Chocolate Blackcurrant Jam Square 巧克力黑加仑果酱方块

I don’t intend to make this. I wanted to make a swiss roll actually.

However, my sponge cake turned out to be too thin for a swiss roll so I 灵机一动 to cut the cake into three and sandwich with some jam to give it some heights.

Conclude some of the facts and mistakes I made: -

My pan is too big. I used a large 12"x16" swiss roll pan.

The eggs used are too small. I usually use large eggs from the wet market for baking but I didn’t manage to get any. So I used medium eggs which weigh about 60g with shell from the supermarket. I am sure if I were to use large eggs the batter should be just nice for my pan.

I didn’t level the batter evenly, causing part of the cake thin like a biscuit. This is also the reason why I didn’t make it into a swiss roll.

Over baking. Since the cake is thin I should have baked for shorter time but I remained the same baking time, causing the cake to be dry and a bit hard (not hard like rock but I would expect the sponge cake to be much softer).

However, over baking is not the root cause. The actual culprit is the flour! I have used wrong type of flour.

I specially bought Top Flour to make this cake after I learnt that Top Flour is best for sponge cake. I grabbed a pack of “Top Flour” during my grocery shopping in JB. This brand is not available in Singapore. See below for the packaging.

I only read the introduction on the packaging after I made this cake. The “Top Flour” I bought is actually High Protein Flour (aka Bread Flour). This is different from my understanding. So I went to check on the other brand in Singapore - Prima brand. On the packaging it mentions that Top Flour is best for sponge cake (concur with my understanding).

I am confused. Can any Malaysia blogger enlighten me? Top flour in Malaysia is generally referring to high protein flour??

After all, this square cake bar is not that bad. Taste wise it is very chocolaty (remember to use good quality cocoa powder) and it goes very well with the blackcurrant jam.

Ingredients:
5 eggs
110g sugar
1 tsp SP/Ovalette (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g Top Flour
30g cocoa powder
30g vegetable oil or melted butter
3 - 4 tbsp blackcurrant jam or any jam of your choice

Method:
1) Line swiss roll pan with baking paper and lightly grease. Preheat oven to 180C.

2) Combine and sieve flour and cocoa powder together.
3) In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until very thick and fluffy (ribbon stage). If using SP, add it halfway together with vanilla extract.

4) Fold in flour mixture into beaten eggs with a spatula or simply use your hands (I learnt this from a baking demo class and believe me this method is faster).

5) Add oil/melted butter to the batter. Fold gently to mix with the batter.
6) Pour cake batter into lined pan, level the top and bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted at the middle comes out clean. Once done, remove cake from pan and cool on wire rack.
7) Cut the cake into 3 equal pieces (you may want to trim the sides first before cutting) and sandwich with blackcurrant jam. To serve, cut into small square bar.