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Chocolate Roll
Whip 5 egg yolks till thick and lemon-colored, stir in 1/2 cup powdered sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons cocoa and pinch of salt. Fold in 5 stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour half-inch deep into shallow cake pan, lined with well-greased paper, bake in moderate (375 degrees) oven about 20 minutes. Turn immediately onto waxed paper sprinkled with powdered sugar, remove paper from under side of cake. Spread quickly with marshmallow whip or chocolate frosting, roll like jelly roll and let stand little while. Cut into half-inch thick slices, top off with whipped cream or ice cream.
A flourless chocolate sponge sheet, rolled while still warm. The whole thing depends on getting it out of the pan and rolled before it cools and sets brittle.
- Roll it hotThe cake has no flour, so its structure is egg alone and it turns brittle as it cools. Turn out, peel the liner, fill and roll within a minute or two of leaving the oven, or it will crack along the curve.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe calls 375F moderate; by current usage that is a touch above moderate, but take the number as written rather than the word. A conventional oven at 375F is right for a thin sheet.
- Watch the timeThe recipe says about 20 minutes for a half-inch sheet, but thin sponges can be done sooner, so start checking early: the top should spring back and look dry and matte. Overbaked, it will not roll.
- Pan and liningA quarter-sheet pan, roughly 9 by 13 inches, is about the right size; the recipe fixes the depth at half an inch, so use a smaller or larger shallow pan as the batter requires. Parchment replaces the greased paper and needs only a light film of butter.
- Powdered sugarConfectioners' sugar, the fine cornstarch-blended kind, both in the batter and dusted on the waxed paper for turning out. Granulated dissolves less readily in a yolk foam and would give a grainier batter.
- CocoaThree tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa; a natural cocoa gives sharper flavour, Dutch-process a darker colour and milder taste. Sift it with the sugar to break up lumps, since there is no flour to carry them.
- Marshmallow whipThat is marshmallow creme, still sold in jars. Loosen it by beating in a spoonful of hot water so it spreads without tearing the hot sponge.
- FoldingBeat the whites to firm but not dry peaks and fold in thirds. The batter is entirely leavened by air, so deflating it here gives a thin, leathery sheet.
- YieldThe recipe's half-inch slices come off a log as long as the side you roll from, so expect noticeably more than a dozen thin slices; serving numbers will depend on how the roll is cut.
Rolled sponges filled with jam or cream were part of European and American cake-shop and household baking by the later nineteenth century. Marshmallow creme was sold ready-made in jars from the early twentieth century, which is consistent with a version of this date and spares the cook cooking a frosting before filling.