Hankerie's 1st time judges for "White Xmas Challenge" in verygoodrecipes.com

This is Hankerie's another first time - honorably become one of the judge of this month "White Xmas Challenge" in verygoodrecipes.com. This year December indeed a busy month for me - hosting "Aspiring Bakes #14 Creative Xmas bakes, judge of "White Xmas Challenge" & bake for festive orders. Anyway, my inspiration and creativeness never stop me from baking even I fell sick for past 1 week. 

To kick start this White Xmas Challenge, every judge needs to prepare very own recipe for this "White Xmas Challenge" and publish it on 5th December 2011. Before reveal my own bakes, here is the summary of this White Xmas challenge about - extracted from the challenge page in verygoodrecipes.com. 

Theme

This month theme is: White Christmas. 

There is always a magic feel in the air when snow is falling on Chritmas Eve. Not everyone lives in a region where snow is usual during winter, but everyone can try to recreate this magic in the kitchen!

What dish do you think of when you hear "White Christmas"? You can of course cook with white ingredients such as white fish, white chocolate, white asparagus, white truffles, white vegetables, chicken, cream, coconut milk etc. But your recipe does not have to be all white! It needs to be festive and have a "snowy" feel. You can be creative and imagine a snowy presentation, for instance sprinkling snow crystals (drops of cream, petals of white edible flowers, and a lot of other ingredients) or trying to create a snow-covered landscape one can eat!

Rules:

There must be at least one picture in your recipe, and both the recipe and picture need to be your own. If your recipe is inspired by another, please mention it in your recipe.

You cannot use an already published recipe to participate in the challenge, you need to publish a new recipe (otherwise there's no challenge!). Submitted between December 5th 2011 until December 26th 2011

Prize: 
1st place: Receive $75 online gift voucher
2nd place: Receive $50 online gift voucher
3rd, 4th & 5th place: Receive $30 online gift voucher

Participating, other judges & more:
Kindly go to the challenge page for more details.

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I am submitted my own creation named "Snowy Swiss roll" for this White Xmas Challenge. I've included the recipe as well as the tutorial on how to make this easy peasy delicious snowflakes below.

Snowy Swiss Roll Recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 26g Oil
2. 3 eggs
3. 26g caster sugar
4. 1/2tsp Vanilla Essence
5. 63g caster sugar
6. 47g flour

Filling:

1. Creme fraiche
2. Fresh blueberries

Decoration:

1. Pure white chocolate for snowflakes
2. Marshmallow for snowman
3. Wilton Sparkling Sugars for Xmas Trees
4. Shredded Coconut for snow

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC.
2. Grease and line a Swiss roll tin.
3. Put eggs and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk until light and creamy (it should be very thick at this stage).
4. Sieve flour into mixture and fold very gently using a teaspoon.
5. Add on oil and vanilla essence.
6. Pour the mixture into tray carefully.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and springy to touch.
8. When the sponge is cooked remove from oven, tip upside down on sugared paper and carefully remove paper from sponge.
9. Cut off any hard crusty edges. Spread with creme, blueberries and roll.
10. Decorate it based on your own creativity.

Tutorial : Handmade Snowflakes

What you need to prepare are pure white chocolate (1/2 cup), baking paper & piping bag (you may use any clear plastic bag).

Step 1: Put the white chocolates in the microwave-proof bowl. Heat 1-2 minutes in microwave until melted completely. Remember do not overheat it.

Step 2: Put step 1 into the plastic bag, cut the tip (not too big hole) as you do not want super super bold snowflakes.

Step 3: Pipe your own snowflakes onto baking paper. Let it dry.

Step 4: Snowflakes completed. Remove from baking papers carefully.

Hope to see your participation soon :)