Every year, right around this time, I get the itch to make a roulade. Last year I even bought a swiss roll tin ready. But then the moment passed and the tin got relegated to my baking tin cupboard for another year. Ho hum. Do you all watch the Great British Bake Off? Well they had to make swiss rolls a couple of weeks ago (hence that yearly itch!) and I've been pondering flavours since then. Earlier this week, I woke up in the middle of the night with a flash of inspiration for a Pandan Roulade. I've been meaning to blog about Pandan cake for what seems like forever -- I made so many of them trying to find the right recipe that my boys became completely addicted to the flavour. But what flavour filling to accompany my roulade? I decided it had to be chocolate!
I started with a James Martin recipe for the roulade and adapted it to include the pandan flavour. You can buy the leaves and extract the juice from them (I've done that before for a cake and it's sublime) but pandan leaves are a little tricky to come by locally to me so I used Koepe Pandan Flavour Essence which gives the beautiful green colour and a wonderful taste of pandan. I picked this up in Chinatown (London) at the same time as I bought the pandan leaves for my previous cakes and it's a handy little bottle to have in your store cupboard!
When I made the roulade, I lightly greased my tin and cut greaseproof paper exactly to fit the swiss roll tin. I've found with Pandan cake that if it browns slightly it really compromises the colour green so for the outside of my finished roll, I use the underside of my sponge (the side touching the greaseproof paper) as this is perfectly green. Hopefully this will make more sense when you read the recipe and method below!
For the filling, I decided upon Chocolate Mascarpone Cream as it has such a beautiful intense flavour, but is really light at the same time. Mascarpone has become another of my favourites recently and I love using it in cheesecake as well as these delicious no-bake cream fillings too. The flavour of the chocolate comes from cocoa powder and is really rich and delicious.
With the addition of some extra chocolate cream, fresh raspberries and a tiny touch of gold leaf, I think this roulade is elevated into something really special that would suit any dinner party and it's fun to come up with creative ideas to decorate them and make them totally unique :)
My boys enjoyed it for their pudding tonight and in their words, "It's not good, mummy. It's great." And, "it's perfect!" I think that's the best recommendation I can give you!!
Pandan Roulade with Chocolate Mascarpone Cream
Pandan Roulade Ingredients
- 4 MEDIUM EGGS
- 115G CASTER SUGAR
- 3/4 TSP PANDAN FLAVOUR ESSENCE
- 75G SELF-RAISING FLOUR
Mascarpone Chocolate Cream Ingredients
- 125G MASCARPONE
- 30G ICING SUGAR
- 15G COCOA POWDER
- 125G WHIPPED CREAM
Decoration
- 125G MASCARPONE
- 30G ICING SUGAR
- 15G COCOA POWDER
- HANDFUL OF FRESH RASPBERRIES
- EDIBLE GOLD LEAF (optional)
You will also need a swiss roll or baking tray (mine was 12 inches x 8 inches) and a piping bag with a star nozzle (if you want to decorate yours in the same way)
Method
- First of all, lightly grease your baking tray (I use bake release spray for this or you can use a light oil) and then line the baking tray with greaseproof paper so there is a slight overhang of paper on each of the short ends of the tray (so you can remove the sponge after it's baked and also use it to help roll it)
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan)
- To make the Pandan Roulade, place the eggs and caster sugar in a stand mixer and whisk on medium for 5 minutes until light and airy - you're looking for the mixture to leave a ribbon trail on the surface when you dip in your whisk and drizzle it across the surface
- Then add the pandan essence and combine until all the colour is mixed through
- Sift over the self-raising flour and then fold gently through the mixture ensuring there are no pockets of flour left
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared tray and then smooth the surface with a palette knife
- Bake until it's just firm to the touch - around 5-10 minutes (mine was 5 minutes so do keep an eye on it)
- Place another piece of greaseproof paper on your work surface slightly larger than your sponge and sprinkle it with sugar
- When your sponge is ready, remove it from the oven and turn it out carefully on to the sugared greaseproof paper and gently peel off the greaseproof paper that was baked with it
- Now I prefer the side of the sponge that's now facing upwards so I flipped my sponge at this point
- Gently roll up your sponge and sugared greaseproof paper from one short end to the other and leave it rolled for a couple of minutes -- you're just giving the sponge the *memory* of being rolled at this stage
- Then unroll your sponge and leave it to cool slightly
- To make your filling, place the mascarpone in a bowl and sift over the icing sugar and cocoa powder
- Mix together until smooth
- Whip your cream into a separate bowl and then fold it into your mascarpone in 3 additions until the ingredients are well blended
- Spread this mixture over your sponge leaving a few cm gap around the edges
- Gently roll up your sponge from one short end to the other using the greaseproof paper to guide the roll
- To decorate, blend the remaining mascarpone, icing sugar and cocoa powder
- Place this in a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe a swirly line down the centre on top of your roll
- Add fresh raspberries and for a hint of bling, a touch of gold leaf
- And enjoy :)