This Chocolate Roll Cake with Pecan Buttercream will make your dreams come true.
Course Dessert
Prep Time 50 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour50 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 16slices
Calories 207kcal
Ingredients
Chocolate cake
1/4cupbuttermelted
1/4cupunsweetened cocoa powder
1teaspoonespresso powder
1/3cupall-purpose flour
1/4teaspoontable salt
4large eggsat room temperature
1/2cupsugar
1teaspoonvanilla extract
Pecan Buttercream
1/2cupmilk
3yolks
1/3cupsugar
1/2cupground pecans
1teaspoonvanilla
5tablespoonssoft butter
Chocolate Ganache
4ouncesgood quality bittersweet chocolate
4ouncesheavy cream
Instructions
Chocolate cake
Grease a jelly roll pan (10x15 inches) with butter. Line it with a parchment paper and grease the paper lightly with some more butter.
Pre-heat the oven to 425F.
Sift cocoa powder, flour, salt and espresso powder and set aside.
Mix eggs and sugar together in a heat-proof bowl, place it over a small pot of simmering water, making sure the water isn’t touching the bottom of your bowl. Whisk eggs and sugar continuously for a few minutes. When a thermometer reads 120F temperature, remove the bowl from the heat. In case you don’t have a thermometer, go get one! No, just kidding. It just makes life easier. But you can touch the mixture and when it feels a little bit hotter than lukewarm, it’s time to remove from the heat.
Transfer to the bowl of a mixer and beat eggs and sugar mixture on medium speed for 4 minutes until you reach the ribbon stage. Add melted butter to the eggs and sugar and fold with a spatula. Add flour mixture and fold again. Don’t overmix. Stir just until everything is combined.
Spread batter on prepared pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 5 minutes.
Lay a clean kitchen towel you have no attachments with on a flat surface, sprinkle it generously with cocoa powder. Flip the hot cake onto the towel and roll the towel and the cake into a log. Set cake aside and let it cool completely in the log shape.
Unroll the cooled cake and spread the filling all over it’s surface and roll it back into a log. Trim edges so they are even.
Place cake on a baking sheet fitted with a cooling wire. Place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15. This way the cake will be cold when you pour the ganache over and it will help the ganache set nicely.
Pour ganache all over chilled cake and let it set. Transfer carefully to a platter and decorate the top with whipped cream and pecan nuts.
Pecan Buttercream
Heat the milk in a small saucepan just until you see the first bubbles forming. Don’t let it boil.
While the milk heats, whisk yolks and sugar vigorously in a bowl until lightened in color and thicker in volume.
Add ground pecans to yolks and sugar mixture and stir to combine.
Once you’ve heated the milk, temper yolk mixture. To do this, simply pour a little bit of the hot milk into the yolk mixture while whisking without stopping. Once that first little bit is incorporated, start adding the hot milk slowly while whisking. After all the milk has been added to the yolk mixture, transfer everything to the same saucepan where you heated the milk.
Bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Don’t stop stirring or the mixture will burn. Cook it for 2-4 minutes until mixture is thickened.
Remove from the heat. Let it cool 5 minutes and add vanilla extract in. Cover with a plastic wrap tight directly on the surface of the custard, so this way it won’t form a crust as it cools down.
Refrigerate until completely cooled down, about 2 hours.
Once mixture has cooled down, remove from the fridge.
Beat 5 tablespoons of butter with a mixer on medium speed until creamy and fluffy for about 2 minutes. Add pecan custard and keep beating until everything is incorporated.
Chocolate Ganache
Chop chocolate and place it in a bowl.
Heat heavy cream until just before it comes to a boil. Pour hot cream over chocolate and let it stand for a minute. Stir continuously until chocolate is completely melted. In case you see bits of chocolate that haven’t melted, stick the bowl in the microwave at 10 second intervals, stirring in between until you see no more pieces of chocolate.