Chocolate Roulade (Swiss-Roll Cake)

This chocolate roulade is an absolute dream. Made of chocolate sponge filled with sweetened whipped cream, you won’t find a more airy cake than this!

A French-Inspired Challenge

Interesting fact: The famous French culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu, has many of its students whisking eggs, folding egg yolks into batters, and whipping cream by hand, rather than use any electric mixer or machine.

Torture? Maybe. A lesson in true culinary technique? Probably so. Not enough room for extra equipment? Most likely.

Seriously, I’ve toured the classrooms, and the equipment and work surfaces are small compared to some of the expansive kitchens you’ll find here in the States. I’ve heard that they just don’t have the room for rows of electric mixers, so they simply teach students to do it the old-fashioned way.

Some prospective students may be deterred by this, but I merely view it as an exciting challenge that makes Cordon Bleu even more of a dream school. It just makes me imagine Julia Child standing there with big copper bowls in front of her, smiling and enthusiastically whisking away ingredients by hand.

A Sticky Situation

All this is to say that I started seriously pondering what life would be like the “old-fashioned way” when I came to bake this chocolate roulade and discovered I was out of baking paper.

Normally, I wouldn’t think twice — I’d simply butter and flour my prepared tin like people used to do before parchment paper became a thing. But this is one of those cakes that is just waiting to mock your foolishness when you try to get it out of the corners of the tin.

I know, because I’ve done that technique to grease my pan with this recipe and ended up with a sponge that, after careful nudging and scraping, flipped out of the pan with a big piece missing. T’was very sad, I assure you.

It’s because this cake is just so light and airy, made with whipped eggs, cake flour, and cocoa powder, that it becomes really easy to stick to a pan.

But, you know, being the rebellious (read: foolish) girl that I am, I decided to just go for it and bake the cake anyway by merely buttering my pan and dusting it with cocoa powder.

God must love me, because by some miracle, I was able to flip out the cake in one piece without too much of a struggle. But please, don’t be like me and pray for miracles. Just run to the store and buy the parchment paper if you’re out of it.

Rolling It Right

This chocolate roulade — the word roulade stemming from the French word rouler (to roll) — is made up of a thin chocolate sponge that’s been covered in thick double cream, then rolled into a tight spiral.

The cake layer is perfectly light and airy, which complements the equally light, but decadent, cream filling. I swear, you’ll cut a slice with a sharp knife, place it on a serving plate, and wonder where the heck it went a minute later — it’s that easy to eat up.

Aside from the suggestion to use baking paper, another point I want to make is that you’ll want to roll the sheet of cake while it’s still warm out of the oven. The first time I baked this cake, I used a recipe card that instructed me to wait for the cake to cool and then roll it. Well, I ended up with cracks all over it.

The author of the recipe had said this was normal and part of its charm. I wasn’t buying it. So, from then on, each time I made this sponge, I let it rest in the prepared tin for only a couple of minutes before rolling it up in a kitchen towel sprinkled with icing sugar.

I leave the cake in a roll until it has completely cooled. Once it’s cooled, I unroll the sheet of cake, spread thick whipped cream (sometimes flavored with a dollop of raspberry jam but usually just vanilla) all over the top, and then roll it back up. The result has always been a scrumptious roulade free of cracks!

Extra Tips for Success

• Ingredients at room temperature: Whipped eggs and soft peaks form much more easily when your eggs aren’t cold.
• Fold gently: When combing the egg white mixture with the egg yolk mixture, be very gentle as you don’t want to deflate your whipped egg whites. This gentle hand when mixing the batter is what contributes to the cake’s airy and spongy texture.
• Work surface prep: Have your baking paper, greased pan, and corners of the tin ready before pouring in the chocolate mixture.
• Storage: Keep the roulade in the fridge if not serving immediately. It slices best cold, with a dusting of icing sugar right before serving.

This chocolate roulade cake may look impressive, but with the right tips and materials, you’ll find the recipe surprisingly approachable. Bake it once, and you’ll come back to it again and again.SaveSave