INTRODUCTION

Christmas is one week away and I still have some soaked mixed fruit in the fridge. By hook and by crook, i wanted to get rid these soaked fruits.

Facebook in the last few weeks has been flooded with many log cakes posts and I told myself why don’t I bake a log cake since i have guests at home.

Combining these two ideas together became a fruit log cake.. To make the recipe simpler, cream cheese frosting was used instead of the normal whipped cream or butter cream frosting. The response from my family is good, as expected, because of the delicious cream cheese frosting.

As for the cake, it is a simple Swiss roll cake base. i will consider this log cake is quite failure proof because any mistakes made can be easily disguised and guests will not be able to spot it … If it cracks, it will be hidden under the cream cheese frosting. If the fruits sink to the bottom of the cake, after rolling and for such a short cake, it will not be obvious and equally separated out in a circular shape. The frosting is easy to shape, it will not melt easily in the hot weather and you can easily come out your own design.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 9” x 12” baking tray of Swiss Roll

Cake Base

• 4 eggs – separated into egg yolks and egg whites
• 100 grams of mixed fruits, soaked in rum until soft and drained
• 100 grams of cake flour
• 20 grams of condensed milk
• 80 grams of brown sugar
• 40 grams of corn oil
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of icing sugar for dusting the cake roll

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 250 grams of cream cheese, at room temperature
• 50 grams of butter, at room temperature
• 250 grams of icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons of milk
• 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat oven to 200 degree Celsius

• Line a 9” x 12” baking tray with baking paper. Get another one more piece of paper which is about at least 2 cm longer than the first baking paper. Set aside for later use after the Swiss roll is baked.

• In a whisking bowl, put the egg whites. Beat the egg whites until foamy, gradually add in the brown sugar tablespoon by tablespoon. The egg white will expand and reach the soft to hard peak in 2-3 minutes. Add in the egg yolk one by one and follow by the condensed milk.  Beat for another 3-4 minutes.

• Stop the machine and sift the baking powder, cinnamon powder and cake flour into beaten eggs. Fold carefully until well mixed.  Add in the corn oil and fold in until well combined. Take 2-3 tablespoons of cake batter and put on the soaked fruits. Stir until well combined to lighten the mixed fruits. Transfer these batter to the mixing bowl. Fold again lightly until well combined.

• Transfer the batter to the baking tin. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 200 degree Celsius for 10-12 minutes until the top turn golden brown.

• Meanwhile, get ready the other piece of baking paper, dust some icing sugar on top of the baking paper. After taking out from the oven, take out from the baking tin. Use something to level the cake if necessary.  Quickly turn the cake with the bottom of the cake facing you and placed the cake on top of the piece of baking paper dusted with icing sugar.. Tear off the first piece of baking paper. Take the width of the cake and roll the cake (like the way of rolling the Sushi) and make sure that the ending portion is facing downwards. Let it cool completely in this position. (Note that it is important that you do this as soon as the cake is out of oven and as soon as your hand can handle the heat from the cake. You can use a towel to roll together if you want. When the cake dries up, it will be difficult to roll.)

• While the cake is cooling, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add softened butter, beat until well combined. Add icing sugar follow by the milk and lemon juice. Beat for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.

• When the cake is completely cool until room temperature, unroll the cake and spread some cream cheese frosting in the centre. (in this illustration, I did not spread the cream cheese at the centre of the cake because I do not want kids to indulge into too much cream cheese). Roll back the cake and spread generously the cream cheese on both sides of the log ends and log trunks. Use a fork to lightly make some horizontal lines on the trunks and circular lines at the log ends.

• Decorated your cake with your desired Christmas ornaments such as Santa Clause, pine tree, mushrooms, reindeer etc.. and if preferred,  dust sparingly with icing sugar resembling snowfall.  Chilled the cake if the frosting is too soft and cut into 2 cm thick pieces for servings.

CONCLUSION

If you have not bought or ordered any log cake, you may want to consider giving this recipe to try. You will save at least 70% of the price. Even without any dried fruits, this will be a delicious cake. Trust me, the failure rate of this cake is very low.

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