Green Tea Souffle Swiss Roll

It's been more than a month since my last post.

In this past month, I was kept busy with cupcakes, several cakes and many cake pops. There was a weekend where I had to make 2 cakes, 1 for an order and 1 for my father.

The one for my father was, unfortunately, a last minute one (*smiles sheepishly*). I had expected that there would not be enough time to do 2 cakes. But there was a little time left and I thought I just had to make one. It is not quite justifiable that I make cakes for others' birthdays but not for my father.

With just about an hour to decorate, I kept things simple. Really simple. In fact, so much so it looks so amateurish. Well, I prefer to think it looks homemade :)

It was my first time writing in chinese and you know how we hardly write these days. I tried to do so with my best handwriting, but when I started on the first word, I suddenly became unsure if I was writing the correct word. Goodness, I was not even sure how to write Happy Birthday in Chinese! I had to ask my husband, who usually is worse than me, but at least he remembers this simple phrase.

While mixing the colours for the words, I accidentally created this hue of purple which I really like (you would not see accurately because I took this picture by the window and there is a funny blue tinge, which I already tried to lighten)! I am usually very light handed with colours, so this to me, is already a little more intense. But this is good. I can use this hue for the wedding cupcakes I am doing next month, where the couple had a purple theme.

This cake is a very small one, which was just nice for the 6 of us, with 2 more slices for next day's breakfast.

When I finally got down to baking something for myself, I consulted my new recipe book - Okashi by Keiko Ishida. I even got my book autographed by the chef herself *grinning from ear to ear*.

Most of the times, I can be sure japanese desserts will not feel too heavy, too creamy or too sweet, and therefore are very suitable for the my taste. What prompted me to get the book was not only the appetising pictures, but also the simplicity of the recipes. Simple ingredients, no complicated steps, no complicated equipment needed and yet the results are classy and elegant.

The green tea and black sesame recipes entice me the most. So, I tried my hand at the green tea swiss roll, since I had just bought a small tin of green tea powder from a japanese supermarket.

For the red bean paste, I took the easy way out - I bought from Daiso. It is a little sweet though, but it does the job perfectly.

I did not do a good job at baking it, for the roll was not fluffy enough, I should have let it baked for another 10 minutes or so. I also had a little difficulty spreading the red bean paste nicely, so they got mixed with the whipped cream and did not look so nice at the end. The next time I do it, perhaps I shall spread the red bean paste first, then the whipped cream (instead of the other way round as stated in the book), maybe that will be better.

Get the recipe here and try it out!