Daring Bakers: Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

It scares me a little that I always have in my store cupboard the ingredients for a cake or pastry. That means there's nothing stopping me from making some kind of confection whenever the fancy takes me.

With Mr NoTime as my only roomie, our fridge often ends up like a supermarket pastry display cabinet, with the various concoctions spelling out Eat Me! like the currants on the cakes Alice finds down the rabbit hole ­­– and doom for my sweet tooth.

Well, if there was a Mock Turtle Cake inspired by Wonderland, it might look like the fantastic turtle/tortoise shell lookalikes from the Daring Bakers.

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.

For the full recipe in pdf format as provided by Sunita, click here.

And so, with my non-existent self-control in mind, I decided to make just two mini bombes, but ended up with three even though I halved all the ingredients.

The cakes were made in three moulds with different shapes. One of those cakes I covered in melted chocolate (left). Only I didn't do it well, and instead of hardening into a sleek shell, it turned out looking ­­– and feeling ­­– like a cannonball! It was certainly heavy enough.

The one at the top and right at the bottom of this post is the traditional bombe shape and the one below is my favourite. I used Maltesers to plug the gaps between the swirls.  

There are a few components to the cake and each one works off the others superbly. I really like the two ice creams. The recipe is very easy ­­– no need for an ice cream maker ­­– and it produces vanilla and chocolate ice cream flavours with a kind of "chewiness" that really appeals to me. I think I may be making my own ice cream using this recipe from now on.

The cross-section of the cakes

The only thing I did differently was the sponge. I was left with the whites after making Momofuku's Crack Pie with four egg yolks so I used them instead of whole eggs. The recipe is adapted from the Strawberry Roulade in Baking by Martha Day.

EGG-WHITE SWISS ROULADE

4 egg whites
115g caster sugar
75g all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g heavy cream, whipped

• Preheat the oven to 200°C. Oil a Swiss roll tin and line with non-stick baking paper.
• Place the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until they form soft peaks. Gradually whisk in the sugar. Fold in half the flou, then fold in the rest with the vanilla extract.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading evenly. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
• Meanwhile, spread out a sheet of non-stick baking paper and sprinkle with caster sugar. Turn out the cake on to this and remove the lining paper. Roll up the sponge loosely from one short side, with the paper inside. Cool.
• Unroll and remove the paper. Spread whipped cream over the sponge up to 1.5cm from the edge; reroll. Wrap in cling film, seam side down, and chill before slicing for the bombe.