Chocolate and whipped cream checkerboard cake

When I was little, my favorite cake was a chocolate and whipped cream rolled cake. I wanted to use it as inspiration to make a checkerboard version, with only two preparations and not a lot of preparation time. So we have a cocoa sponge cake and a very simple whipped cream, which you can of course flavor according to your taste, and as a decoration some raspberries, which you can replace by the fruits of your choice according to the season. The result is a really easy to make cake, gourmet, which requires only few materials (a baking tray and an electric mixer), and which forms a nice design when cut !

Prep time : 45 minutes + 15 minutes cooking
For a cake 30cm long and 9cm wide | 10 to 12 servings

Cocoa génoise :

4 eggs

125g sugar

35g cocoa

50g flour

40g cornstarch 

Whisk the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is white, well swollen and forms a ribbon (this takes about 10 to 15 minutes).

Then add with a maryse the sifted cocoa, flour and cornstarch (it is important to sift the powders well so as not to get lumps).

Avoid over-mixing so as not to make the dough fall down.

Pour the dough on a 30x40cm baking tray covered with baking parchment, then immediately bake at 170°C for about ten minutes.

Watch the cooking to get a sponge cake that is puffy and soft but not overcooked ! If it is a little overcooked, you can always soak it with a plain or flavoured sugar syrup to make it soft again.

When it is cooked, turn the baking tray over on a sheet of baking paper to stop the cooking.

Whipped cream :

500g of 35% liquid cream

50g of powdered sugar (or more according to your taste)

Whip the liquid cream with the powdered sugar into a rather firm whipped cream.

Assembly :

Cocoa

Rapsberries or other fruits

Cut out the edges of the génoise rectangle.

Then cut out 4 identical rectangles about 30cm long and 9cm wide.

In two of the rectangles, make 4 identical strips a little more than 2cm wide.

I summarize, at this stage, you must have 2 rectangles of 30x9cm and 8 strips of 30x2cm.

On your serving dish, place the first large rectangle of sponge cake. Cover with a thin layer of whipped cream.

Place two strips of sponge cake on top, and fill the "holes" with whipped cream (this will be easier to do with a piping bag, but you can also do without!). Smooth with a small spatula.

Then put two more strips of sponge cake on top of the whipped cream, fill with whipped cream, and continue in the same way until the sponge cake strips are used up.

Then cover with a thin layer of whipped cream so that you can stick the second génoise rectangle on top. Finish by decorating with the rest of the whipped cream, using a spoon or piping bag as you wish, then sprinkle with cocoa powder and decorate with raspberries.

For a more gourmet version, you can add melted chocolate or flavor the whipped cream with chocolate, vanilla, tonka bean ...

There you go, you can enjoy !