Storytelling

Sitting in front of my laptop, trying to start this post, I stared blankly at it for a while. I knew what I had planned to post, a recipe on my previous not so fantastic attempt at swiss roll with cream and fresh fruits but I simply hate to start the post with "I had my fridge and after some research, decided to make ". It had turned out to be so predictable!

I needed a story. A story as cliche as Sumiko Tan getting hitched and married. A story that will put Mr Brown and his Yazuka Baby to shame. A story that will throw me into the new career in perhaps *gasp* column writing.

Alas, I am not there yet. So this post will have to be about the going to be rotten strawberries and mangoes in my fridge. And after some research, I decided that it was too late in the evening and I could do with a simple Swiss Roll with Strawberries and Mangoes from Pook's blog.

As mentioned, this was quite a failed attempt. I was too lazy to roll the cake first and let it cool before un-rolling it, fill it with cream and fruits and re-roll it again. So I just did the shortcut method i.e. once the cake is out of the oven, spread it with cream and fruits then roll.

It was a bad bad choice. I did not want the cake to cool first as that will make the rolling difficult later but the cream melted once it touched the warm cake surface. Coupled with the fact that I had way too much fruit leftovers, I filled the entire cake with thick chunks of fruits. Naturally, rolling was difficult and all my melted cream got squashed out of the cake as I roll it, together with the fruits.

Being the quick witted damsel in distress, I quickly cling wrapped it, scooped up all the cream and fruits and squeezed them back into whatever openings I can find in the cake and dump the end product in the fridge.

Few hours later, as with all food blog posts go, the cake was ugly but absolutely delicious. I was comforted only after I saw more similar swiss roll pics with rolls much uglier than mine. (I dare not put any references here for fear of the need to moderate comments from now on).

There, I realized I have been sucked into the typical Singapore style food blog posting of this century. I promise I will learn to write better.... when I managed to write better in future.... with a story.

Swiss Roll with Strawberries and Mangoes

Ingredients  
(I used only 2/3 of the ingredients. I'm a 2-egg baker)

Sponge cake:
3 eggs separated
70g sugar
40g cake flour (I used plain flour)
25g unsalted butter, melted


Filling:
200ml whipping cream
20g sugar
Cut fruits of your choice




Method 

Sponge cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Line baking tray with baking paper
3. Beat egg whites. Add sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks are reached
4. Add egg yolk to the whites and beat at low speed for about 1 minute
5. Sift flour into the beaten eggs and fold gently
6. Pour in the melted butter and fold gently
7. Pour into the lined baking tray and bake 9-10minutes or till the sponge cake shines with a nice light golden color.
8. When the cake is out of the oven, turn it over onto a damp cloth. Peel off the baking paper and do a quick roll of the cake with the cloth. Cool on a rack.

Filling and assembly:

1. Whip the cream with sugar till soft peaks are reached.
2. Un-roll the cake and spread the whipped cream on the cake. Lined cut fruits on top of the cream.
3. Re-roll the cake. Done.