Baking Arts at George Brown College – Class 10

This is my favourite class so far! I loved how the swiss roll tasted and it may seem like a lot of work, because there are multiple steps required (ie. baking the sponge cake, butter cream, glaze and rolling the cake), it honestly is really simple and straight forward.

Class 10: Chocolate Sponge Sheets, Chocolate Glaze, Chocolate Buttercream, Brandy Syrup & Swiss Roll

The base of the roll was made first, since it has to cool before assembling. The batter was somewhat thick but spreadable. Four ingredients: eggs, sugar, flour and cocoa powder. After 10 minutes, we took them out to cool.

Next was the buttercream. I usually don’t like buttercream but this was amazing! We used an Italian method for making buttercream. It required more effort (ie. boiling water and sugar into syrup) but surely worth every minute.

While the buttercream was being prepped, chocolate was melted using the bain marie method. Raspberries were an optional ingredient to add to the swiss roll.

After the sponge cooled (we put it in the blast freezer), dabbed teaspoons of brandy syrup (optional, Chef already prepared the syrup: which is water, sugar and brandy boiled together) onto the cake, spread the buttercream and topped with raspberries before rolling. It was quite difficult to get a solid tight roll but it doesn’t show because the cake is iced with cream.
One tip that Chef showed us: use parchment paper to get a smooth buttercream surface by dragging the paper at an angle while gliding it along the cake. The buttercream surface doesn’t have to be 100% smooth, as the chocolate glaze and toppings (we chose sliced hazelnuts and whole raspberries) will hide the imperfections.