Matcha swiss roll with azuki beans filling

I made this swiss roll by adapting Lucy's sugar roll recipe. Added 1 tbsp of powdered matcha in the process.

The azuki beans were store-bought but too sweet for my liking. I guess I have to be diligent and cook my azuki beans next time. :P

Cherries Agar Agar

As mentioned in my earlier post, there was syrup leftover from the 2 cans of pitted dark cherries I used for the blackforest cake. The syrup in the canned cherries was very thick and smelled really nice. It'll be such a waste to pour it away. So I decided to make agar-agar with it. I even pureed the 5pcs of cherries and added into the syrup.

I proceeded to boil the agar agar powder in some water and then added the cherry syrup to it. Prior to that, I had scooped out a portion of the agar-agar and set aside. I added some milk to that.

I intended to make layered agar-agar, alternating the cherry layers with milk. However, being the impatient person that I am, the layers did not turn out. Even tho' I had tried my best to wait patiently for the layers to set, when I added the next layer of agar-agar to it, the layers just kinda combined together. To the point that I decided that I had enough of waiting.... I just dumped whatever's remaining into the mold to set.
to hell with that!

Fast forward to the next day, to my surprise, when I unmolded the agar-agar, it did not look that bad! I love the deep hue of burgundy and there's actually some signs of layers towards the base! Of course, I had to check the insides... so I cut it and was pleasantly surprised to see that there's a "marbling" effect to it! LOL.... Taste-wise, it was really good. Altho' it's a little too soft to my liking... but well, I'll take it as a good attempt on my part. Well, I think I must really be learn to be more patient when it comes to making layered agar-agar. :P

Blackforest cake - Mom's Birthday

The cake was done for Mom's 67th Birthday. I guess when one grows older, he/she tends to be fussier about food. In my mom's case, I had to be careful to choose what kind of cake to make for her. I hope she liked this. I used up nearly 2 cans of pitted dark cherries for the fillings in between the layers and also squeezed in as many fresh cherries as possible for the top. Brushed kirsh on the cake layers as I assembled the cake. The cream whipped up so beautifully this time. *happy*

I have the syrup of the canned cherries reserved for some other use. Also abt 5 pcs of the pitted cherries.... more of that coming up in the next post.... meanwhile, enjoy these pics. :)