Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake

I wanted to bake something special to bring to a new year's party we were invited to. Baking for a large gathering is always fun, because you can confidently add the sugar and the butter without worrying about the horrific outcome of you finishing all of it alone! (been there, done that, repented by hours on trademill :) ) 

So I was looking for something more elaborate and this chocolate swiss roll cake recipe which appeared on PW blog recently seemed perfect.

I skipped the chocolate ganache because I realized last minute I didn't have enough chocolate in the fridge but the cake was great even without it (though presentation would have been much better with ganache, going to try that next time!)

There were two mistakes I made while making this and both ended up with the same root cause of not whipping the batter long enough. Egg and sugar batter had not come to the ribbon stage, though likely a few more minutes would have done it. And the cream cheese filling could have used a few more minutees of beating too. I have a new hand mixer and there is still some getting used I need... particularly the high speeds. I tend to stick with lower speeds and the filling definitely needed high speed in retrospect.

But all said and done, it was a very tasty cake which finished off within minutes of opening. Next time I'll focus on getting the filling right consistency and also the ganache I skipped!

Happy baking!