Chocolate Swiss Roll For Birthday Cake !

My son is a chocoholic . Even after reading the first statement, if you were inclined to ask him what kind of cake he would prefer for his birthday , his without a doubt reply would be "a chocolate one." By now , you must be thinking that I have it easy while decided what type of bake to bake for his birthday . You may be right or somewhat right . Last year for his birthday I had it easy ..rosettes were in  , so I simply decorated a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate butter cream rosettes. Here is a picture of the same . Just don't get confused ..the blog post is still about the chocolate swiss roll.

This year , my inner gemini was screaming for something different. Admit it , there is not a lot you can do with a chocolate cake . You could cover it with ganache and decorate with chocolate shaving but have done it so many times, that it has virtually become yawn inducing. Moreover , since it was a family affair only , didn't want a bulky layered cake . In lieu of the above , it is hardly surprising that the chocolate swiss roll caught my fancy.

My choice of filling for the swiss roll was whipped cream. The sponge itself was a fatless one . Yes,it did not have butter / oil in it so the use of the whipped cream wasn't very guilt inducing.I used my stand mixer both for whipping the eggs and cream. let me take a moment to formally give a shout out to my stand mixer for being  the most hard working appliance in my kitchen . It was quite a laborious task of whipping eggs and  cream and it rose to the challenge and gave my tired muscles a much needed break. Now that the applause has died down , let's move to the recipe -

Ingredients -
3 eggs
3 ounce sugar
2 ounce all purpose flour
1 ounce cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method -
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C.

Measure all the dry ingredients with a weighing scale . (We are using 3 oz in this recipe).

Take a baking tray and sprinkle it with flour ,Put parchment paper on it and grease with cooking spray . Grease well so that the sponge can easily come off the parchment paper.
Meanwhile, start whipping the room temperature eggs in the stand mixer . You may use the stand hand mixer too .
While the eggs are being whipped , add the sugar in small portions to fully blend it in.

Add the vanilla extract and whip till they become double in volume and stiff peaks are formed. They will turn pale in color and the mixture will not be runny.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour,cocoa powder and baking powder ) and add to the egg mixture in parts making sure to fold it gently with the help of spatula. Make sure not to deflate the eggs by over mixing. Do not use the mixer while folding in the dry ingredients.

Transfer the batter to the baking tray and spread it evenly. Give it a gentle tap and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile , take another sheet of parchment paper and sprinke it with cocoa powder.
Take the cake out of the oven and transfer it to the above mentioned parchment sheet.
While hot , start rolling  and covering it with the same parchment sheet.

Do not worry if it cracks up a bit ( as pictured) . Roll it up firmly in the parchment paper .Thye cracks will get closer. 
Keep it for 5 -10 minutes till it has sufficiently cooled down. 
Meanwhile , you can whip the cream. Should take close to 5-6 minutes in the stand mixer.

Unroll the cake and spread the whipped cream evenly on it. 
Roll it again gently making sure  it gets wrapped in the parchment paper again.
Keep it in the refrigerator for a few hours .
Unwrap and cut into slices. Devour them immediately or save some for later.