Birthday celebration for my brother

We celebrated my brother's birthday about 2 weeks ago. I originally planned to make a genoise (sponge cake filled with cream) but thought it might not turned really well. So, I decided to go for a more simple cake, and made 2 swiss rolls, thereby having two flavours instead of one. I picked on a matcha green tea flavoured cake (with strawberries) and a black forest one (with glace cherries). I wanted to try and do the roll decor cakes (having prints on the cake itself, but it didn't turned out quite right, so I piped some more whipped cream to cover the patches). The cakes were nice and fluffy. The decorations were not too bad after all. I think it was a success. 

For the dinner celebration, we had herbal chicken soup (with white fungus and mushroom), cabbage steamed balls, barbeque pork, bagels with smoked trout and parsley cream cheese. It was indeed a feast.

  

Matcha (Green Tea) Swiss Roll with red bean filling

I told myself that I will practise swiss roll baking this year, and I am. I stumble across this video and I couldn't be happier. The recipe is so simple and easy to follow. No oil is required and no need to separate the egg to make stiff egg whites . I was pleasantly surprised when I first tried the cake. It turned out fluffy, spongy and very light. It was not dense or anything, even if eaten straight from the fridge. I shall follow this recipe for all my future flavour combo.

Instead of using strawberries, I used red bean since I had some in the fridge. The roll was delicious. I have finally found a recipe which gives me light sponge.  I also like the fact that it is a small cake (9 inch square).  hence you cannot feel too indulgent.