I Bake!

Warning: this post is long and filled with excitement, a *few* photos, and a pinch of sarcasm

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.

Um.  Yeah.  As you know, I procrastinated on this month's challenge.  Why?  Well, for starters, the first part of the recipe called for 6 eggs -- for the cake only.  Then, I had to hit up the wholesale store just to afford the 1600 mL of whipping cream required for homemade ice cream.  Do I have an ice cream maker?  No.  Was I really looking forward to "cool completely before transferring to a freezer friendly container 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"?  In a word.  No.

And so, late on the evening of the 21st, I began making a Swiss cake...with the support of Mr. Fine holding the brush that we brushed the oil into the pan with.  A brush that we'd received as a gift one fine Christmas and never used.  Brush now used.

We got as far as mixing the eggs (6 of them, remember) and a cup of caster sugar when Mr. Fine said, "this is not thickening.  I don't suppose you thought about the fact that you used all of our egg beaters and are not using actual eggs?"  Um.  In a word?  No.  Again.  And so after much Internet research, it was deemed that we now had a fine mess of egg beaters and sugar good for approximately 60 sugar cookies and not much else.  10:53 p.m.  Egg mixture into fridge and Fines off to the couch for a movie.

The battle began again in earnest just after noon on the 22nd.  I made the two ice creams: vanilla and chocolate, beginning a regimen of freezing the edges and stirring.  By 9:00 p.m. the vanilla was setting permanently and the chocolate remained very liquid.

The afternoon also saw 6 real eggs and sugar being whipped into a thick, fluffy goodness:

This fluffy goodness was not without a very hot phillips mixette (note that Mrs. Fine does not have a mix master) and an astonished pair of Fines finding that eggs and sugar could increase in size with a *mere* 20 minutes of mixing on high.

After adding cocoa and flour and baking for 12 minutes, I had 2 totally awesome spongy cakes that could have been swapped with Little Debbies:

The white paper you see in the photo is parchment/baking paper circa 1997 that my Mom gave me when kiting up one summer for the next college year.  Yes, I still have the same box of parchment paper from 1997.  Why?  Because I certainly did not know how to cook anything remotely close to needing parchment paper.  2010?  Came in handy.  Thanks Mom.

Again I whipped up some more of the whipping cream (with vanilla and sugar, of course) (and only thought a *few* times about my waistline after eating this cake -- remember 1600 mL of whipping cream).  I rolled the cooled cakes with filling and chilled them in the freezer over night.

The feeling in the kitchen was much more positive and the Fines went to bed on the 22nd feeling more secure in their Swiss roll ice cream cake making abilities.  Only time would tell, my fine friends!

Now, if you've made it this far through my roll down cake memory lane, I'm sure you're wondering whether the cake turned out.  Did it?  Well, you'll have to wait at least another 7 hours in the kitchen, because, wait for it, I still had to make fudge sauce and 'assemble' the cake.

And so, just after noon (about the only time I could force myself to spend that much time in the kitchen each day) on the 23rd, I sliced the Swiss rolls:

and placed them delicately (whipping cream tends to fall out of cakes when there's so bloody much of it) into a bowl for freezing.  For an hour.

During this hour, the ice cream was thawing, lending itself to prime eating potential.  Yum.

When it was (what I thought to be) the time to put the vanilla ice cream over the rolls, I found that a) the cake had not stiffened enough to have ice cream spread over it and b) the vanilla ice cream had half melted.  Super.

So Mr. Fine and I removed 1/2 of our freezer goods, realigned 2 ice cream containers and 1 bowl of cake slices (apparently called a 'bombe' by bakers), and slammed the freezer door closed, with hearts pounding and fingers crossed that the door would indeed stay closed.  Success.

Many hours later, I tried (again) to spread vanilla ice cream onto the cake.  This time I had success and proceeded over the next 7 hours to layer my vanilla ice cream, fudge, and chocolate ice cream.  Off to bed with hopes of a completed cake in the freezer the next morning.

Luckily, this is what I woke up to on the morning of the 24th:

And this is what we ate with as our lunch...and gave to our neighbors, as our guilt over the whipping cream was just too much to allow us to *enjoy* the entire cake ourselves:

A snippet of comments heard throughout the devouring of cake:

"I feel kinda sick now."

"If Mrs. Fine has been bested, that's impressive." [after "I don't think I can eat anymore."]

"My lips feel oily -- that milk fat is good chap."
"This cake is goooood."


A daunting challenge, but one that was a lot of fun -- isn't that what we always say about harrowing events as we look back upon them?  Having said that, I shall likely never again indulge in making a Swiss roll ice cream cake.  I feel totally avenged that I conquered the recipe, but will most likely head to the closest DQ should the mood for ice cream cake arise anytime soon.

If you're in the mood to try your own cake, you can find the recipe here.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy another slice and then to the gym, that's for sure!