Mocha cake roll

Last Sunday, my brother and his wife celebrated their silver wedding anniversary.  After renewing their wedding vows amongst retired priests and nuns, we proceeded to their home where their friends (lots of them!) were waiting to celebrate the occasion with them.  As you would expect, I volunteered to make a cake for them.  I didn't have much time to fuss about this cake as the night before, it was also my eldest son's 21st birthday party.  We were all so busy and tired and lacked sleep.  I had to get up at 6am the next morning to finish my brother's cake.

Their family friends love my mocha cake and so that is what I made for them.  Not until they started asking if the roses totalled 25 (because it was for a 25th anniversary) did I realize that I should have thought of doing that!  I simply divided the cake into equal, even sections and was one rose short :(! 

Before the cake was served, I was babysitting this adorable 9-month old baby girl.  She fell asleep in my arms and I didn't want to put her down as everyone was so noisy.  So for the next 2 hours (I think), I just sat there, happily staring at this cute bundle of joy.  They served the cake during this time and I didn't even get to taste it! It was actually a pretty funny sight, seeing all those people with their little plates all lined up waiting for their turn to get a slice. :)))  Just like that, the cake was all gone.

Well anyway, today I decided to make mocha cake just because I didn't get to eat some the other day.  Instead of making it into the usual cake, I rolled it up just like I did the ube cake in my last post.  

I prefer leaving the roll unfrosted because the filling and the rosettes on top (garnished with chocolate flakes) is more than enough buttercream for me.

I didn't take step by step pictures.  I won't put the recipe here as well.  The process is the same as the ube cake roll and the recipe is basically the same as the mocha chiffon cake, except that the cake flour is down to 1 cup (instead of 1 1/8).  The Swiss meringue buttercream is also the same, just flavoured with 1 tablespoon of instant coffee powder that has been dissolved in a little hot water.  If you want to frost the entire cake with buttercream, you will have to make more, perhaps one and a half recipe.  I had some leftover SMBC but that amount isn't enough to cover the whole cake.

If you are a mocha cake lover, you might want to try this sometime.  It's nothing fancy and you don't even need decorating skills to do it.  I'm sure you will like it.

Enjoy the rest of your week!