Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 163: Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze

This recipe is 5-pages long...and by the time i'm on last page, i forgot the what i read on the first page..LOL! So i had to read each section on its own and make the related ingredients required on different days.  

Day 1 (Wed):  Decided that i should make the Lekvar first since i had no idea what it was but nonetheless i like apricot so figured i should just make it instead of going for the 'short-cut' suggested in the book. So, after work, i got ready the ingredients and soaked the dried apricots. Only then did i realized that i have to soak for 2 hrs which by that time will be midnight so i left the apricots to soak overnight in the fridge.  

Day 2 (Thurs): Realised that after soaking for 24 hrs, the apricots were very soft. But i still followed the instructions to boil the apricots till soft and process it.  Couldn't stand the sight and idea of not knowing what to do with my skinless lemon after zesting it, i added the lemon juice into the processed apricot. :p  Didn't do any harm i guess cos my jam still tasted great and very apricot-y.

Seriously, imo DO NOT skip making this!  Believe me..lekvar is amazing stuff!  I realised I still had plenty of time before bedtime, did more reading of the recipe and ended up making the apricot ganache filling, apricot syrup and lacquer glaze :)  

Day 3 (Sat):  Baked the Biscuit Roulade.  Pretty easy & quick.  The half-sheet pan i own was like 1/2-inch shorter on one side...can't remember which side but i guess it didn't do much harm.  Baking at 230c was kind of a torture (in my small kitchen can feel the oven heat!) since the weather here has been at around 34c-37c but thankfully it was only for about 6 mins. This is my 2nd time making swiss roll so i was a bit apprehensive of rolling the roulade but everything went on smoothly. :)  

Above pic: Spreading the syrup, lekvar & ganache. You can see at room temperature, my ganache was way too soft! I guess room temperature probably was at 31c..lol!  Rolling the roll with soft ganache was quite difficult..cos the ganache tends to ooze out from the sides and thus i couldn't roll it too tightly.  Next time i'll have to use ganache straight out of the fridge instead of leaving it to room temperature.  Pouring the lacquer glaze wasn't that bad either..maybe because of our weather, it allowed me time to smooth it with a spatular and still remained smooth & shiny.  I used Hersey's special dark cocoa powder for the lacquer glaze in case any one of you wonder why my glaze is so dark. 

VERDICT:  SIMPLY HEAVENLY!!  The lekvar blends very well with the apricot ganache and compliments the soft biscuit roulade.  The sweetness was just nice. Cake has a lightness to it and can eat a few slices and not feel sick.   I love it the hint of apricot with chocolate.  The best part of the cake is the lekvar.  I'm so glad that i took the time to make it - now i have a huge bottle of it left, i can find ways of using it. :D.   My family loved the cake and said it is very good.  Worth all the effort making it! :)