Chocolate Roulade with Hazelnut Cream

From The Urban Cook, Mark Jensen, Murdoch Books, 2011.

Despite the fact that I think this is the most unattractive and most difficult to read cookery book, it is on my shelf and, being rather stubborn, I will keep going back to it sometimes; you never know there might be a gem to be discovered if I continue to persevere. I decided to try the sweet section.

The recipe was printed on a muddy brown background overprinted on a photograph that made it far from easy to read. It would have been better for me to have abandoned it before I started but stubbornness prevailed.

Firstly a syrup had to be made. It was just sugar and water brought to the boil and left to cool when the sugar had dissolved. Frangelico was added to flavour the syrup.

Next a hazelnut cream was on the list. This was made by creaming butter and icing sugar until it was fluffy, then stirring in crushed roasted hazelnuts.

The cake was next. Butter, chocolate, sugar, whisky and coffee were placed in a bowl with some hot water. The bowl was then placed over a saucepan with simmering water. When the butter and chocolate had melted the mixture was stirred until the sugar had dissolved. Once this was done the bowl was removed from the saucepan and in went a mixture of cocoa and both plain and self-raising flour. They were beaten until smooth and, when cool, a beaten egg was added.

The mixture was poured into a baking tray that had been lined with baking paper. It was a thin cake, only about 1cm thick.

When the cake was cooked it was left to cool for a few minutes then turned out. There then followed a detailed description of how the cake was to be constructed, with syrup brushed on and the cream spread over before it was rolled up. I did not manage this entirely well as the cake managed to break up a little in the rolling.

The cake turned out to be a big disappointment. It was just far too sweet to be enjoyable. We had one helping each and then the remainder was thrown out because we just couldn’t face it again.

Taste: ✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔