Hook Family Chocolate Roll

This is THE famous chocolate roll recipe, graciously provided to me by the Hook family.  Cake!  Chocolate!  Whipped cream!  Sounds like perfection to me.  It’s like a giant Little Debbie, and that’s a wonderful thing.

Cake:
6 tablespoons cake flour (sifted before measuring)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks, beaten until thick
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 squares unsweetened chocolate

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Melt chocolate and set aside.  Sift flour, measure, and sift again with baking powder and salt.  Beat egg whites until stiff, and gradually add sugar.  Fold in egg yolks.  Add vanilla and fold in flour gradually.  Fold in melted chocolate until mixed.

Grease and line a half sheet pan (18″ by 13″) or jelly roll pan (15″ x 10″) with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Pour cake batter into pan, leaving 1/2 inch space from batter to edge of pan.  Bake 7 minutes at 325 degrees or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

While the cake is cooking, dust a clean cloth with powdered sugar. (* NOTE: The more sugar you spread over the cloth the easier it will be to get the cake off it later).

Turn warm cake out onto prepared cloth; remove lining. Trim the cake edges with a scissors if you wish. Starting with the long side, tightly roll up cake with cloth. Transfer cake, seam side down, to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, make the whipped cream filling.

Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks.

Final assembly FINALLY!
Unroll cooled cake; remove cloth. Spread whipped topping over cake to within 1/2 in. of edges. Re-roll cake; place seam-side down on a plate. Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting, either homemade or store bought.