- I'm not going to lie, this is a really tricky recipe.
- [Matt] I'm kind of scared.
- They don't call this mental breakdown cake for nothing.
- We're going in the oven.
- Oh, no.
- Not so sure about this.
- No! Oh God.
(gasps)
(funky guitar music)
- Hi, I'm Hannah.
- Hi, I'm Matt.
- And we're here to do a really cool cooking competition
because in my family
my great grandma has this notorious recipe.
It's called a chocolate roll and essentially
it's a Swiss roll cake.
It's a really thin kind of papery chocolate cake
that's wrapped around whipped cream and covered
in an amazing glaze.
The only problem is we don't know how she actually makes it.
The only recipe we have is something that my mom wrote down
when she was very young after
watching my great grandma make it
because she never used measurements.
But Matt and I are going to compete against each other to
try to make the very best chocolate roll
and here to judge our work
is none other than my mom.
We also have Jackson and Wyatt to help back her up
and taste test.
And we'll see who can come the closest
to my great grandma's recipe.
- I'm kinda scared.
- Hi I'm Jackie, I'm Hannah's mom.
So this is my Grandma Gherkins' famous chocolate roll.
It is such a special dessert
and it's been handed down in our family for generations.
It's a tricky thing to make.
If you don't do one step kind of perfectly, you get a flop.
- So I've attempted this recipe before
and it literally brought me to my knees
crying in the kitchen.
- I am a horrible baker.
I'm anticipating a disaster.
- But, to even the playing field,
since I am a pretty skilled baker
and Matt is more of a novice,
to make things fair you're going to get the recipe.
He gets two lifelines in which he can ask my mom for help
along the way with the recipe. (applause noise)
- Let's do this.
Let's give it a shot. - You ready?
- Okay.
Good luck to you, sir. - Bye.
(clock ticking) - Two hours on the clock, now.
Okay.
I'm going to start by whipping these egg whites.
The way this recipe works is the egg whites get really
fluffy and they add volume to the cake batter.
This is almost all eggs.
There's pretty much no flour in this.
There's no substance to this.
It's so fragile.
- You know, Hannah is a seasoned cook and a seasoned baker.
Matt has made some incredible dishes, but he hasn't baked.
- I have no clue what I'm doing here.
I need to move this to the bigger bowl, I think.
It's kind of small.
- Good choice. - Yeah.
- All right, so I see this powdered sugar is divided.
Oh, I think I've poured too many in.
This is only attempted on Christmas
and only if the entire extended family is coming.
Like, we do not mess around with this cake
and we don't make it for regular occasions.
How do you feel?
- I feel okay. - (laughs)
(ding noise) - Yep.
- Is this good? - No!
Okay, this is what you want.
Look at that stiff peak.
- Oh wow.
- I'm feeling good, it's looking good.
I think I'm going to prep my pan.
Oh God, what does this bake at? 350?
- You wanna get a lifeline from me?
'Cause I know. - (laughs)
Get my parchment down.
Oh that is really ugly, okay.
Let's move on to the yolks.
I can't remember if there's an order for this.
I think they just all go in.
What are you doing?
- I'm trying to figure this all out.
- You have the recipe.
- I know, it's like an encyclopedia.
- I'm just doing all of these.
I'm going to save this water just in case
I need to thin it out,
I feel like I might not need it but maybe I do.
I don't know.
Now I feel very confused. - Oh my God, I messed up.
- What'd you do?
- I put the vanilla extract in this.
(record scratch)
- So did I.
Okay.
- It's supposed to go with the egg yolks.
- Hopefully we didn't ruin the whites.
Okay, I really don't think I need water in this.
There's a lot of overthinking going on here.
- Feeling the pressure? - No.
I feel great!
What strategy are you taking Matt?
- There is no strategy here, it's called survival mode.
- Okay.
I'm going to put this in here.
This could be it for me.
This texture doesn't look right.
It's too loose.
It looks like diarrhea and I don't feel good about it.
Hopefully the addition of these extra whites will make it
look a little better.
Maybe this is right and I've just never done it right.
And maybe what I needed to do was just like, go with it,
close my eyes and dive right into it
without overthinking a recipe.
If you win, I have to buy you Raiders tickets.
- Ooh.
- If I win, you have to rub my feet
every night for a week and tell me
how good they smell.
- Well, that's not hard.
I do that already.
- No you don't!
Oh my God. - Yeah I do.
- He has this image in his mind that
he's always giving me massages, false.
- Okay so she mixed it all together so I'm going to do that.
- Sometimes you want to ease the whites into it.
You don't want to pile them up with everything.
- Well, you know?
Sometimes, but not this time.
I'm telling you, beginner's luck.
Watch, his cake's going to be - Don't jinx me.
- like, perfect.
- Oh God.
- No, why are you using the beaters?!
Oh my God, don't do that.
Don't do that!
That's a massacre.
Matt, it's called a rubber spatula.
- It's easier with the machine okay?
My color is way different. - It's like soup!
Why is yours so white?
I need all the batter I can get, come on.
- Oh God, this is not going to work.
- It looks like ice cream.
Okay, I'm putting mine in the oven.
I think the other big factor in this cake is watching it in
the oven because oven temperatures vary so widely.
I think it's been in here four minutes and
it's looking like it's shriveling up.
Is it time to cry on the floor?
Oh shoot.
Now it's bubbling.
Oh, that's not good.
I have nothing left, like what am I going to do?
This is not good.
- I had to call in Jackie for lifeline.
- [Jackie] Okay.
- I made a cappuccino flavor.
Look at the coloring.
- I don't mind it.
- You don't mind it?
- I don't, no.
- Hannah's looks like that.
- How did yours get like that? - I don't know.
I used the same ingredients. - You did?
- I kind of added them in different stages.
- I think it's going to be really good.
- Good. - Yeah, uh-huh.
- I'm feeling better now, okay.
- I'm over here with a mud pie
and he's over there getting it smoothed out for him.
- Okay, we're going in the oven.
- I think I need to take this out.
I don't know.
I'm going to put it back in.
Don't look at it Mom.
- [Jackie] Don't look at it Mom.
- [Hannah] Don't look at me.
- [Jackie] I'm sorry, I did.
- [Hannah] Don't look at me!
- All of our relatives would check at that.
Once it's rolled up you're not going to see that.
- No, I know, but it just looks like a bad omen.
I'm going to powder my towel.
- Let's see if I can do this.
- [Jackie] Just do what she does.
- Don't do what I do,
because look at my cake in the oven right now okay.
Don't do what I do.
- Your mom thinks my cappuccino color is good.
- Matt, that's really good for you.
Kick me while I'm down.
It's bouncing back.
I think it's done.
We're going with it.
I almost just dropped it right there.
I almost just completely dropped it, okay.
Moment of truth.
(drum roll)
- [Jackie] Uh-huh. - [Matt] Wow.
No!
Oh my God.
Oh no, maybe I didn't do it long enough.
This is really bad.
- [Matt] I hope my parchment is edible
'cause it's probably not even going to come off.
- You want a clean parchment when you peel it off.
- [Jackie] That one's a little messy.
- I'm going to powder this a little
just 'cause I'm really nervous that it's gonna stick.
- We're at 12 minutes now.
- Oh that looks good Matt.
- Don't make fun of me.
Oh my God.
Okay, so now I flip it and pray.
(tray crashes on counter) (all laughing)
- Ooh this side, look at that.
Get that coloring.
- [Jackie] It's called burnt, but okay.
- Hey, some people like crunch.
- [Jackie] It won't roll, Matt.
Crunch doesn't roll.
- [Matt] Just like a baby.
- How is that like a baby?!
- [Matt] Okay.
- [Hannah] Do you know how to make whipped cream?
- I've seen it done before.
- They don't call this mental breakdown cake for nothing.
Again, stiff peaks.
If you over beat it, it turns to butter.
- Oh God.
- That's my whipped cream.
- Here's mine, I guess it's okay.
- [Matt] You ready to roll?
- [Hannah] It looks a little flat,
but that never hurt anybody. - [Matt] Oh God.
- I'm just afraid that this stuck.
- [Matt] Now ours are the same color.
- [Hannah] The real reason you trim the edges
is so that you can taste a little sample.
- [Matt] It's crispy?
- Some people like that, like you.
Going to get a nice spread.
Are you proud?
- Kind of.
- All right, let's try to roll this.
Oh, mine's ripping.
Okay.
Oh, it's not accurate.
It's like, not...
- [Matt] I'm not going to win.
I'm not going to win on presentation
'cause that looks really good.
Now is the time to concentrate.
- Oh, you're doing great.
That's looking really good.
I'm proud of us.
Let's get the glaze going.
This smells like unsweetened chocolate.
Butter.
- Just letting you know,
I had them add a little extra butter.
- Then heat these up.
I'm just gonna do 30 seconds.
- [Matt] Oh it's popping. - [Hannah] Okay, okay, jeez.
What are you going to do if you burn the chocolate Matt?
- I like it burnt.
- That's the Matt I know and love.
Oh, this is looking nice and glossy.
My arm's tired.
- It's looking good, it's not lumpy.
I should probably just leave it.
That ribbon! - Looks good right?
- Looking good. - Looks like glaze.
- Getting this off of here, I don't know if we can.
- All right.
That was very fulfilling.
- We're going to put these in the fridge.
- Let's do this. - Shall we?
Good luck.
- Okay, so we're back.
Our cakes are chilled and we have our lovely judges,
Wyatt, Jackson, and Miss Jackie.
- [Jackie] I think they both look amazing
and I'm totally impressed, I love it.
- [Hannah] What do you think about it Wyatt?
- [Jackson] Uh it looks darker...
- [Wyatt] Neater and softer. - [Hannah] Neater and softer.
- [Jackson] That one is, I think wider.
The swirl was nice.
- [Jackie] There's a beautiful roll on those.
Let's taste them.
- [Jackson] Let's taste them. - Yeah let's do it.
Nice, soft.
- Mm, that's pretty good.
- Yum!
I may eat the whole thing.
- [Jackie] That is delicious.
- You may eat the whole thing?!
- [Jackie] Second one.
- Way more satisfying.
- Oh, it's tasty.
It's a little different than the other one.
What do you think guys?
- Good, I taste butter in this frosting.
- You taste more butter?
I am surprised.
I'm really impressed that you both did this.
- So you hold up your finger one, if one was your favorite
or two if two was your favorite, okay?
- [Matt and Hannah] 1, 2, 3!
- Oh, you won!
- [Jackson] Oh my god....
- [Jackie] So this was yours Hannah?
- Yeah that was mine.
- Wyatt finished the second one!
- [Jackie] Just take a couple more bites to decide.
- Moment of truth, we taste each other's.
Are we trying yours first?
That's really good.
That is an A plus tight roll.
- (whispering) Can I have some of yours?
- Okay, shall we try mine? - Mm-hmm.
Well the whipped cream is better.
- The cake is a little better consistency maybe.
You did so good.
The transformation from what you created,
which was kind of like cake crouton, to this.
That's really amazing.
It was awesome and it was so fun
to challenge ourselves and for you to try something new.
And now we know that you're a really good baker,
so I don't really have to do it anymore.
- (whispering) I don't know about that
- [Hannah] Stay tuned for more.
(laughing)
(jazzy sax music)