Daring Kitchen (Oct 2016): Horse Roll

I can’t believe I missed the posting date for this (27th) – I was looking forward to and couldn’t wait to post about it!

I joined the Daring Kitchen last month and received my first challenge this month. The rule is that a challenge is issued at the start of the month and all the members have to post their attempt at the challenge attempt on the 27th of the month.

Korena from Korena in the Kitchen set the challenge in October and got everyone to make decorated Swiss rolls. (Hers look incredibly pretty.)

…And what a challenge it was. I had been hoping for something a little bit more familiar (like…bread) but I guess the whole point of joining these challenges is to try something new.

Making a cake is certainly more fiddly to me than baking bread, and it felt like an endless step by step process. But at the end of it, I think I managed to produce something half-decent.

A horse roll, in honour of the Mongolian horses I love (especially “my” horse!) and who really love rolling on the grass. :p

It is a chocolate sponge made with Korena’s recipe (with the addition of cocoa), although I reduced the sugar by a little bit. My house was utterly devoid of any cream or even milk, so I had to look for alternative recipes for the filling. Luckily we had some cream cheese lying around, and I found a recipe for a cream cheese filling. I added chopped walnuts, raisins/sultanas and chocolate to the filling.

I was not very good at rolling, and the roll also got a little squished/deformed as it was chilling in the fridge, so there isn’t a very noticeable roll. It turned out to be pretty tasty though. 😀

But in terms of aesthetics, I rather prefer how the baking paper turned out after peeling it from the cake… rather like a piece of cave art.

I’m still really happy with how it turned out though. I think I still much prefer baking bread, but I enjoyed the challenge and I’m looking forward to the next one!