Chocolate and Strawberry Roulade

Ever since I saw all the wonderful looking roulade's entered into the Weekly Bake Off a few of weeks ago I've been wanting to make one. I went home to my parents' last weekend and as my mum follows a wheat free diet (and loves cream!) I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test out this flourless wonder.



This was a bit of a challenge to myself, it's not anything that I've ever made before and I've always been terrified of rolling the cake so I wanted to see whether I could do it. It was nice to be back in a spacious kitchen and I got all my ingredients prepared before starting (this is very unlike me!). After debating whether I should use the baking tray that was slightly to big or the one that was slightly too small, I set about making the simple chocolate sponge.


It became apparent once the cake was baked that I had not done a very good job of spreading the mixture evenly but apart from that all seemed to be going well and I left the cake to cool whilst I went out for dinner. Fast forward a few hours and I arrive home full of food and ready to complete my roulade. Following my Dad's advice I trimmed the edges of the cake to make it easier to roll and less likely to crack. I whipped the cream and sweetened it with icing sugar (I know this makes me a bad person but I have a sweet tooth ok!). I had wanted to fill the roulade with raspberries to make it more summery but they didn't have any raspberies at the market so I settled for strawberries. I sliced the strawberries and lay them over the layer of cream. Now came the moment of truth..... As soon as I began rolling I realised that I had made my life difficult for myself by using strawberries. They are not as 'squishy' as rasberries and did not take well to being rolled.


The result was rather more cracked than I had hoped for so in an attempt to make the cake more aesthetically pleasing I decided to use the leftover chocolate I had to make a ganache and drizzle it over the roulade. Topped with some strawberries, I was quite pleased with the end result.

Chocolate sponge and cream is not really my kind of cake to be honest, I prefer something a bit more 'cakey' with some exciting flavours. I was pleased I had made it however and will probably make it again to practice my rolling and experiment with flavours. It was a new challenge and I certainly wouldn't have won this technical bake but I'll keep trying!