Baking for Beginners: Scrummy Chocolate Roulade

I haven't been that festive this year so far. I'm unexpectedly on my own for Christmas, so have been treating it like another regular day (apart from the fact that you can legitimately drink gin from 11am without fear of repercussions or prejudice). However, everything changed when I received possibly the kindest of gifts from a new pal in my life.

One of my Twitter followers and new Editor of Kitchen Bitching @jimsyjampots delivered unto me a gift of great kindness. No, not the immaculate conception of the Lord's son ... but a ruddy gorgeous chocolate roulade. Well, I simply had to get the recipe, as there was NO way this festive treat was going to last till Sunday!

You'll need:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 6 large eggs
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 300ml double cream
• Icing sugar
• 50g milk chocolate

Make it!

• Grease and line a 23 x 33cm swiss roll tin.
  
• Break 175g of the dark chocolate into chunks and put it in a heatproof bowl. Rest this bowl on the top of a saucepan of simmering water, but don’t let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir the chocolate until it has melted. As soon as it’s smooth, remove the bowl from the pan of water and leave it to cool.
  
• Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Separate the eggs, putting the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Whisk the egg whites with an electric whisk (or a normal whisk and a very strong arm) until they are stiff. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down without the egg white falling out.
  
• Tip the sugar in the egg yolks and whisk together until the mix is thick and pale. Pour the melted chocolate into the yolks and fold together until combined.
  
• Add two or three spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate and stir gently. Then add two tablespoons of cocoa powder, the rest of the egg whites and fold in. Be as gentle as possible in order to keep all the air in.
  
• Pour this mix into the swiss roll tin and smooth the top to make it even. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes, until the top feels firm. Remove from the oven but keep it in the tin, letting it cool completely.
  
• Lay a sheet of baking paper as long as the sponge on a work surface, and sprinkle it well with icing sugar. Turn the sponge out onto the baking parchment on the counter and peel off the paper you used to line the tin.
  
• Whip the double cream until it holds its shape, before spreading it over the top of the sponge. Make sure you leave a border of about 1cm on all sides.
  
• Gently roll one short end of the roulade towards the other side. You can use the parchment to help you here; pull it away from you in order to get a tighter roll. Don’t worry about the outside of the roll cracking; this makes it look pretty.
  
• Melt the remaining 25g of the dark chocolate until runny, and drizzle it over the top of the roll. Then do the same with the 50g of milk chocolate. You can either serve it as it is or cut off the ends to neaten it.