DESSERT - MOCHA ROLL

DESSERT - MOCHA ROLL

This is my all time favouritest favouritest cake and believe you me, I have eaten some of the best cakes one can buy. One of the reasons it is the best is because I make it out of very little fat and sugar.......a difficult proposition you might agree...when you talk of a cake in the same breath but with a little tweaking here and there - it is possible. Firstly the base is a whisked sponge - which in simple terms means eggs and sugar...but in what proportion you may well ask. And I can answer you confidently... the least I can get away with. I usually save the cream on the top of the milk I use at home and collect it for a few days. And I use a lot of plain cocoa and use only some chocolate so that I can get a stronger chocolatey taste than most people who use a milk chocolate to make a chocolate cake. Of course I never use milk chocolate.....have not used it in years.....I prefer the dark bitter cooking chocolate slabs which I store in the fridge in tupperware containers and they never go bad or loose their flavour. They just dont last long enough for that.

110 gm caster sugar

4 large eggs

110 gms mix of cocoa and flour , sieved together

2 tablespoons warm water

this is for the base sponge.

For the filling

1 cup cream (use half cream and half cold milk)

1/2 cup icing sugar (you can also use caster)

2 heaped tablespoons cocoa

1 tablespoon Kahlua (coffee liquer or substitute 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder)

1/2 cup brandy ( this gives the cake its unique flavour

and the cake will be just as good for weeks at at a time.) Mix all the above ingredients and store in the fridge till required.

The last step is the chocolate coating -

in a glass dish put in 50 gms approx dark chocolate broken into pieces

pour in 4 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon butter

1 tablespoon cocoa

2 teaspoons icing sugar

Warm for a few seconds in a microwave and blend . If required, warm for another 10 seconds and blend. The mixture must be absolutely smooth and shiny. Do not heat this for too long as the chocolate will get burnt and so will not taste nice. Leave in the warm micro or on the top of the oven you are baking in, till required.

Now to make the sponge. If you have not made a whisked cake before I should explain that it needs to be whisked at full speed for quite a while till the sponge looks thick and creamy.

Prepare a flat dish and grease butter paper to layer it.

Sprinkle a bit of cocoa on it.

Break the 4 eggs in a large deep glass dish and add the caster sugar. Beat with an electric beater till thick and creamy. Add half the sifted flour and cocoa mixture and lightly mix with a spatula. Pour in the warm water and add the balance flour/cocoa mixture. Quickly incorporate with a spatula and pour into the prepared dish and bake.

I usually bake this on Gas Mark 4 in my oven.

This sponge takes between five and ten minutes to cook. After 5 minutes turn the dish around so that it cooks evenly. This cake must not brown, if it does it will become rubbery.

Remove from the oven and remove the paper with a knife.

When cool pour the cream mixture and apply evenly. Quickly roll up the sponge and place in a dish with the seam side down.

Pour the warm chocolate evenly and allow to soak into the sponge.

Leave the cake for a day for the flavours to mix and slice and serve.

This cake will remain fresh for more than 10 days. I know as I have made 4/5 cakes at a time and eaten them over a period of time. Because of the milk content the sponge does not dry out. But do please store them in closed tupperware boxes so that the brandy does not evaporate.