Chocolate Swiss Roll with Cream Filling

This is a recipe from the archives of a previous blog. I hope you enjoy it!

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I sometimes wonder whether the other people who write food blogs are also best friends with creative chaos and disorder. While I’m preparing a recipe, taking photos and trying to get through all the other tasks waiting for me during the day, a respectable mess forms around me - one I simply don’t have the energy to tackle.

Of course, all that reaches you is the beautifully staged moment, while I’m left with the pleasure of making a double chocolate Swiss roll wearing a white blouse and not getting a single drop on it. Try this challenge yourself with the following recipe:

Ingredients

For the sponge

• 90 g flour (self-raising, or plain with ½ tsp baking powder)

• 30 g cocoa powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 4 eggs

• 115 g light brown icing sugar

For the filling and icing

• 150 ml double cream

• 100 g sour cream

• 225 g ready-made chocolate icing

• 30 g icing sugar

How to make the Chocolate Swiss Roll:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and prepare a 33 × 23 cm baking tray, lining it with baking parchment.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs and sugar over a bain-marie. Bring some water to the boil in a saucepan, then turn off the heat. Place the bowl with the eggs over the water so that it touches the water but there is no risk of it getting into the mixture. Whisk with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes. The initial rusty-gold mixture will turn into a much larger, light and fluffy mass, similar to cappuccino foam. Remove from the heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens and becomes paler.

4. Gently fold in the dry ingredients in two additions using a metal spoon, adding 15 ml of cold water with the second addition. Pour the cocoa mixture into the prepared tin, level it out, tap the tray gently on the work surface to release any air bubbles, and bake for 10 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, prepare a clean tea towel and place a sheet of baking parchment on it, dusted with icing sugar. When the sponge is baked, turn it out while still warm, sponge-side down onto the sugared parchment. Peel off the parchment it was baked on and roll the sponge up, keeping the new sheet of parchment inside. Leave it to cool like this—it will make rolling much easier later.

6. While the sponge is cooling, prepare the filling and icing. Whip the cream with a little sugar if it isn’t sweetened, then add the sour cream. Whisk very briefly. Fill the roll using a piping bag or a spoon, roll it up again and spread with the ready-made chocolate icing.

7. Decorate as desired and serve chilled with a cup of tea or coffee.

The feedback from those who tasted the cake is that it’s actually better without the chocolate icing, so if you can’t find any, or simply can’t be bothered making it, try the recipe without it. I’m sure you’ll like it just as much!

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NIB & Ember