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.
This month's Daring Baker challenge was a layered, Swiss roll covered, ice cream bombe. Not only was it a fantastic idea to have a baking challenge that included ice cream for the summer but I loved that our host Sunita took a "semi-homemade" recipe and challenged all of us to make it 100% homemade. Our task included the Swiss roll cake, the cake's filling, two ice creams and a fudge filling. All were to be made from scratch.
This combination ended up as the biggest smash hit any Daring Baker challenge has ever made with my son! He flipped over the idea of a rolled up cake, loved the marshmallow frosting I filled it with, and then thought he'd died and gone to heaven when I told him that I was going to add ice cream to this already delicious combination. Ice cream, whether the homemade kind, from a mix, raw, or Tofutti, is one of his major food groups.
To keep the size of the finished bombe manageable I made the Swiss roll several days earlier then served some of it to friends over for dinner. It was delicious on it's own and I had to fight off Alex to keep enough of the rest safe to make the bombe. Over the next few days I sliced and froze the remaining roll and made the two ice creams and fudge. For the cake I followed Sunita's recipe using half black cocoa, which I will admit to being addicted to. Since her cake filling was whipped cream based, I replaced it with my own marshmallow frosting. The cake was chocolaty, spongy and easy to roll without cracking.
For one of my ice creams I chose to make a strawberry one based on Jen the Leftover Queen's Fruits and Nuts of the Forest Kefir Ice Cream. I hoped to come up with a probiotic packed version of ice cream that my son would like. I used So Delicious coconut milk kefir (a favorite in our house for smoothies), a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil + more kefir in place of the cream, only a tablespoon of booze (vodka), strawberries and sugar in place of maple syrup. I tasted and adjusted the sweetness until I liked the result but after freezing it was fairly hard, more like sorbet. My son Alex wasn't impressed. Even with the real sugar, it wasn't rich enough for him. I'll be making a batch with the nuts, Frangelico and maple syrup next time. And I won't be sharing!!
For the other ice cream I tried out the "The World's Easiest Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Vanilla Ice Cream" from Speedbump Kitchen. It definitely lives up to it's name-- melt marshmallows and creamer, cool, freeze-- that's it! I replaced the soy creamer with So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer in French Vanilla. I had my doubts because this creamer's flavor has disappointed me in the past. But combined with the marshmallow flavor it was pretty good, though a bit too sweet for me personally. Alex thought it was frozen manna from heaven and would have consumed the whole batch by himself had I let him.
Finally, I attempted to adapt my favorite dairy-free fudge topping to get the perfect sticky, gooey texture like in the ice cream cakes of my youth. I added a little corn syrup
to keep it gooey but then cooked it a bit too long. The result was tasty but more reminiscent of a Good Humor candy center, something I should have played off as intentional. The fudge layer along with the stiffer strawberry-kefir ice cream made the bombe a pain to cut. A plate was broken, hilarity ensued, and somehow the bombe survived and was served to the guests at my recent food blogger get together. Add another notch to my Daring Baker bedpost. Marshmallow Frosting (Swiss Roll Filling)
Makes ~2 cups, enough to fill one 10 1/2" x 15 1/1 cake generously
4 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar, super fine is best (or whiz regular sugar in a food processor)
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
5 oz coconut oil, liquid
pinch of salt
-Prepare a double boiler with a large bowl.
-Add the egg whites, sugar and vanilla bean seeds to the bowl and beat for 4-5 minutes until smooth, fluffy and hot to the touch. This is best done with a hand held electric mixer but it can be done by hand, just be prepared to have your forearms aching.
-Remove the hot meringue from the heat and continue to beat until cool, ~5-7 minutes. Add salt and then the coconut oil a spoon at a time while beating.
-Beat until very smooth and use fairly soon. There isn't enough fat to keep the marshmallow completely pliable once it starts to set.
Links:
-For the complete original recipes for the challenge visit our host at Sunita’s world- life and food
-Sunita's from scratch recipes where inspired by the Swiss swirl ice cream cake from the Taste of Home website.
-The two ice creams I made were: Jen the Leftover Queen's Fruits and Nuts of the Forest Kefir Ice Cream and the "The World's Easiest Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Vanilla Ice Cream" from Speedbump Kitchen (click to see all her other ice cream flavors.)
-I replaced the soy creamer with So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer in French Vanilla.
-Visit the Daring Kitchen and see other bombes made this month by browsing the Daring Baker Blogroll.
A bombe slice
Rolled up cake cooling in a clean sugared dish towel
Unrolled cake
Frosted cake before rolling
