Daring Bakers Challenge December 2010: Stollen Wreath

December is always a great month for the Daring Bakers challenges. I look forward to seeing what new seasonal treat we are presented with and past years have never failed to disappoint. This year was no exception – Stollen – a much loved German fruit bread, that is traditionally log shaped and filled with a centre core of marzipan. For this challenge we were also required to bake the Stollen in the shape of a wreath for a festive take on this classic.

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. As it’s the festive period we have been given a range of days we are allowed to post on – so I’m not breaking any rules by posting early this month!

Stollen is not something I consider a ‘must have’ at Christmas time, although it does often make an appearance in our household over the Christmas period. The thing I love most about Stollen is the sweet sticky centre of marzipan that runs though the middle. This particular recipe didn’t call for any marzipan, but I soon rectified this by adding a snake-like length of it to the centre of my wreath, as to me, the marzipan centre is what makes Stollen great.

This recipe involved quite a bit more work than I first anticipated. It requires a fruited and yeasted dough to be made a day ahead, before it is rolled out, rolled into a scroll, made into a wreath, slashed and baked. Although not complicated, all the little stages were quite time consuming but it was a fun way to spend a few hours.

This recipe makes a lot of dough and you end up with a huge thick wreath. Rolling the dough out flat was one of the biggest challenges, I don’t think I have ever attempted to roll out so much dough before, it really got the arm muscles working!

I made my Stollen gluten free by using a mixed gluten free flour blend from M&S. I used slightly less flour than the recipe stated as I am learning from experience that gluten free flours tend to absorb more moisture during baking than wheat flour and so I was careful not to add too much. I also replaced the candied peel with dried apricots as I couldn’t find a brand which didn’t list wheat as an ingredient. The resulting dough was very sticky but extremely attractive to look at, speckled with the purples, reds and oranges of the dried fruits. It also smelt delicious with the mingling of citrus zests, rum and spices.

I rolled the dough out in-between two layers of clingfilm which helped prevent it from sticking to the work surface and made rolling it into a log shape easier. Once assembled and baked I couldn’t wait to sample it. My first slice was still warm from the oven and it was light, soft and tender. The fruits were sweet and chewy and the marzipan soft and gooey. Delicious.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid to say that I had some later on in the evening and found that the Stollen had become quite dense and heavy. I gave it a quick burst in the microwave, which did help revive it. However, the following day it was also inedible. It had become very dry and dense, so much so that it was hard to slice and not enjoyable to eat. Stollen is a naturally dense and dried bread than most baked goods, but this was almost like a house brick. I’m afraid to say that I threw most of it in the bin. This upsets me as I hate to waste food and hardly ever throw anything away, especially when it contained so many tasty ingredients but it really did turn out to be a bit of a failure.

Looking back on it now I think I would do a few things differently. I would use even less gluten free flour, as I’m sure they helped suck the moisture out over time. I would also see if less baking time helped and I would also add some xanthan gum to try and give the bread a better rise and open texture. As I used gluten free flour there was no gluten to help support the gas bubbles created by the yeast – which I suspect led to the bread being heavy and dense. Oh well, gluten free baking is still a learning curve to me. It looked impressive, I had fun making it and I did enjoy that first slice.

Stollen Wreath

Ingredients

60ml lukewarm water (43ºC)
2 packages (14g) active dry yeast
240ml milk
140g unsalted butter
760g plain flour (I used 700g of a gluten free plain flour mix containing rice, potato, maize, tapioca & buckwheat flours)
115g caster sugar
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract or orange extract
135g mixed peel (I used 100g dried apricots instead)
170g firmly packed raisins
3 tbsp rum (or orange juice if you prefer)
12 red glacé cherries, roughly chopped
100g flaked almonds

Melted butter for coating the wreath
Icing sugar for dusting the wreath

The Day Before

Soak the raisins in a small bowl with the rum or orange juice and set aside.
Pour the warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast, stir to dissolve and leave to stand until bubbling for 5-10 minutes.

In a small saucepan combine the milk and butter over a gentle heat until butter is melted. Leave to stand for 5 minutes until lukewarm.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add the lemon or orange and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests. Stir in the yeast mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk-butter mixture. Mix with the help of a spatula for about 2 minutes until it forms a soft, slightly sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Add in the mixed peel (I used chopped apricots), soaked raisins, cherries and almonds. Mix with your hands to incorporate, be gentle or the cherries will get very squished.

Sprinkle (gluten free) flour a work surface, turn out the dough and gently knead to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny. Knead for approximately 5 minutes (Gluten free dough will take less time as there is no gluten to develop). You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough as the dough will become tacky rather than sticky.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and place in the fridge overnight.
The dough becomes very firm in the fridge and rises slowly. The raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

On Day of Baking

Remove the dough from the fridge and leave it to come back to room temperature, about 2 hours. Line a large square baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.
Generously dust a work surface with (gluten free) flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches and ¼ inch (5mm) thick. (My dough was still very sticky so I rolled it out between two sheets of clingfilm to make it easier).

(I also rolled out a long rope of marzipan at this point which I placed along the bottom edge and rolled the dough around, to encase it in the centre of the dough).

Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.

Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle.

Use kitchen scissors to make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting half way through the dough.

Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with clingfilm.

Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until puffy and risen. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

Bake the Stollen

Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for a further 20-30 minutes. It should bake to a dark golden colour and sound slightly hollow when tapped.

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a thick layer of icing sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter. Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first as you want it coated generously with the icing sugar.
Leave to cool for at least an hour before transferring to a plate and serving. It will take 3-4 hours to cool down completely.

When completely cool, wrap the stollen and plate in clingfilm. Or, leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly – for a dry outer crust German style.

Makes one (very) large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves

Daring Bakers October 2010 Challenge: Buttermilk Doughnuts - Gluten Free!!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I was more than a little daunted when I saw this months challenge. It was not the prospect of making doughnuts that made me nervous, we had done these before. It was the prospect of making them gluten free that I was worried about.

We were provided with an assortment of different doughnut recipes to chose from for this challenge, including a vegan gluten free recipe, however, as it was vegan this recipe didn’t include any milk or eggs in the recipe and I wanted to use these for my own doughnuts and so I decided to combine two different recipes together. I used the basic quantities from the vegan gluten free version and the ingredients and method from the non gf version. This worked well although my recipe was still a little hit and miss with the quantity of flour. Gluten free flours generally result in thicker batters as they absorb more liquid than wheat flours. My dough started off a little wet so I ended up just adding more flour until I got the right consistency but this seemed to work fine.

The dough was still quite sticky but we had been warned that this was expected so I didn’t worry. I also used a mix of yeast and baking agents in the dough as I wanted my doughnuts to be as light and puffy as possible. It produced a very smooth and puffy dough that was easy to work with.

I decided to make a few different varieties of doughnut – ring doughnuts, doughnut holes (the middle cut outs of the ring doughnuts) and chocolate stuffed round doughnuts. I filled the rounds of doughnut dough with chocolate chips before frying them, which meant a glorious molten chocolate centre when they were eaten hot from the pan – just watch out as they’ll be hot!

The doughnuts seemed to brown and cook incredibly quickly, more so than standard doughnuts I have done in the past. I’m not sure why this was but they were still cooked all the way through so it didn’t really matter. The ring doughnuts were coated in a maple sugar glaze, the doughnut holes were tossed in cinnamon sugar and the chocolate stuffed doughnuts were dusted with regular caster sugar.

When eaten warm the doughnuts were light, puffy and full of air holes. They had a crisp golden outer crust and a soft springy middle – success! I think the chocolate stuffed ones were my favourite, there is something so indulgent about biting into a hot gooey chocolate centre.

A word to the wise though, gluten free doughnuts do not keep well. They are fine for a couple of hours but after this time they start to turn a bit hard and dense. So if you want gluten free doughnuts – make and fry them to order!

Either way I was really pleased with my doughnuts and ate far too many of them – I had to take photos of them all you see. Thanks Lori for such a great challenge. Click to see the Daring Bakers blogroll for more doughnut delights.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Yeasted Cake Doughnuts

(My adapted combination of Nancy Silverton’s cake doughnuts and Whole Living Daily’s vegan gluten free doughnut recipe)

Ingredients
60 ml warm water
150g maize flour

100g rice flour

50g tapioca flour

50g buckwheat flour

¾ tsp xanthan gum
100g caster sugar
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1&1/8 tsp dried fast action yeast
200ml buttermilk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Sunflower oil for frying

Extras

Decorations of your choice – I used cinnamon sugar, caster sugar and maple icing glaze

Fillings of your choice – I used chocolate chips

Method

Scatter two large baking trays with extra flour and set aside for later.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flours, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, xanthan gum and baking powder. Make a large well in the center, add the yeast and pour over the warm water and leave for 3 minutes before mixing briefly.

Add the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix together well using a round bladed butter knife. Switch to your fingers once the mixture starts to come together – it will be very sticky, but shouldn’t be wet.

Flour a work surface well with flour and turn out your dough. Scatter over a little more flour and gently roll or press the dough out until it is around 2cm thick.

Have the cutter of your choice to hand and cut out large round discs of doughnut dough. Use a smaller cut to cut away the centre if you want to make ring doughnuts. Keep any centre cut outs as these make great mini doughnut holes. Place the cut out doughnuts on the pre-prepared floured baking trays.

Gather up any scraps of dough and roll out again until all the dough is used up.

Leave the trays of doughnuts to prove for an hour in a warm place. They should puff up slightly but will not double in size.

Heat 1½ inches deep of oil in a fairly large saucepan until a small scrap of dough dropped into it turns golden brown within 20seconds (around 190C).

Carefully drop the doughnuts, 1 – 2 large ones at a time, into the hot oil. Once they start to look golden brown around the edges, flip them over and cook for a further 20 seconds. Remove from the oil with a slotted fish slice and drain briefly on kitchen paper before tossing in sugar or drizzling with a glaze.

Best served and eaten whilst still warm.

To make Filled Doughnuts

Method 1: Fill a piping bag with smooth seedless jam, custard or filling of your choice. Once the doughnuts are cooked, insert the tip of the piping bag in the side of the doughnut and squeeze out a generous amount of filling.

Method 2: (For more solid fillings) Place a teaspoon full of chocolate chips into the centre of the raw round of doughnut dough. Gather up the sides and squish together in the centre, encasing the chocolate in the dough. Turn the dough over and pat into a round flat disc. Fry as normal and leave to cool slightly before taking a bite. The chocolate middle should be all gooey and melted!

I made 12 assorted large ring & round doughnuts and 12 doughnut holes

Daring Bakers August 2010 Challenge: Ice Cream Petit Fours

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

This month we were required to make a brown butter pound cake and some ice cream of our choice and turn it into either baked alaska or petit fours. I had never had frozen ice cream cake petit fours before and so this was my dessert of choice.

As we experimented with ice cream in last months Daring Bakers challenge I wanted to do something different this month. I remembered a recipe for instant banana ice cream that I read about a few months back and decided now would be the perfect time to test it out, especially as I had yet more overripe bananas in the fruit bowl! The method is surprisingly simple yet yields delicious results. You freeze chunks of banana and then blitz them (still frozen) in a food processor with a little yoghurt and syrup and within seconds – ta da – instant smooth and creamy frozen banana cream that has the taste and texture of ice cream! You can eat it straight out the bowl or freeze it for later. It’s ingenious and fantastically bananary, not to mention healthy. I really recommend you give it a go.

I was also pleased to try out the brown butter cake recipe we were given, as I’d never made one of these myself. It turned out very well and produced a very light, springy and golden coloured cake with a nutty overtone. I also added a mix of cinnamon, ginger and freshly grated nutmeg to mine which I thought would complement the nuttiness as well as the banana ice cream.

Everything was going well until it came to the glaze. Rather than use the recipe provided I decided to make a glaze I have done in the past for profiteroles. I’m not sure what happened but one minute I had smooth glossy sauce and then next it was too thick and gloopy. I used it anyway, but it refused to coat the petit fours properly so instead I just spooned some over the top and let it drizzle over the sides a bit. They still ended up looking pretty, but not the elegant sophisticated petit fours I was hoping for. As a result I’m not giving you the glaze recipe I made, but I have written the glaze recipe provided below for anyone who wants to make these. Note to self: sometimes things are best left un-meddled.

I loved the taste and texture of these little bites. The spiced nutty cake and banana ice cream were a great match and the glossy dark chocolate glaze left you with a rich cocoa taste that tasted delicious as it mingled with the melting banana cream.

Thanks Elissa for choosing such a great challenge. Click to see a list of my fellow Daring Bakers and what they did with their cake and ice cream.

Spiced Brown Butter Pound Cake & Instant Banana Ice Cream Petit Fours

Spiced Brown Butter Pound Cake
275g unsalted butter
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
110g light brown sugar
75g caster sugar
4 large eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
(I also added 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp ginger and ¼ tsp nutmeg)

Method
Preheat the oven to 165C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9inch/23cm square pan.
Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty – but you don’t want black and burnt. Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-20 minutes.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt (and spices if using).
Beat the cooled brown butter, light brown sugar, and caster sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Instant Banana Ice Cream

3 bananas
150g yoghurt
1 tbsp honey, glucose or golden syrup

Method
Ahead of time, peel the bananas and cut them into rough chunks. Place in a plastic bag and freeze them until solid.
Place the chunks of frozen banana in a food processor and blitz to break the bananas into smaller pieces. Add the yoghurt and honey/syrup and blitz again until smooth and creamy. (Adding the syrup helps prevent ice crystals from forming during freezing).
Eat straight away or spread the mixture into a clingfilm lined pan the same size as your cake, if making petit fours and freeze until firm.

Assembly of Ice Cream Petit Fours

Line a 9inch/23cm pan with clingfilm, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides.
Take the brown butter pound cake and level the top with a serrated knife if needed. Then cut the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers. Place one of these layers into the base of the lined pan.
Remove the ice cream from the freezer, lift it out of the pan with the help of the cling film and place it on top of the base layer of cake. Top with the second layer of cake, wrap well in clingfilm and return to the freezer overnight.
Make the chocolate glaze (your own recipe or see below)
While the glaze cools, remove the ice cream cake from the freezer and use a sharp knife to cut it into 4cm squares. You can trim the edges first if needed.
Place the ice cream cake squares on tray lined with a sheet of greaseproof to help clean up later.
Glaze the petit fours one at a time by dipping/coating them in the chocolate glaze. Use a spoon or fork to help you. Place a petit four on the tines of a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.
Place the petit fours on the greaseproof lined tray and freezer for an hour. Allow to st at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe Provided
250ml whole milk
A pinch of salt
165g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 2tsp vanilla extract
500ml double cream
5 large egg yolks
1-3 tsp vanilla extract (see method)
Method
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)
2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2 litre bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour a quarter of the warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.
4. Strain the custard into the cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 tsp if you are using a vanilla bean or 3 tsp if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.
5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. Click to see instructions from David Lebovitz.

Chocolate Glaze Recipe Provided
250g dark chocolate, finely chopped
250ml double cream
1½ tbsp light corn syrup/golden syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Stir the cream and syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

Daring Bakers July 2010: Chocolate, Raspberry & Hazelnut Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Just reading about this challenge bought a smile to my face. Here was a dessert that I had been meaning to attempt for ages but had been putting off in favour of some easier desserts. As it was this month’s challenge, I knew it was time to take the whisk by the handle and get baking.

When reading the recipe I felt a little uneasy as it consisted of so many components. We had to make a Swiss roll filled with cream and frozen, two different flavours of ice cream, layered inside the Swiss roll slices and around a hidden fudge centre – yikes!

I was most nervous about the ice cream components as I don’t have an ice cream maker and have tried making ice cream by the home freezing, stirring, freezing process before with limited success. However, I soon discovered that this recipe didn’t require the egg based ice cream variety, but relied on freezing flavoured cream to produce the ice cream which is much better behaved for home freezers.

We were provided with recipes for chocolate Swiss roll, chocolate and vanilla ice creams and a chocolate fudge centre, all of which had to be made from scratch. However, we were allowed to choose our own flavour combinations which was great as I love coming up with different flavour combinations.

I decided to stick with the chocolate Swiss roll as the outside layer, as I loved the colour contrast between the chocolate sponge and the white cream filling. My first ice cream flavour choice was raspberry as I have recently found a bottle of pure raspberry syrup which is so intensely raspberry that I knew it would go wonderfully with the chocolate.

To complement both the chocolate and raspberry flavours I decided to make my second ice cream hazelnut. I achieved this by added chopped roasted hazelnuts to a vanilla ice cream base. I also stirred in some Frangelico (an amazing hazelnut liqueur). The resulting ice cream was divine! Silky smooth and creamy, unsurprisingly due to the cream but with the slight crunch from the nibs of toasted hazelnut and the liqueur flooded your senses with hazelnut flavour – just gorgeous. The main thing to take note of is that by adding the alcohol, the ice cream will not set completely solid, which is great for eating but rather tricky when trying to layer it into a dessert!

Finally I stuck with the chocolate fudge centre as both my ice creams where quite pale in colour and I wanted the hidden centre to really stand out and add a wow factor when the finished cake was cut into. The fudgy sauce itself was delicious, so thick and glossy, I bet it would be great drizzled warm over profiteroles.

Making all the components and assembling the cake took time, especially the hourly mixings of the ice creams while they were freezing, but none of it was too tricky and I was able to complete the dish from start to finish in one day. I had plenty of time to get on with my other jobs in-between and the results were definitely worth the effort.

The dessert looked yummy when I unmolded it. The swirls of Swiss roll making it look quite elegant with little streaks of the pink raspberry ice cream peeking out between the gaps. I cut into it using a knife, unsure what to expect but the results were far better than I had hoped!

WOW! I loved how it turned out. The Swiss roll outer layer gave the edge a two toned stripy effect that reminded me of a zebra. Just inside this was the pale pink raspberry ice cream with the paler nutty hazelnut ice cream at the base. The centre of chocolate fudge came out perfectly formed – I’ve no idea how that happened as it sort of sunk into the ice cream when I added it. Magic! I loved how it really stood out against the ice cream layers and yet tied in with the chocolate sponge edge. It really added a wow factor.

How did it taste? Only one word needed – Divine! Silky smooth and creamy, fruity and nutty with the occasionally crunch texture from the chopped hazelnuts. The Swiss roll had stayed surprisingly soft and the fudge centre was rich and sticky.

Yes it is completely cream and calorie laden but for a dessert this good I don’t care! Just what you need on a hot summer day and it’s sure to impress any guests you might have over for a BBQ. Thanks Sunita for choosing such a fabulous dessert. Click to see the Daring Bakers blogroll.

Chocolate, Raspberry & Hazelnut Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake
(Inspired by the recipe of the same name from the Taste of Home website)

Chocolate Swiss Roll
3 eggs
110g caster sugar
25g plain flour
20g natural unsweetened cocoa powder
15ml boiling water
A little oil for brushing the pans
For the filling-
250ml whipping cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
30g icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C. Brush a Swiss roll tin (11x9 inches) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper.
In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick, about 10 minutes. When the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface.
Mix the flour and cocoa powder together and sift it over the whisked egg mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula, making sure to reach down to the base and around the sides. Finally fold in the hot water.
Spread the mixture into the baking pans and spread it out evenly.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch. It will still be quite soft and squishy due to the nature of the cake.
Spread a tea towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it. Flip the cake out of the pan and onto the tea towel. Carefully peel off the greaseproof paper and leave the cake to cool.
Starting from one of the longer sides, start to make a roll with the towel rolled inside. Leave until cool.

To make the Filling
In a large bowl, add the cream, vanilla and icing sugar. Beat until quite thick.
Unroll the cake from the tea towel and spread it evenly with the cream, leaving a ½ inch border around the edge to allow for spreading when re-rolled.
Roll the cake up again, using the towel to help you but don’t roll the towel into the sponge. Transfer the roll to a sheet of clingfilm and wrap it up well. Transfer the roll to a plate or tray and place in the fridge to chill until firm.

Raspberry Ice Cream

300ml whipping cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
55g caster sugar
3 tbsp raspberry syrup/coulis

Method
In a mixing bowl, add the cream, vanilla and sugar mixture and whisk lightly till everything is blended together. Add the raspberry syrup or coulis and mix in well.
Pour into a freezer friendly container (I used a small tupperware box) and freeze till firm around the edges, about an hour. Remove from the freezer, mix well so it all becomes incorporated and smooth. Return to the freezer for a further hour before repeating the process. It may need a third hour depending on your freezer and container used. (You could use an ice cream maker if you are lucky enough to have one).

Hazelnut Ice Cream

250ml whipping cream
30g caster sugar
1½ tbsp Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)
25g roasted hazelnuts

Method
Chop the roasted hazelnuts until quite fine. Place the cream, sugar and Frangelico into a large bowl and beat until slightly thick. Add the chopped hazelnuts and fold in to mix.
Pour the mixture into another freezable container or ice cream maker. Freeze for an hour, stir it together again and freeze for another hour. Repeat until the mixture is very thick and nearly solid. (The added alcohol will prevent it from freezing completely solid)

Chocolate Fudge Sauce Centre

50g caster sugar
10g natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp cornflour
170ml water
7g butter
½ tsp vanilla extract

Method
In a small saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and cornflour until no lumps are visible. Slowly whisk in the water until combined and to prevent lumps from forming.
Place the pan over the heat and stir constantly until it begins to thicken, about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat, beat in the butter and vanilla and set aside to cool.

Assembly

Line a pudding basin or deep bowl with a large sheet of clingfilm.
Cut the Swiss roll into 10-12 equal slices, approximately 2cms each. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the bowl, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the sides of the bowl, right to the top. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and freeze until the slices are firm, about 30 minutes.
Take your nearly frozen raspberry ice cream out of the freezer and spread it over the base and up the sides of the Swiss roll lined bowl.
Cover the bowl with clingfilm and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
Once set, add the cooled fudge sauce over the raspberry ice cream, in the base only, not up the sides. Return to the freezer for another hour.
Soften the hazelnut ice cream (if needed) and spread it over the fudge sauce, filling the bowl completely to the top in line with the top of the Swiss roll slices. Cover with clingfilm and freeze for at least 4-5 hours until completely firm and well set.

To Serve
Remove the bowl from the freezer and place a serving plate on top. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl with the help of the clingfilm. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water and try again.
Leave the cake for 10 minutes to soften slightly and then cut slices using a sharp knife, warmed by dipping it in hot water first.
Eat and enjoy. Serves 6-8