Ben & Jerry are Dressed to Impress in this Espresso & Cream Swiss Roll Ensemble - Quite the Bombe!

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 Swiss Roll Cake, I adapted Chocolate & Zucchini's Matcha and Azuki Cake Roll, substituting espresso powder for the Matcha. I liked the look of Clotilde's Swiss Roll, and the fact that it called for Almond Butter (which I had left over from my Daring Cooks' Challenge). I increased the quantities of the ingredients by 25% due to my larger sized baking pan. For the filling, I used a mixture of fresh whipped cream and coffee yogurt.

Making the cake (la génoise) 

Whisk together egg yolks, almond butter and sugar

Sift together flour, cornstarch and espresso powder

Stir the flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture

Whisk egg whites until stiff

Stir in 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter

Gently fold in the rest, leaving as much air in the batter as possible

Pour batter into prepared pan

After baking

Cake is then flipped and parchment paper peeled off so the spongiest side is now facing up

Spread filling and roll up (I rolled with the long side closest to me in order to obtain more slices)

Once the roll rested and firmed up overnight in the refrigerator, I forced myself to continue on with the Challenge.  Quite frankly, I would have been happy slicing the roll and serving it with a scoop of ice cream on the side.

After being sick with a nasty flu all week, I wasn't up to making two different batches of ice cream, and one batch of fudge sauce, to complete the finished dessert.  I just didn't have the time, energy or desire.  We've also made homemade ice cream and various dessert sauces before, so I didn't feel the need to practice these skills. 

Therefore, I took the liberty of a few shortcuts, with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, which I felt would complement the espresso cake perfectly. I considered making brandied cherries for the center (even bought a bag of fresh cherries), but gave in to another shortcut with Hershey's Fudge Topping.  I was at the point of just wanting to get this thing finished. As we speak, I still have to go home tonight, remove my creation from the freezer, cut out a piece to reveal the ice cream and fudge layers beneath, take photographs, and post by tomorrow's deadline.

Home now.  Here's the big reveal...melting rapidly....

And here's the piece I was forced to eat, thereby ruining my dinner.  Since it had a cool zebra-ish design, I used my favorite Call of the Wild looking plate.  The oozing fudge in the center is a nice element to this cake.  All in all, with my ice cream selections, it was quite nice.

Even without making homemade ice cream and fudge sauce, preparing and assembling all of the components of this dessert required too many steps for me (sick or not), including waiting time while freezing each layer before the next could be added.  It does make a nice presentation, and would be fun for a children's birthday party or other special occasion.

Please visit The Daring Kitchen recipe archive for the complete challenge recipes and links, and visit the Daring Bakers' blogroll to check out some of the other creations this month!

Thank you, Sunita, for hosting this challenge...you're the bombe!