Chocolate Swiss Roll

Hello again, chefs and chefettes, here's a recipe I tried the other day. My Mum was pretty against the idea of doing a swiss roll at first as in her recollection, whisked sponges are dry, and a bit bland. I think this one turned out pretty well and I'd definitely make it again. I reckon that my glorious object of worship - the Kenwood Chef mixer I got for my birthday - is to thank. I could never get the mixture to the correct level of fluffiness before adding the flour before, but this time it did exactly what a whisked sponge is supposed to do - the trail of mixture is meant to be stiff when it drops off the beater, and not sink in for a fair while.

So here goes:

3 large eggs

75g caster sugar (refined or golden)

55g self raising flour

20g cocoa

filling:

100ml double cream or 'Elmlea'

1tbsp fromage frais

a few squares of chocolate of the colour of your choice

1. This is a really quick thing to make, so it's necessary to put the oven on before you start! Fan oven 210C, Gas 7.

2. Grease a 7x12 inch swiss roll tray and line it with greased greaseproof paper. My swiss roll tin was 79p from the marvellous palace of delights that is Trago Mills (you have to have been there to understand...) and was really worth getting. If you don't have one, its fine to use an ordinary baking tray, but you'll probably have to increase the quantity. 

3. Whisk the sugar and eggs together in a large bowl using an electric whisk. If you're lucky enough to have a big beast of a mixer it's best to use the K-Beater attachment. 

4. When the mixture is really light and fluffy and comes off the beater in ribbons that don't sink in straight away when you lift it up, it's ready for the flour. Sift in the flour and cocoa and fold in very gently using a  plastic spatula, to avoid losing any of that precious air.

5. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and shake gently to allow it to level out, put in the preheated oven for about 10 mins until the cake is slightly golden on top and has begun to shrink away from the side of the tin. I'm sure you know already that opening the oven before you're sure that it's cooked is a sure-fire way of guaranteeing flat-cake.

6. While you're waiting to fetch it out of the oven, get another sheet of greaseproof paper slightly bigger than the tin, and sprinkle a bit of caster sugar over it.

7. When you get the cake out of the oven, quickly run around the edges with a knife and then turn it out onto the greaseproof paper. Peel the greaseproof that was lining the tin off the cake, score it about an inch/2cm from the end, and then roll up with the clean, sugared greaseproof inside. Leave it to cool.

For the filling:

1. Whip the cream/elmlea.

2. Add the fromage frais and then grate in the chocolate, whisk it up lightly just to make sure it's well mixed.

3. When the cake is completely cool, unroll it, spread the cream filling over the middle of the cake and then roll up again (without the greaseproof, obviously) 

Et voila, mes cheres! Your own glorious home-made swiss roll. They keep a few days if you keep them in the fridge, although it didn't last that long in my house!

Hope that keeps your cakey little faces satisfied for a while! Next time I'll remember to take some photos before us greedy little buggers eat it all. TTFN