- 6oz (150-200g) plain chocolate.
- 4 large eggs.
- 7-10 fl oz double cream (about 450ml works, 600ml is a bit much and 300ml isn’t quite enough.
- 1 tbsp instant coffee.
- 6oz (180g) sugar
- A bit of icing sugar for snow effect.
Instructions
- Melt chocolate – in a small bowl in a pan of boiling water works well.
- Preheat oven to 350f/180c
- Make a small amount of strong coffee using the tablespoon of coffee and about two tablespoons of boiling water
- Tip the coffee mix into the chocolate and stir it in.
- Put the eggs and sugar into a big bowl and electric whisk. Once mixed, add the chocolate then whisk until light and fluffy (essentially a chocolate meringue mix at this point)
- Line a 13″ x 9″ (33cm by 23cm) or equivalent area tray which is at least 2cm deep with greaseproof paper. Greasing the inside surface of the paper helps at this stage.
- Pour the cake mix into the greaseproof papered tray, if it’s stiff enough you will probably have to push it out fairly flat.
- Cook cake for about 20 minutes (about 15 in fan assisted ovens) – until a knife comes out clean.
- Remove tray from oven and leave somewhere to cool
- Whip cream in a big bowl (rinse chocolate residue out first or your cream will discolour) -fairly stiff so it stands up in peaks and doesn’t sag
- Turn out cake once it’s cool enough to pick up onto a large sheet of greaseproof paper
- Spread cream onto the top of the cake in a nice even layer
- Use the paper underneath to roll up the cake into a log, then carefully move onto some sort of plate or tray which can fit in the fridge
- Sift icing sugar over the top for a snow effect
Tips
The coffee can be left out without having any effect on the cake, if your tastes run that way.
You can use foil instead of greaseproof paper but it’s hard to get off the cake afterwards.
If you let the cake go cold it’ll still roll but tend to crack the cake more.