Black Forest Roulade

My First Sweet Punch

 Sweet punch is a group started by Ria, Maria and Divya Kuda. The main aim of the group is to make baking as simple as possible, they believe that baking is not just for experts,  when there is a  good recipe and fresh ingredients  nothing can go wrong. This is absolutely right, when i started baking all which i do is just follow the recipe without changing anything, even when you make a slight alternation in the measurement something may go wrong. So if you want to join the Sweet Punch and check the previous roundups please click here.

  Since this is my first challenge with the sweet punch I'm more than happy to have this Black Forest roulade since I live in Germany. This cake is named after the mountain range in South western Germany.

When I first came to Germany, I came across this Black Forest name very often. I used to wonder what's with the black forest, then one of my husband's colleague explained that black forest is nothing but forest with mostly pine trees. When  you view this forest from a distance or from a bird's eye view, it almost looks like black in colour, so it's called as Black forest. This is one of the   main  attraction for tourists who visits Germany.

  When I first saw the recipe for sweet punch, It was like OMG!  Since roulade, swiss roll is always been a nightmare for me.  I left it till the last moment and made the cake just two days before posting the recipe. Everything came out perfect, expect that it started cracking after I rolled the cake. Then I realized that this cake is almost like a mousse cake, since it is very delicate and moist, there are more chances to have a crack. So I was convinced by myself that the cake is ok. You can just serve this cake by itself with some cream or ice cream. You can also repair the minor cracks by piping some cream on top and dusting with a cocoa powder.

This month challenge is by Maria, her recipe is from The Australian Women's Weekly, which is my favourite too. This is one of my earliest collection of recipe book, which I rely on a lot. When you follow the instructions from the book just as it is , the results are amazing. Coming to the recipe.

Ingredients

Dark chocolate - 200gm, chopped coarsely
Hot water - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 4

separated (room temp)

Caster sugar - 1/2 cup (110 gms)
Caster sugar - 1 tbsp, extra
Thickened cream - 3/4 - 1 cup  

Cherry filling
Seedless black cherries - 425gm can
Cornflour - 3 tsp

Method:

Position oven shelves; preheat oven to 180 C. Grease 25 cm/30 cm swiss roll pan; line base with baking paper. Combine chocolate, water and coffee in large heat proof bowl; sit bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Using wooden spoon, stir until chocolate melts then immediately remove bowl from fire. 

Beat egg yolks & sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick & creamy; this will take about 5 minutes. Using large metal spoon, fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites in small bowl  with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Using metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of baking paper on board; sprinkle with extra sugar. Turn cake onto sugared baking paper; carefully remove lining paper, cover cake loosely with a tea towel. Cool cake to room temp.
Beat cream  in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Spread cake evenly with cooled cherry filling then spread  cream over cherry mixture. Roll cake from a long side, using paper to lift and guide the roll; place on serving plate. Dust with cocoa powder. Cover roll; refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. You can also dress up the roulade  with cherries or by piping some cream on top.

Cherry filling
Drain cherries, reserving 1/4 cup (60ml) of syrup. Using knife, chop cherries coarsely. Using wooden spoon blend cornflour and reserved syrup in a saucepan. Add cherries; stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cool to room temp.

Storage:

You can store this cake in a refrigerator for upto week, it taste even better after storing it in the refrigerator.

Note:

The main key step to get the cake right is beating the egg whites and proper measurement.