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.
I feel like every Daring Bakers’ Challenge lately has been something that’s not particularly hard, but has a ton of steps. This month’s challenge definitely had a lot of steps, but was also a real challenge for us because (one) we don’t have an ice cream maker and (two) we’ve never made ice cream. And, as you can probably guess from the title of this post, this was an ice cream heavy challenge. We were able to make do without a machine (Sunita provided really great instructions), but the results weren’t exactly what I was expecting.
We had a big problem with the batter for the Swiss rolls, I don’t know if we didn’t have enough or if we used baking sheets that were too big or what, but once the cake was done baking it was still pretty thin and it stuck to the parchment/towel. Needless to say, we had to salvage what we had and try to make rolls out of it. We ended up having plenty, but some of the rolls weren’t exactly pretty. We had planned on flavoring the filling, but after all the fuss with the cake, we decided just to do the basic recipe and get it over with.
Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake, pre melting
The ice cream was actually really easy to throw together, and getting it to set without a machine wasn’t as big of a task as I thought it would be. The vanilla set within just a few hours and it was gooooood — we were lucky it sat around long enough to fill the cake mold! The chocolate didn’t set as easily. For some reason, once it hit a certain point of “solidness” it sort of just stopped setting. We ended up leaving it overnight before putting it in the cake mold, but it didn’t help. I’m not sure if something went wrong with the recipe or what, but from what I read in the DB forums, I wasn’t the only one with chocolate setting issues. It was tasty, anyway, but it didn’t do a good job of holding the cake together.
Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake, post melting
Pretty, eh? Overall this was a pretty good dessert, but not something I would make again. The cake ended up drying out quite a bit while it was in the freezer, and the whole thing was just more of a pain than it was worth in the end. I would definitely do more ice cream experimenting though, especially knowing that you really don’t need a machine to end up with a good result. Thanks for a great challenge, Sunita, I really learned a lot!
Recipe link: Swiss swirl ice cream cake
Jennifer
/ July 27, 2010I’d also like to give ice cream making another go. I really didn’t realize how easy it was to make ice cream without an ice cream maker :)
Renata
/ July 27, 2010Your rolls look so good!!
Kristina
/ July 27, 2010I had the exact same trouble with the Swiss rolls! I never use parchment, so I actually wondered if maybe I had it turned wrong-side-up or something. And then it seemed like I should have used a ton more sugar on the towels. My cake turned into kind of a mess, but at least they’re delicious, right?
Shelley
/ July 27, 2010I think your rolls look good – I would never have guessed that you had trouble with them. Really awesome job on the challenge – it looks absolutely delicious, even all melty!
Monet
/ July 27, 2010I love seeing all of these completed ice cream cakes. And even though you had some issues, I think it looks beautiful. So pretty and summery! I would imagine that after making one of these you probably would be good for awhile…there are so many steps!
Michelle
/ July 27, 2010Certainly sounds like a lot of effort went into this, but good for you for sticking with it. Your end result looks great.
I made ice cream w/o a machine a couple times using David Lebovitz’s instructions. It really isn’t as hard as you’d think, but I sure do like doing it more now that I have a machine. : )
Christina
/ July 27, 2010I think it looks great, and I love Swiss cake rolls so yum!
Kim
/ July 27, 2010I think your melting pool of chocolate ice cream adds character to your cake! Your swiss rolls look great even if the batter ended up being a little thin. I think the pan sizes had a lot to do with that. Nice job on the challenge!
GourmAndrea
/ July 27, 2010The oozing chocolate reminds me of a lava cake, I am loving it, looks delicious
torviewtoronto
/ July 27, 2010Yummy
Nachiketa
/ July 28, 2010Looks great, despite the issues you had…..
melting icecream was my bane too….. :(
Daring Baker – Swiss Swirl Icecream Cake
Cheers,
The Variable, Crazy Over Desserts – Nachiketa
Catch me on facebook @ Crazy Over Desserts
Jean
/ July 28, 2010The rolls/swirls are actually pretty. Too bad the rest of the process didn’t come together to your liking. Still looked good, though!
By the way, I gave you a mention on my latest post. Thanks so much again! :-)
Shirley
/ August 1, 2010It looked like a lot of work. Great job! The ice cream running out has me craving some.