Isn’t this the coolest swirl cake ever? Haha. I was so amazed when I saw the picture of it in Yochana’s blog that I just had to try it out. I didn’t use the exact swirl technique that she described, but I’m still happy with how it turned out. Me and my cousin brother were experimenting with the batter and ended up randomly alternating dollops of green mint and chocolate batter. It looked awesomely 70’s groovy when we cut into the baked cake. I think Austin Powers would have loved this one. This is a chocolate and mint version but I think you could flavor the basic white batter anyway you want and create all kinds of different marble cakes. Kewl. This recipe also introduces a new way to bake cakes, where you cream the butter and flour together and then the eggs and sugar. And it actually results in a very smooth batter which bakes into quite a moist cake. The sugar and flour proportions are just right too… not too sweet… The chocolate ganache I topped it with gave it the chocolately richness that wasn’t so much there with the cake, cos it only had cocoa powder and not the real stuff. The only setback I had was that the cake peaked quite a bit while baking, so after it had cooled, I used a serrated knife to level the dome then turned the cake upside down onto the board before topping it with ganache.
By the way, I used the tinned Nestle cream for my ganache (equal portions cream and melted chocolate) and I had absolutely NO problems with the ganache being too thin or watery. It thickened perfectly, so much so that I could pipe it out and never even had to refridgerate the cake…which was great cos the cake remains soft and moist at room temperature. I always encounter problems with melting chocolate together with regualr dairy cream cos it always refuses to set. I think it’s got something to do with the fact that the Nestle cream is pasturized and can be stored at room temperature which causes the ganache to remain thick even when it’s not chilled. Whatever the reason, I’m happy I can finally make rich ganache toppings. yay!
Flower power
Swirl baby swirl!
Taste Goblet 
WOW…I am craving for a piece of that right now !! The cake looks wierdly beautiful .. I just love the swirl pattern.
WOW! Talk about fluorescent! 🙂 LOVELY looking cake!
Wow, Can I come and stay with u;), I’m not a fan of mint but this looks fabulous.
Priya and Shammi… I couldn’t have said it better myself: weirdly beautiful and fluoroscent… the most apt descriptions! =)
And Shivapriya, of course you can come stay…but your waistline may have a protest or two….alrede my father and brother blame all their weight gain and health problems on me. =P
Very pretty cake! I just totally admire your baking!
Just a quick question. Would you know if the tinned Nestle cream can be whipped i.e. as whipped cream?
Hey Sharm, thanks! And you know what, I was wondering the same thing! I really don’t know though, cos I think it’s more a pouring cream rather than whipping. Reason why I think so is cos when you whip cream, you need to chill it really well so it rises to its full volume. However, the Nestle tin explicitly instructs you NOT to refridgerate the cream. So I don’t think it’s meant for whipping cos you can’t get it cold anyway…
TG, I have a small request. It would be very helpful if you had a drop-down menu of your creations so your readers can find recipes quickly without going through the archives. I’m only asking since I’m here a lot.
I made the three-layered chocloate slice yesterday, and although it didn’t turn out as great as the picture (because of impatience on my part), I’m not going to let that stop me from trying out more of your recipes.
Hey Terri… I’ve been thinking about an index for my recipes for some time now but have been way too lazy to get down to doing it. Thanks for the much-needed push to get me started on it!
Anyways, spent the better part of my day categorizing my posts…hope the new sidebar links are helpful!!
And even though the slice did not turn out looking the same, I at least hope it tasted good? That’s all that matters really…no? =)
tg, thanks. That’s exactly what I had in mind. Now, if only you could add a lowfat/fatfree category, I’d be as pleased as the cat that got the cream 🙂
wow… simply superb!!!
Thanks sia…absolutely love your site too. Amazing food and gorgeous pics…made me crave Indian food bad! =)
Hiya tg, sorry for the late reply. Been away. I bought a can of the Nestle cream, haven’t had time to use it though. It does say on the can that it can’t be frozen (but I think, if I’m not wrong, that is true of all dairy creams). But I think it should be ok chilled, ‘cos did not see anything about that on the label. Your label says cannot chill? Hmmm…
Hi Sharm, you know what, I must be blind.. Yes, it does say you can’t freeze, not chill. sorry bout that!
But, I got a little curious after your query so I refridgerated some extra Nestle cream that I had and by the next day, it became really thick. Like tofu. I had to cut into it with a spoon to scoop it out. So still, I don’t think you can whip it like normal cream.. It seems to have too many thickeners in it.
I’ve decided to just use it for ganaches for now, as it is at room temp. If you try it out in anything else, do let me know please! =)
Wow, that’s interesting! Like tofu huh?
BTW, just wondering, when you make ganache with this cream… do you melt the chocolate and add the room temperature cream or do you do the regular ganache method of heating the cream and adding to unmelted chocolate?
Hey Sharm, when I’m using Nestle, I melt the chocolate first, and then stir in the cream… it makes a much smoother ganache than if you heat the cream.
And just a note, normally ganche recipes call for EQUAL amounts of cream and choppped chocolate but when I use Nestle, I add less cream. Adding as much cream as chocolate makes the ganache too thick. So I normally just eyeball it, stirring in the cream in spoonfuls until the ganache gets to the consistency I want…
heya!! i just made some ganache with the tinned nestle cream…topped some cupcakes…..and i put them in the fridge…uh oh…im thinking that was a bad thing to do? have you refrigerated the ganache made with this cream b4?? :(:(
Ya, normally I don’t refridgerate this kind of ganache cos it gets way too hard… It’s stiff enough to hold its shape even when its left at room temperature. Why don’t you just take the cupcakes out about 30mins before you serve them so that the ganache softens a little?
heya! u know what, the ganache didnt get hard!! in fact, it was wonderful after being put in the fridge…not hard, not soft, just right!!! :D:D
Hey, that’s great! I was fraid it’d go hard but looks like it worked out well!
give me this recipe
I seen this recipe in Aunty Yochana’s blog but have been skeptical cos I have never come across this butter & flour creaming method.
Thanks to you, now I have more confident to give this a go!
Cheers.
I followed the link to Aunty Yochana’s cake, and I actually like the swirl pattern of yours better as I’m doing an ocean-themed cake. Yours is just gorgeous! I know it’s been a while since you’ve made it, but I’d like to know your method of putting in the batter that produced the effect – if you remember.
Do you have a recipe for the chocolate mint swirl cake?