Hurricane Spider Swiss Roll
This ‘hurricane’-style Swiss roll (named as such because of the pattern created by the two colours swirled together) is made using a chiffon cake technique, so it is soft like a pillow
This, plus the addition of the cream and jam filling makes you want to have slice after slice after slice, as well as some gooey chocolate brownies to finish! To make sure the hurricane pattern comes out nicely and the cake rolls without a big crack, make sure to read and reread the recipe first before you start.
Servings
8-10
Ingredients
- Cake: For the colour
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp hot water
- black gel food dye
- Cake: For the egg yolk mixture
- butter, for greasing
- 5 medium egg yolks
- 35g caster or granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 60ml vegetable oil
- 60ml whole milk
- 100g plain flour (or use a gluten-free flour blend and ¼ tsp xanthan gum)
- 2 tsp cornflour
- Cake: For the egg white mixture
- 5 medium egg whites
- 65g caster or granulated sugar
- For the filling
- 4 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam
- 140ml double cream
- 30g icing sugar
- red gel food dye
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- For the marshmallow web
- 6 medium white marshmallows
- For the spiders
- Oreo cookies or similar
- Pretzel sticks
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas mark 3. Grease the base and sides of a 27 x 35-cm Swiss roll tin or baking sheet with shallow sides with butter and line with baking paper, covering the base and the two longer sides.
- First, for the cake colour, stir the one tablespoon cocoa powder (or charcoal powder) and two tablespoon hot (but not boiling) water together in a bowl. Set aside for now.
- Add all the ‘cake: egg yolk mixture’ ingredients to a large bowl and whisk until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, make the ‘cake: egg white mixture’. Use a handheld electric whisk or stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk attachment and whisk the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the caster sugar and continue whisking until soft peaks form. For this cake, you want the peaks to flop over slightly at the tips, rather than point upwards. If you whisk beyond this point, you may get cracks in your finished cake when rolling.
- Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, adding a third at a time. Your batter should be of pourable consistency in order to avoid cracks later. Pour 200g into another bowl and stir in the cocoa powder mixture until combined. Add enough black food to colour a deep black colour.
- Pour the white batter into the prepared tin, and spread out evenly. Pour the black batter on top and spread out with a spatula. Use a chopstick or the handle of a butter knife to swirl the batter, dragging the chopstick or spoon left and right along the longest side, then repeating the same motion along the shortest side. Bang the sheet once to release any large air bubbles.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until a knife or skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the top is spongy and springs back. Using the sides of the baking paper, lift the cake onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
- When the cake is cool, place a sheet of baking paper on top, then a chopping board or similar flat board and flip the whole cake over. Peel off the baking paper, then trim all the edges (they are drier, so leaving them could cause the cake to crack). On one of the shorter ends, cut five shallow slits into the cake, then spread over the jam. Add the cream, icing sugar, red food dye and vanilla to a bowl and whip to soft peaks. Spread on top of the jam, then roll up from one of the shorter sides using the baking paper to help you. Leave loosely covered with the baking paper and chill in the fridge for a few minutes.
- Place the Swiss roll on a serving tray and trim the ends so that the spiral shows clearly.
- Place the marshmallows in a bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 15 seconds. The marshmallow should stretch and become web-like when stretched. Dip your thumb and index finger into the marshamallow and move your fingers to get the marshmallow to stretch and look stringy. When it looks nice and stringy, stretch it over the cake, forming webs. Don’t move the web once it’s in place, as it will take the top layer of cake with it! If this happens, you can easily cover it with a spider. This marshmallow technique might feel unfamiliar at first, but you will quickly get the hang of it.
- Decorate with the spiders to finish!
Extracted from Celebrate with Kim-Joy (Quadrille, £20) Photography ©Ellis Parrinder
