This is a different take on fictional cooking, and it's not me doing the baking - I just provided photography and moral support! The Ginja Ninja really wanted to make this cake, which comes from a TV show called Steven Universe, and the episode "The Good Lars." First, we had to find the ube. She thinks the origin of this cake is Filipino, and the purple yam also known as Ube is not a common ingredient found in Ohio supermarkets. Off to Jungle Jim's! Even there, we had to ask for direction, and a produce guy sent us to the Hawaiian Purple Yam as a near substitute (maybe the same thing?) as Ube.
Armed with a pair of off-white tubers, we headed for home to begin the cooking process. Juliet had found a recipe on Snapchat, but I was able to track it down so we could share a link with you all (warning, page contains an autoplay video).
Hidden purple!
The first steps were to peel the ube and cut it into chunks, then microwave it with a bit of water.
Cooked ube is amazingly purple. She was very impressed with the color, especially at the cheesecake stage.
So pretty! Ube cheesecake filling.
The moment of truth: flipping the cake and finding out if if would hold together or not.
Careful measuring. Me, I'm likely to throw in a sprinkle of this and a glug of that, but she's still learning and being careful.
The cake was rolled up in the tea towel while warm, allowed to cool, and now it's being filled with the ube cheesecake.
Rolling - this is where an inadequate sponge would crack and break, but she did good and it came out perfectly.
Finishing touches - piping on some of the filling. She's not used to using a piping bag!
The Ginja Ninja is not a fan of frosting - too sweet - and like the First Reader she prefers her cupcakes naked. This cake, she says, was fun to make, and not too sweet to eat.
The parent's take on the ube roll cake was that it's sweet - not so sweet as a frosted cake, but there's not a lot of stand-out flavor going on here. The ube, like most tubers, is pretty low-key as far as flavor goes. The color is amazing, but I'd want to do something to add a kick of flavor here. Maybe citrus in the roll cake. I'll have to think on it.