Christmas Log Cake

I usually do 1 log cake a year and this year is no exception. I made my first and only log cake order for X'mas and maaan, I intend to keep it that way. It's way too stressful trying to roll up the cake carefully and without cracking. My first cake broke totally into pieces as I was rolling it up, together with my heart! Rolled up my sleeves abit further, wiped my cold sweat and started all over again, with a different recipe though. This time I used a japanese recipe and I was a little hesitant at its call for baking at 200C. Phew, thankfully it turned out smooth, spongy and soft. After a short cool down period, I was able to roll up the cake slowly, steadily and with just 1 teeny weeny small crack that was easily sealed up by the ganache. Since it was for an order I didn't get to try the cake with the whole bananas wrapped in it but I did try the cut-away corners of the roll which I dipped generously in the chocolate ganache. I must say it's pretty good, soft and bouncy, with a hint of honey fragrance. Yum!

Swiss Roll Recipe:
Ingredients:
50g AP Flour
15g Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey's)
6 eggs, separated
100g sugar
30ml honey (I used Australia honey)
20g Unsalted butter
30ml milk (I used Meiji Skimmed Milk)

Oven temp 200C.

1. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together 3 times and set aside
2. Place the egg yolks, 40g sugar and honey into a mixer bowl and over a bain-marie, stirring constantly until the mixture is warm to the touch.
3. Immediately beat the yolk mixture until it turns creamy and pale. (Ribbon stage)
4. Set the yolk mixture aside and beat the egg white until frothy.
5. Add 60g sugar to the egg white and beat until stiff peaks.
6. Fold in half of the stiff egg white into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in all the sifted flour mix.
7. Add the remaining egg white and fold in lightly.
8. Warm the butter and milk in the microwave for 20seconds, add into the mixture and fold in completely, scooping from the bottom of the bowl to ensure a thorough mix. Be careful not to deflate the mixture.
9. Pour mixture into a rectangular pan lined with baking paper. (I used the pan that comes with the oven) Smooth the top and bake in pre-heated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. (mine took 11minutes) The top of the roll should not have a crust and feels bouncy to the touch.
10. Remove from oven and taking the roll from the pan, drop it onto the tabletop to release the steam and prevent a wet cake. Let the cake cool to almost room temperature.

Filling - I used a chocolate swiss meringue buttercream, refer here for the recipe, and 2 big ripe bananas.

Frosting - Chocolate Ganache
Bring 200ml thickened cream to almost a boil, where there are little bubbles but it has not reached a boiling state. Immediately pour this over 200g chopped dark chocolate pieces and stir until it has become a thick chocolate liquid mix. Let it cool until it's just warm, stir occasionally so that the surface would not harden.

Assembly:
1. Flip the cake so that its facing top-down on a new piece of parchment paper. Remove the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake and gently roll the cake up without squeezing it too tight.
2. Unroll the cake and spread the chocolate swiss meringue buttercream evenly across the cake (the bottom side which is now the side facing up). Place the whole bananas across the length of the cake and roll up the cake again, making it tight this time. Ensure that the cake sits on the sealed part.
3. Place the cake into the fridge to set for an hour.
4. Remove from the fridge, and place parchment paper around the exposed cake board to collect spillover frosting. Cut away a small section from the 2 ends of the cake to make it even at the sides.
5. Pour the ganache generously across the whole roll, covering every part of the cake. Cut out 1 section from one of the ends to create the broken log effect and place this side-ways up on top of the cake. Cover this section and the 2 ends of the roll with more ganache. Place X'mas decor as desired and place it back in the fridge to chill.
6. Once the ganache has set on the cake and is pretty stiff, use a fork to draw little lines across the whole log to create the bark look.
7. Serve slightly chilled but not straight cold from the fridge. (This is to ensure the cake has soften slightly)

Submitting this to:
"Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013", hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out
and 
"Bake Along", hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids.