Wednesday 12 October 2011

Chilli Chocolate Swiss Roll with Cream and Blackberry Jam - We Should Cocoa



I am sure you have heard of We Should Cocoa but if you haven't, it is a monthly bloggers Chocolate challenge! Each month bloggers are challenged to combine a new flavour with delicious chocolate in whatever way they fancy. This months challenge, set by the super sweet Choclette, is CHILLI.


All my friends know that I have been meaning to make a chilli chocolate cake for ages so this was the perfect excuse. This is my first time entering We Should Cocoa so I was pleased it was such a great ingredient.

We had a dinner party on Wednesday with our friends, Kate and Harriet. I thought I would make something new, which may be difficult to transport (that's all I seem to do with my cakes, it was nice to just make one at home and eat it), and combine it with the challenge - hence the swiss roll. I have also never made one of these before and I have to say it was fun! I loved the rolling up part. I usually love frosting and filling and am always disappointed by the frosting to cake ratio. This cake is great, perfectly distributed filling - Yum!

I was slightly disappointed with this recipe because it only called for 100ml cream which as you can see from the picture just isn't enough (for me anyway) so I have doubled it below. Apart from that the cake was yummy, especially the day after. The cake is rich and the chilli just gives a nice warm after taste. The blackberry is a fruity kick to contrast with the chocolate.

I didn't leave the chocolate drizzle to cool long enough as I didn't want to leave my guests waiting, so you can see it is very runny. After we had eaten half of it and the chocolate had cooled down I drizzled some more on (pic below). This was the effect I was going for, it is how they did it in the book and it looked really effective.

The recipe is taken (but adapted to include chilli) from Peyton and Byrne - British Baking.

Cake
3 eggs, separated
130g caster sugar, plus 35g
100g self raising flour
2 tsp chilli flakes, crushed with a pestle and mortar
20g cocoa powder
pinch cream of tartar
Icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 170C and grease a Swiss roll tin or 33cm x 23cm baking tin. Set aside.
2. Whisk together the yolks and sugar with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. It will double in size.
3.  Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and chilli and fold in to the egg yolk mixture.
4. With an electric whisk, Whisk the eggs whites in to peaks. Whisk in the cream of tartar and 35g caster sugar until glossy.
5. Stir in a third of the whites with a metal spoon, then fold in the rest until combined. Careful not to remove too much air.
6. Pour into the tin and tilt the tin around so it covers the whole tin evenly.
7. Bake for 17 mins. I baked for 20 mins, as the recipe suggested, and it came out slightly dry.

Flling
200ml double cream
box of blackberries
5 tbsp water
1 tbsp caster
(or blackberry jam)

8. Meanwhile, simmer blackberries, water and sugar in a pan for 10 mins. Mash with a potato masher and leave aside to cool.
9. Whisk your cream until thick and in soft peaks.
10. Take the cake out of the oven a leave to cool for a few minutes.
11. Dust with icing sugar and cover with clingfilm. Put a chopping board on top of the tin and invert the cake on to the chopping board.
12. Roll the cake up incorporating the clingfilm and leave to cool.
13. When the cake has cooled, unroll it and spread on the jam and cream.
14. With help from the clingfilm, roll it up again (without incorporating the clingfilm this time)
15. Wrap the whole cake up in clingfilm and refrigerate.


Drizzle
50g Chilli chocolate bar
100ml double cream

16. When you are ready to serve, remove the cake from the fridge.
17. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl hovering over a pan of simmering water.
18. Stir in the double cream. Leave to cool for 15 mins.
19. Pour chocolate into a piping bag (that has a small snip out of the bottom) and drizzle over the cake.
20. Dust with cocoa powder or cover in sprinkles or do nothing except eat it!

5 comments:

  1. This is stunning! Can't wait to give it a go! Nice entry x

    Nom!

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  2. It's also chocolate week! http://www.chocolateweek.co.uk/

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  3. Wow, what an amazing roll. The combination of ingredients sound delicious, but I'm particularly impressed with how well you've rolled, especially if this was your first time. I haven't managed a good roll once so far :(

    Glad your first attempt at a chilli cake was successful, I just love this it in pretty much any form. I have the P&B book, but have only baked two things from it so far. Thanks for participating.

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  4. I'm impressed at the number of rolls you got - it's a great looking spiral!

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  5. Looks really delicious - perfect for a dinner party.

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