Jul 27, 2010: Daring Bakers 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.

The recipe for this month’s challenge has been adapted from this Swiss swirl ice cream cake from the Taste of Home website. Slices of Swiss roll are used to line a bowl and then filled with vanilla ice-cream, hot fudge ice cream topping and chocolate ice cream. The picture looked like so much fun that I have been waiting to make it for a while. What better timing than to make it along with fellow daring bakers to celebrate my three years with this amazing group. I have taken the basic idea from the above website and have developed the recipe. Hope you like it. The recipe does not require a lot of hands on time, but definitely requires a lot of cooling and freezing time between layers. Unlike the original recipe, we are going to make each layer from scratch. So, if you are planning to make it in one day, it might be a bit of a struggle.

Recipe source - Inspired by the Swiss swirl ice cream cake from the Taste of Home website

Mandatory-
* You must make the Swiss rolls, a filling for them, two ice creams and a fudge sauce, from scratch.

* You must set the dessert in a bowl/pan etc in the order given in the recipe-Swiss roll, first ice-cream, the fudge topping and, finally, the second ice cream.

[Eat4Fun: This is my 2 year anniversary as a Daring Baker! I've made 23 of the 24 Challenges. It's hard to imagine the variety of recipes I've made as a Daring Baker. Fun Stuff!]

Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake

[The ice creams were made first so they'd have a chance to set/harden in the freezer. Also, the ice cream recipes are very simple. For the vanilla, it's only cream, vanilla bean and sugar.

In honor of the warm summer we're having, I purchased an ice cream maker. :-) ]

Vanilla Ice Cream-
Ingredients-
2 and ½ C / 625 ml / 20 fl oz of whipping cream
1 vanilla bean, minced or 1 tsp/ 5 ml/ .15 fl oz vanilla extract
½ C / 115gms/ 4 oz of granulated sugar

Method-

1. Grind together the sugar and vanilla in a food processor.

[I've never used vanilla straight like this before. I was expecting to steep the bean in the cream.]


In a mixing bowl, add the cream and vanilla –sugar mixture and whisk lightly till everything is mixed together. If you are using the vanilla extract, grind the sugar on its own and then and the sugar along with the vanilla extract to the cream.

[Blend all he ingredients and pour into the ice cream maker.]


[The ice cream/soft serve ready for a container to harden in the freezer.]


Chocolate Ice Cream-
[For some reason, the chocolate ice cream never hardened in the freezer. It remained like a slightly firmer version of soft serve.]

Ingredients-
2C/ 500 ml whipping cream
1 C/230gms/8 oz caster sugar
3 tblsp/ 24 gms/1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder

Method-

1. Grind together the sugar and the cocoa powder in a food processor .
2. In a saucepan, add all the ingredients and whisk lightly.
3. Place the pan over heat and keep stirring till it begins to bubble around the edges.
4. Remove from heat and cool completely before transferring to a freezer friendly container till firm around the edges. If you are using an ice cream maker, churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instruction, after the mixture has cooled completely.

The Swiss rolls-
[It's been about 18 years since I've made a jelly roll/Swiss roll. This is all new to me since I really dont' remember what I did back then. :-) ]

Sponge cake
6 medium sized eggs
1 C / 225 gms caster sugar /8 oz+ extra for rolling
6 tblsp / 45gms/ a pinch over 1.5 oz of all purpose (plain) flour + 5 tblsp/40gm /a pinch under 1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together
2 tblsp /30ml / 1 fl oz of boiling water
a little oil for brushing the pans


Method-
1. Preheat the oven at 200 deg C /400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.

2. 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.

[Mixing the egg and sugar on high took about 10 to 15 minutes... a surprisingly long time.]


[The volume of the two ingredients pretty much doubled in volume. Amazing! I don't remember that happening 18 years ago.]


3. Add the flour mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water.

[Folding in the flour/cocoa mixture created a nice striated pattern. I had to take a picture of that. :-) ]


4. Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.

5. Place a pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.

6. Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it.

7. Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.

[I used one pan - an 11" x 17" pan... Results look good, especially trimming off the edges.]


8. 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.

[Wrapped in a linen bed sheet that I boiled and dried before using.]


For the filling
2C / 500 mls/ 16 fl oz of whipping cream
1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
5 tblsp / 70gms/2.5oz of caster sugar

1. In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.

2. Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.

3. Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of ½ an inch should be fine).

[Cream was whipped to soft peaks and spread out as shown below.]


4. Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

[Wrapped in plastic film for refrigeration.]


Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients-
1 C / 230gms/ 8 oz of caster sugar
3 tblsp / 24gms/1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tblsp /15gms/ 1 oz of cornflour/cornstarch
1 and ½ C /355ml /12 fl oz of water
1 tblsp /14gms/ 1 oz butter
1 tsp/5 ml / .15 fl oz vanilla extract

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

[Shot of the chocolate porridge... I mean chocolate sauce. :-) ]


Assembly-
[Assembly is pretty straightforward. The longest part is waiting for each layer to set before adding another layer.]

1. Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).

[Looking at the cross-section of the Swiss Roll.]


2. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.

3. 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).

[Layer Swiss Roll - Complete]


4. Soften the vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover 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)

[Layer Vanilla - Complete]


5. Add the fudge sauce over the vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm . ( at least an hour)
[Adding the chocolate sauce layer... The sauce seemed a little loose, but I made it according to recipe. ]


6. Soften the chocolate ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .

7. 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.

8. Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.

The Finished Product

[Pretty neat have a Swiss roll layer on my dome cake.]


[I don't know if the chocolate sauce was supposed to be a thick layer or a thin layer. I just spooned in some of the sauce for this layer.


Overall, both ice cream recipes turned out delicious and very chocolaty. The vanilla was good too!