Chocolate Roulade

I've been lucky to find friends here who love cooking (and talking about cooking) as much as I do, and we seem to have unintentionally established a tradition of weekly/biweekly dinner parties. It's never anything overly fancy; sometimes one person makes everything, but usually we're each assigned a course to bring. I usually bring desserts or bread, because while I do enjoy cooking, I really love baking, and I like trying out new recipes :)

This week was an extra challenge because one of my friends has had to go temporarily wheat-free, a circumstance that has drawn much sympathy from the rest of us allergy-free, bread-loving gluttons. However, this circumstance also provided me with the ideal opportunity to try out a recipe I'd been curious about for a while: chocolate roulade. Naturally wheat and gluten free!

The Great British Bake Off (I cannot express the extent of my love for this show. It's the only tv contest I can stand watching, mostly because I can empathize with a baker when their bread hasn't risen properly) contestants had a lot of trouble with this cake, and I was expecting many challenges and little success. But! Surprise! Success! And such success! It looked good AND tasted good - I think even Mary Berry would have been proud (which is all I could think of when I was folding in the egg whites). This recipe is very slightly adapted from hers, which you can find here. I think the next time I make it I'm going to crush some raspberries and mix them right into the whipped cream for extra oomph.

On to it then:

Chocolate Roulade
Makes 10 slices (not counting the end bits you'll have to trim off...those are bonus slices for the baker)

175 g good quality dark chocolate
175 g + 1 tsp caster (super fine) sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 tbsp cocoa powder
400 mL double (whipping) cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C. Grease and line a large rectangular cookie sheet or a jelly roll tin with parchment paper, making sure there's a bit of excess on all sides. Grease all sides of the parchment paper.

2. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt slowly in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate is completely melted, remove from heat and let cool slightly (should still be runny, just not hot).

3. Beat the egg yolks and 175 g caster sugar together until light in colour, then add the cooled chocolate and stir until well mixed. (Your batter will likely be rather dense at this point).

4. Beat the egg whites until stiff (but not dry and shiny, like meringues). You should be able to tip the bowl over without the egg whites sliding or falling out.

5. Fold one large spoonful of egg whites to the chocolate mixture, and mix until well combined. Then gently fold in the remaining egg whites and sift in the cocoa. (You'll want to be very gentle at this point - the cake batter has no other rising agent, so the fluffiness of the egg whites is the only thing adding height to this cake. If you're over-enthusiastic in your mixing, you'll lose the light airy texture you want in the finished product.)

6. Once all the egg whites have been added, tip the batter into the prepared tin and gently level the surface. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Once the cake is finished, remove from the oven and let cool for at least a few hours (overnight is fine too) covered in a clean damp tea towel. (Don't let the tea towel touch the surface though - put a cooling rack or something between the tin and the towel.) The cake will likely sink a bit, but don't worry, this is normal!

7. Whip the cream, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp sugar together until stiff.

8. Dust some parchment paper with a bit of cocoa and icing sugar, and when the cake has cooled completely, tip it onto the parchment. (This make take some finagling...I had a bit of a contraption with another icing sugar-dusted baking sheet holding the cake in place as I turned it so it wouldn't fall out and break.) Remove the greased parchment paper.

9. Spread the whipped cream evenly over the cake. Then, using the parchment paper underneath, slowly start to roll the cake into a semi-tight jelly roll. It will crack a bit, but that's okay - it's supposed to!

10. Keep the parchment paper underneath the roll and transfer to a serving dish. Trim off each end to tidy up the look of it. Dust with a bit more icing sugar or cocoa powder and refrigerate until serving (at least 30 minutes). I served this with raspberries, but I think some strawberries and mint would also be really good.