madebyjade

Roulade, roulade, roulade, roulade rolls from your tong and plate. This recipe was inspired by one of my all-time hero’s, Sam Stern, being a teen himself, wrote a teen’s survival cookbook. This one I made for Helette, a small something to say happy 21^st!

Makes one big cake for 10 people or 3 small ones

You need:

Sunflower oil or Cook ‘n Spray, for greasing.

250 grams dark chocolate

160ml castor sugar

5 eggs

4 ½ T espresso or strong coffee, freshly made

Icing sugar, for dusting

One carton (250ml) double cream or mascarpone

250g strawberries or other berries, as you wish

To make someone’s wish come true:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Take a tin about 23 x 33 cm or 3 loaf tins and line with greaseproof paper, and grease it. Fold it so that it fits nicely; let the paper stick out around the sides. Separate your eggs with clean hands, no oil, the whites going into a small stainless steel bowl and the yolks in another. Whisk the whites until they form stiff peaks, about 3 minutes with an electric whisk. Add the castor sugar to the yolks and whisk them until it turns light in colour and resembles what would be eggy mousse. Break the chocolate finely into a heavy-bottomed, non-stick pan and add the espresso. Let this melt over a very low heat, take care not to burn at all, and keep whisking! This will only take you less than one minute. Add the melted chocolate to the yolks and fold in with a big metal spoon. Next fold in the egg whites with the spoon. The odd spot of white is does not matter. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 25 minutes for the big tin, if you insert a knife in the middle and it comes out clean then hey! It is ready! The loaf tins will take approx. 15 minutes. It may be cracked at the top, that is fine, and it will also sink after it cools down. Let it cool down for at least 15 minutes. Whisk the double cream so long, and add some orange zest if you like it. Smooth it over the roulade with a knife, not to thick, not to thin, just right. Lift the short end of the roulade and roll it away from you so that it looks like an odd Swiss roll. Peel off the baking parchment as you roll. Take it easy, it may crack and break but it is not the end of the world. Keep rolling until you come to the end of it, transfer to a plate, cut and toss a few strawberries around it and dust with icing sugar (use a sift). Happy eating!