Chocolate roulade

You can’t go wrong with a chocolate roulade. It’s a great celebration cake in the summer with fresh berries and cream or at Christmas with oranges, cinnamon, chocolate shards and cranberries – or add tinned cherries and kirsch for a Black Forest version – or any combination that appeals! When catering for a lot of people roll the roulade along the long side for smaller slices (it’s very rich so all you really need after a big meal) or for indulgent larger slices roll the roulade along the short side. The photos show the roulade rolled on the long side.

Instructions

Grease a 30.5 x 20.5 cm (12×8 inch) Swiss roll tin. Line with greaseproof paper and grease the paper. Dust with caster sugar and flour.
Whisk the eggs and vailla sugar in a bowl placed over a pan of hot water until pale and creamy and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted.
Sift in the cocoa powder and cinnamon and fold gently through the mixture.
Turn the mixture into the tin and bake at 200C mark 6 for 15 minutes.
While it’s baking, place a sheet of greaseproof paper over a damp tea towel and dredge the paper thickly with caster sugar.
Turn the cake out immediately on to the paper – you can trim off any crusty bits for a neater edge (but why waste it!) – and roll up with the paper inside.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Whip the cream until it holds its shape.
When the cake is cold, unroll it and remove the paper. Spread with the whipped cream and re-roll it to form the ‘log’, dredge with icing sugar and decorate. You can add chopped strawberries or cherries and kirsch or fruit jam with the cream or any seasonal combination.

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