Belly Rumbles is having a giveaway, first one, how exciting!  Okay, it’s exciting for me and I hope for you as well, but we will get to the details a little later.

You may remember a little post a while back where I had afternoon tea with Suzanne Gibbs and Margaret Fulton.  Suzanne made a gorgeous roulade, light as air flourless cake filled with cream and seasonal berries.  From the moment I tasted Suzanne’s I knew I was going to make the roulade at home but I wanted to add my own twist.

As cherries are in season, I thought why not a chocolate cream and brandied cherry filling. 

Chocolate Cherry Roulade

• 3 eggs, separated
• ½c caster sugar
• 2T sifted cocoa
• 1t vanilla essence

• 250g Philadelphia Cream for Desserts (a double cream alternative)
• 150g dark chocolate
• 350g pitted cherries
• 1/3c caster sugar
• ¼c brandy
• 1t cornflour
• grated chocolate to decorate (optional)

1. Set oven temperature at 180?C (non fan forced).  Line a 30cm x 25cm swiss roll pan with baking paper.  Beat egg yolks with a whisk or electric beaters until thick and creamy.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Fold cocoa and vanilla in to the egg yolk mix.
2. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and gently fold in cocoa mixture.  Pour at once into a prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, until cake has drawn away from sides and springs back when gently touched in the middle.
3. Had a clean tea towel ready which has been liberally sprinkled with caster sugar.  Turn cake out onto towel, carefully peel away paper and while still warm roll up, including towel, and leave on a wire rack to cool.
4. While cake is cooling, in a medium pot place cherries, sugar and brandy.  Stir until sugar has dissolved and bring to a simmer.  Gently simmer for a couple of minutes.  Remove pot from heat and in a small bowl add a couple of tablespoons of the cherry liquid to the cornflour.  Mix until combined and then add cornflour mixture to the cherry mixture.  Return pot to heat.  Simmer gently until liquid thickens.  Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
5. Melt chocolate in a medium sized glass bowl in the microwave.  Allow to cool slightly.  Using electric beaters mix the Philadelphia Cream for Desserts into the melted chocolate.
6. When the cake is completely cold, very gently unroll and spread with the chocolate cream.  Then top with strained cherries.  You can use the excess cherry liquid as a sauce if you wish.  Roll up cake and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Just before serving top with grated chocolate, cut into slices and serve.

Notes:  I used a knife to assist peeling the paper off.  It will stick slightly so don’t panic.  I didn’t use the whole chocolate cream mixture or all the cherries.  You will need to judge it so you don’t overfill your roulade.  If you overfill it won’t roll up.

Sadly my roulade didn’t look as spectacular as Suzanne’s creation.  I can vouch for the taste, rich but ever so yummy and the tribe absolutely loved it.   Also 50% less fat than if I had used traditional cream!

The lovely people at Philadelphia have offered prize packs to five lucky Belly Rumbles readers.  The prize pack includes a copy of the newly released Simply Heaven vol 2 cookbook and two Woolworths or Coles gift cards, total value $42.

All you have to do to for a chance to receive one of these gift packs is leave a comment below and let me know what your favourite dish is using any of the wonderful Philadelphia products.

Entries close Tuesday 6th December. The lucky winners will be announced on Wednesday 7th December.

Sara xxx

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The Boathouse is one of my favourite restaurants in Sydney for various reasons.  The gorgeous location on top of a converted boathouse that juts in to Blackwattle Bay.  The fully glassed in space that gives you views, no matter where you look or are seated, Anzac Bridge, Sydney skyline or the Sydney Fish Markets.  Then there of course is the pride they take in the produce they source for their patrons.

Which brings us to their oysters.  An incredible variety and all freshly shucked.  The majority of the oysters are Sydney Rock varieties from both the North and South coasts of NSW, but there are also a couple of Angasi and Coffin Bay varieties on the menu too.  Regular Belly Rumbles readers will know of my love affair with oysters.The Boathouse was established by Tony Papas and Robert Smallbone in 1997.  Does the name Tony Papas ring a bell?  Well it should.  Tony was Executive Chef and partner of The Bayswater Brasserie (now closed).  The Boathouse was the second restaurant to be opened by the Brasserie Group.  By the way, Tony is also responsible for bringing us Brasserie Bread along with Michael Klausen.  Did I just ring that bell for you? Read more →

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Jackie M has been on my visit list for quite a while.  She has a nice little reputation of offering pretty damn good Malaysian hawker style food.  I have tried her food at various places like the Crave SIFF Malaysian BBQ Madness I recently attended, but I have never eaten at her establishment.

I actually feel a little bad about not paying Jackie a visit before now.  Why?  Well we “tweet” each other on Twitter.  It was a little tweetathon last Friday night that spurred me to make an impromptu reservation.  Jackie and I had not met in person before my visit last and I wanted to be sneaky and pop in without her expecting me.

Sadly no surprising was on the cards, she knew I and tribe were coming.  During busy service if you ring the phone will go to answering machine.  Don’t let that put you off, follow instructions to make a reservation and Jackie will get back to you and confirm. 

Why has it taken me so long to visit?  Pure logistics to be honest. We live a good solid hour away from Concord.  I have no aversion to traveling for good food, but it is so easy to be lazy and stay in your comfort travel areas. Read more →

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I love American candy, Butterfingers, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Reeses Pieces, Baby Ruth, Almond Joy, and list just keeps on going.  Luckily most are available in Australia, saves pleading with Miss Iowa to send me mercy packages.

I was originally going to make some Butterfinger biscuits, using my choc chip biscuit recipe and substituting the Butterfingers.  When I went on a little reconnaissance mission on the net, I found that Butterfinger Blondies recipes were popping up everywhere. Read more →

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Oh yes, the first Christmas entertaining recipe for the season.  I am being proactive this year and will be sharing a few Christmas recipes with you.  Unlike the last couple of years where I have been unorganised and lazy.

I love oysters and I especially adore Sydney Rock Oysters.  What better way to celebrate Christmas than with some oysters and a glass of your favourite bubbly?  Oysters are perfect for pre-Christmas cocktail parties, and no I haven’t got a gig with an oyster association, I just love them! Read more →

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Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

I have attempted cooking with tea before.  Grand ideas of tea smoked duck’s egg.  Let’s just say that was a bit of a disaster as stupid here forgot to line her wok with aluminium foil.  Oh yes, tea mixture went straight in and burnt itself solid to the base of my wok.  Poor wok was only fit for the bin after that. Read more →

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I really do think that everything Dan Hong touches turns to gold.  You could say he has the Midas touch when it comes to restaurants and food.  I really enjoy Lotus, not yet visited Ms G’s, but it is on my “to do soon” list.

I have been to El Loco now quite a few times.  I like it so much I even became a member.  Well, that was a bit of an accident actually.  I subscribed to their newsletter and when they opened doors I received an invitation to become one.  Nothing special anyone can, and it entitles you to a groovy key ring that you flash to purchase the member’s only Dang Hong special burger and half price margaritas on a Thursday. Read more →

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