Sleepy Cat Deco Swiss Roll

I have tried various deco swiss roll recipes on and off eversince I made my first one in late 2013. But after seeing Keem's ( Instagram account: keempossible_2) amazing intricate patterned/painted chiffon cake work and seeing Melly (Instagram account : mellyeatsworld) replicate the technique flawlessly on her first try using Keem's recipe and technique, I was intrigued enough to purchase her video tutorial and give it a try myself. Verdict? It is the best so far! Previous attempts I often encountered the pattern being stuck to the parchment/Teflon sheet or the pattern not stuck to the base sponge as the texture differences is too great, or simply struggling to work fast enough on the patterns before the meringue breaks down. 

Here's my first attempt using Keem's recipe and technique that is different from what I tried previously! 

Sleepy cat swiss roll with coconut diplomat cream and pulut hitam jelly! I tried to make the cat head silhouette but the jelly was too soft to hold the shape well during rolling🤣. Here's the top view of the roll! 

Although it was a failed attempt at the pulut hitam jelly in cat head shape, I will record it here for reference. You can make a firm plain agar instead and it will work better. 

I created my own homemade cat head cutter using the disposable aluminium trays sold at supermarkets. 

You may refer to this post for the pulut hitam recipe and this post for the coconut diplomat cream recipe. I added 5g monkfruit sugar, 1g pandan powder (from Scoop wholefoods) and 16g unsalted butter to the diplomat cream and used 110g of non-dairy whipping cream. 

I made the pulut hitam agar by dissolving 1 packet (12g) of agar powder in 400g water with 40g sugar. I brought the liquid to a boil and kept stirring until agar powder and sugar is dissolved. I mixed in the pulut hitam (300g) with the agar base, pour it into a lined tray and chill until firm. I cut the jelly using the homemade cutter and chilled the cut pieces until assembly time. 

The diplomat cream can be made in advance too and kept in a piping bag. Keem shared a cream cheese based filling for her swiss roll. I decided to use my own filling as I didn't have cream cheese on hand. As the roll needs to stay at room temperature for some time while the painting is going on, the filling needs to be stable at room temperature so dairy whipped cream would not be suitable in Singapore's weather. I chose diplomat cream as it is light and stable at room temperature. 

I decided not to be too ambitious on my first try so the pattern only involved 4 colours, excluding the base. 

Piping on teflon sheet! I used a 10x12 inch tray instead of 9x11 inch as mentioned in the tutorial and it works fine too. 

Freshly baked patterned chiffon sponge! 

Preparing to roll the sponge with the filling! Note to self, the row of jelly should be placed about an inch towards the center of the roll. After this picture was taken, I piped more cream to cover the jelly before rolling. 

Rolled up swiss roll before chilling! 

I used a mixture of painting with diluted gel colouring and edible marker to add in the fine details and outlines. 

I couldn't resist taking photos with my sleepy cat macarons! The source of my inspiration for this swiss roll design! 

With love,

Phay Shing