll Tzu made was NOT a sponge cake, but a CHIFFON cake. And so yeah...long story short...I learned a lot about sponge cakes.
So...after much MUCH hunting (oh internets, I seriously do love you), I went with the above recipe. And along the way, this is what I learned:
1. Yeah...so the recipe...was really big. Next time, halve the recipe. The recipe was for 2 eight inch cake pans, I put it in one jelly roll pan, and that umm...was a little explosive.
2. Butter cream is pretty yum...and freaking takes forever to make. But my mixer was definitely up to the task. I heart my mixer.
3. So when the recipe says "let cake cool, then spread coffee cream", they REALLY mean let the cake cool. Because I got a little impatient and slathered it all on...and the cream just melted. EVERYWHERE. Which...you know, upon reflection makes sense, since it is BUTTER cream (and the cake was kind of still warm)...but whatever, it was still pretty yum. So yeah...all that work that my mixer did? Was kind of.....pointless.
4. I need to figure out how to roll without breaking the cake everywhere. Tzu seemed to do it without a problem. My cake did not fair as well. At least...(butter running everywhere and all) was yum.
5. Rubber spatulas are pretty awesome.
6. I need a BIGGER KITCHEN.
So...all in all...not exactly what I would call a "success." But definitely, a worthwhile experiment. YUM cakes. Maybe the next one I make will actually have other people (other than Scott and the roommate) to see and eat it. :)
Posted by szujin at 11:43 PM | Comments (1)