Chocolate mini rolls #GBBO

Hi, my name is Yvonne and I am the co-founder of myBaker, an online marketplace connecting home bakers and independent bakers to customers across London.

As a huge fan of Bake Off, I thought I’d try making Prue’s Chocolate Mini Rolls - last week’s technical challenge. I am not a baker myself (I leave that up to our talented bakers on our platform) but have always loved baking and just wanted to see if I could produce anything like the ones on Bake Off.

Firstly, I wanted to point out that the recipe on the Great British Bake Off website didn't use any flour for the sponge; it completely relies on the egg whites to obtain that spongy texture. Part of the top layer of my sponge came off when I tipped it onto parchment paper. I would just advise to fold the egg whites gently and not to knock too much air out when mixing the ingredients together.

I will admit that I used vanilla essence in the buttercream instead of peppermint as I am not a huge fan of peppermint buttercream. I mean, who is? I also decided to use 80g of caster sugar instead of 150g. This might sound like I’m being stingy with the sugar, but the roll is coated with chocolate and the buttercream has plenty of icing sugar. I’m not on a diet, I just thought the rolls would be sweet enough! I think it’s also important to mention that I decided to pour the chocolate over the mini rolls. This did work but I found it difficult to cover the sides of the roll. In hindsight, I should have just dipped the entire roll in chocolate to give it more of an even finish.

Well, I think that’s enough talking. So, here they are, my mini rolls and my first ever attempt at a technical challenge, Not too bad, eh? I managed to roll my sponge into a noticeable ‘swirl’ and to pipe white chocolate, NOT milk chocolate over the top of my rolls. So, at least I escaped some of the mistakes made by a few of the Bake Off contestants.

However, I’m sure you have noticed, my rolls are not the same size and are a slightly taller than the ones that were shown on Bake Off and definitely looks a bit different to Prue's swiss rolls in the featured image. I didn't have a 30cm x 20cm tin, so I used three 22.5cm x22.5cm square tins. If you don’t have the right sized tins (as I’m sure most of you don’t), don’t worry, they still only took 16 minutes to bake and look just as good in the end.

Overall, I am proud to be able to say that I completed one of Bake Off’s challenges and am definitely looking forward to trying my hand at another. Who knows, maybe with some more practice you will see me as a contestant on Bake Off one day…

Well, I said maybe.