Those who follow my blog regularly will know that I’m recreating a recipe from The Great British Bake Off every week and making them vegan-friendly! I’m ashamed to say I missed last week because a) I wasn’t keen on any of the recipes featured on the show and b) I ran out of time… BUT I hope I can make up for last week’s lack of recipe with this incredible Black Forest Arctic Roll. The last episode was right up my alley. Refined sugar-free cakes, gluten-free bread and Arctic rolls using dairy free ice cream. Being the author of a dairy-free ice cream book, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to use my coconut milk ice cream in a new and delicious way!
So the ice cream part I had pretty much down. I used the basic vanilla ice cream recipe from my book and rolled it into a log. Making a vegan chocolate sponge that was “roll-able” was the real challenge. It took me three attempts to get a recipe I was happy with and although there were still a few cracks, it was nothing a bit of melted chocolate couldn’t fix! This Arctic roll turned out better than I could have hoped for. If you love black forest gateau… you need to try this dessert. Cherries aren’t currently in season so I used shop-bought cherry jam but would have loved some fresh cherries to decorate the roll with!
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Vegan Black Forest Arctic Roll
Creamy, delicious vegan ice cream with a sweet, tart cherry jam, enclosed in a wheat free, moist, chocolatey sponge. What more could you want in a dessert?
Ingredients
For the vanilla ice cream
- 720 ml / 3 cups coconut milk, full fat
- 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 120 ml / 1/2 cup agave nectar or maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- optional 1 tbsp alcohol such as vodka (to keep it freezing too hard)
For the chocolate sponge cake
- 2 cups spelt flour, or plain wheat flour
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 160 ml / 2/3 cup agave nectar or maple syrup
- 120 ml / 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 240 ml / 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar
For the filling and decorations
- Cherry jam, shop bought or homemade
- 100 g dark dairy-free cooking chocolate
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
To make the ice cream:
- Mix 60ml / 1/4 cup of the coconut milk with the arrowroot powder in a small bowl and set aside.
- Pour the rest of the coconut milk and the sweetener into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, stir in the arrowroot mixture to thicken the liquid. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and alcohol, if using.
- Chill the mixture in the fridge until cold and then churn.
- Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 2 hours or until set but still slightly soft.
- Turn the ice cream out onto a sheet of parchment paper (about the size of a baking tin) and mold into a log shape. Use the parchment paper to roll the ice cream into a cracker shape, about 25cm long, and secure the edges.
- Put the log into the freezer to set whilst you make the sponge.
To make the chocolate sponge:
- Preheat the oven to 180c / 350f and line a Swiss roll tin or baking sheet with edges with some parchment paper.
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into the Swiss roll tin and spread evenly. Bake for 20 minutes until spongy.
- Leave to cool completely.
To assemble:
- Spread a generous layer of the cherry jam onto the sponge, leaving a 1 inch border around the edges.
- Next, carefully unwrap the ice cream and place lengthways onto the sponge. Gently but firmly, using the parchment paper, roll the sponge around the ice cream cylinder until the sponge meets the other side. Wrap in an extra layer of parchment paper and foil. Leave to set in the freezer for at least one hour.
To decorate:
- Melt 3/4 of the dark chocolate with the coconut oil. Leave to cool slightly before removing the Arctic roll from the freezer and drizzling the chocolate on top. It should set very quickly.
- Grate the remainder of the chocolate and sprinkle on top.
- Serve immediately! To keep the rest, wrap back up in parchment paper and foil to keep in the freezer.
Notes
Hopefully your sponge should be perfect but if you notice a few cracks on the outside of the sponge, just cover up with some melted chocolate or cocoa powder! Or even cover with some coconut cream.
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IF YOU TRY THIS OR ANY OF MY OTHER RECIPES, LET ME KNOW BY TAGGING IT WITH #WALLFLOWERGIRL ON SOCIAL MEDIA! I LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS :-)
AIMEE
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Nice cake flavour and texture but unfortunately like the other commenter pointed out it doesn’t roll well at all. Crumbled into many pieces. I used a baking paper sprinkled with sugar – didn’t help. I used olive oil instead of coconut oil works well
Hi! This cake tasted great but looked terrible. Can you please provide more details as to how to roll the cake without it breaking apart? Thank you.
How did you roll yours? Mine failed terribly at rolling too
can coconut oil be changed by vegetable oil?
Looks gorgeous! How large cake this makes? What were the measures of your baking sheet?
My non-vegan parents would be all over this dessert! We always had ice cream rolls when I was growing up, but I could never have any because of my dairy intolerance. This is a perfect alternative :D
THIS–everything about this recipe, Aimee!!! I love it so so so much–definitely glad I’m checking your blog more often now that I have a little bit of down time. Thanks for sharing this! It’s going straight into my recipe book (and from there, into my mouth!) :)
I loved the episode too, I was all about the gluten free which I really want to do, the sugar free cakes seemed awesome but the ice cream rolls looked AMAZING! I am not a huge fan of cherries usually but this really looks amazing xxx
That looks amazing! I’m sure it was worth all that testing to get the roll cake. Vegan roll cakes can be a hit or miss, but this one looks awesome. Love the ice cream filling too!
I nearly gave up to be honest… I was convinced I couldn’t make a sponge that would “roll” but luckily after giving it one last shot, it worked out great! So yes, the outcome did make it all worth while :-)
Aimee.. This cake sounds and looks incredible. I love that you are creating vegan versions of all those gorgeous recipes. I pinned this recipe and will try it soon.
Cheers from the sunny Caribbean!
Thank you Aysegul :-) Love from chilly and grey UK x