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Swiss roll is based on a basic sponge cake recipe. A true Swiss roll doesn’t use baking powder, relying on well beaten eggs for its rising and lightness. The flour in this recipe can be replaced with 200 grams of ground almonds or walnuts, in which case don’t use the boiling water. It shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to bake. Your Swiss roll can be filled with jam, caramel or coffee-flavoured whipped cream.

Ingredients

To prepare one Swiss roll, you will need the following ingredients: 100 grams of cake flour, 1 ml of salt, 5 ml of fresh baking powder (always check the packaging for expiry dates before using baking powder), 5 eggs at room temperature, 180 grams of castor sugar, a couple of drops of vanilla extract (or 5 ml of vanilla essence), 30 ml of boiling water and whatever filling you require. You will also need some sugar for sprinkling onto a damp tea towel before rolling.

Method

Butter a 38 cm by 25 cm baking tin and line it with greased grease-proof paper. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Sift the cake flour together with the baking powder and the salt. Beat the eggs and sugar in a separate bowl for about 10 minutes until they are well blended. Slowly fold in the sifted flour mixture, followed by the vanilla and boiling water.

Pour the sponge cake mixture into your greased baking tin and bake for about 13 minutes to a quarter of an hour, depending on your oven. Test for readiness and sprinkle a damp tea towel with sugar. Turn the sponge cake onto the sugared tea towel and neatly trim the edges. Roll it up, using the tea towel to do so.

Cool the Swiss roll and then carefully unroll it to remove the tea towel and to fill it. Once you have placed a coating of apricot or strawberry jam, fresh strawberries and whipped cream or whatever other filling you desire, roll the sponge up again and serve as soon as possible.

Tags: baking, cake, cake recipes, desserts