Raspberry Jelly (Swiss) Roll Cake


I have had a fascination for anything sweet, and especially cakes right from when I was a kid! And I had this extra-special affection for swiss rolls, those colorful, spiral cakes that tasted like heaven, and even with the minimal frosting and decoration, they always attracted the attention of dessert-lovers, including me!! I harbor this fascination even today, and the first thing I notice in a pastry shop has to be a swiss roll cake (my hubby can vouch for it:)) Swiss roll is a type of sponge cake baked in a very shallow rectangular baking tray, and then filled, rolled up, and served in circular slices. So did these beauties originate from Swiss?? Not really; although the origins of this cake are unclear, wikipedia says that these are certainly not widely eaten in Switzerland, where they are known as "Biscuitrolle" or "Roulade" . Every country has it's own version, and it is popular in US as the Jelly Roll. It finds a place at many christmas dinner tables shaped like a Yule Log, but for me, it will always be my favorite kind of cake. Here's a simple Raspberry Swiss Roll recipe, but you can use a lot of variations for the filling.

This cake is not too much about the recipe as it is about the technique. Some people think it is really hard to make, but on the contrary, I'd like to say that though it looks tough, and does need a little more work than just popping your cake into the oven, it's simpler and more fun, especially as you can allow your kids to do the filling; and as it's almost always covered with frosting or sugar dusting, the flaws are easy to hide:) If you are still nervous, these two videos at Epicurious and About could prove helpful. I followed the recipe and technique on About, as it was more simple, and easier to roll out too. The only change I did was that I refrigerated the rolled cake (before the filling) for an hour. This gave it a firmer texture so it was easier to spread the filling and cut into pieces while serving.

Recipe Ingredients
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tspn vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose
1 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
Powdered Confectioner's sugar - for dusting
2/3 cup spreadable raspberry jelly/jam (or any other filling of your choice)

Method
Heat oven to 375 deg F. Line a baking pan, preferably (15 × 10 × 1) inches, with cooking parchment paper or aluminum foil. Spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Beat eggs in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed for about 5 minutes or until very thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar. Beat in water and vanilla on low speed. Finally add the flour, baking powder and salt, beating just until batter is smooth. Pour into the prepared pan, spreading out well to form a thin even layer.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes (NOT MORE) until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Spread a clean kitchen towel on the platform and sprinkle some powdered sugar on it. Now loosen the edges of the cake, then turn the whole pan upside down upon the towel. Carefully remove the paper from the top. Trim off the hard edges of the cake, and while its hot, carefully roll cake lengthwise from one end to the other. Keep the roll as tight as possible, but apply very little pressure so as not to crack the cake a lot. A few cracks are normal, so don't worry. it is going to be covered with frosting later! Now refrigerate the rolled cake for 40 mins to an hour. (This was the only change I made from the About recipe video)

Remove the cake from fridge and unroll it gently and remove the towel. Beat the raspberry jelly/jam slightly to soften; it's better to use a spreadable jelly. Now spread it evenly over the cake. Do NOT use a lot of jelly as it would ooze out of the cake once you finish rolling it up again.

Now again roll up the cake, which should be fairly easier this time. If you are not ready to serve, place it in the fridge again, so it becomes a bit harder and easier to slice. When ready to serve, place it on a serving dish, with the seams facing down. Sprinkle generously with confectioners sugar, making sure you cover all the flaked ends or cracks and edges that you incurred while rolling it up. You can even cover the whole cake with chocolate icing or any other frosting. Gently slice at a 30deg angle to form beautiful raspberry swiss rolls.

These are my favorites, and I hope you enjoy these delicious dessert cakes too!


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53 comments :

Anonymous said...

Looks great mansi! everyone has a childhood memory attached to cakes:)

-Anita

Anonymous said...

I love the raspberry one coated with chocolate!! yummyy...thanks for the recipe:)

Shayona

Manju said...

there goes the love for sweeets again!!! :)

Mansi said...

Anita - would like to know your childhood memory:)

Shayona - yeah, the chocolate ones are great; I just didn't have the patience:)

Superchef - I know!!! tried so hard to cook non-sweets, but couldn't last longer than a week:D

Anonymous said...

that looks delicious! strawberry jam would taste great too, right?

-Cheryl

Katie Zeller said...

My mothr always made lemon rolls - they were my favorite dessert! But what I really loved was eating the 'edges' she trimmed...
Very pretty!

Peter M said...

Mansi, that looks wonderful and so easy!

I'll add this to my bookmarks.

Anonymous said...

Hello...can I use chocolate instead of jelly?? any particular chocolate brand u recommend?

Sneha

Meeta K. Wolff said...

I love swiss rolls. The Yule log I made for the Dec Daring Baker challenge reminded me me that the technique is quite tricky. I love the way you added raspberry jam to this!

Mansi said...

Cheryl - yup, strawberry would be my 3rd choice after raspberry and chocolate:)

Katie - I too love the hard edges, and as there are very few who care about those, I get to gobble it up all:)

Peter - lemme know how it goes!

Sneha - you can definitely use chocolate, but has to be a bit thick and spreadable, like Nutella would be great:) too liquid and it will drip out, so make sure its thick, no particular brand needed:)

Meeta - your Yule log was so pretty! in fact that's what inspired me to try this, other than my eternal love for cakes:D

Pravs said...

love this cake !!! i am so tempted to take a bite of this :)

Siri said...

OMG, the Swiss Roll cake looks so yummo Mansi.. The pic looks gorgoeus..

Note: I added ur Game Night Event to my events list. Here is the link:

www.events-n-roundups.blogspot.com

take care n cya..

~ Siri

Suganya said...

No butter? Am so making this.

Anonymous said...

oh boy!! I used to eat a lot of these in college...we had a bakery by our college and they had the best pistachio-chocolate swiss rolls..aah!!

thanks for sharing the recipe...maybe I need to relive those moments:)

-SK

Anonymous said...

What a beautifully executed jelly roll!

Anonymous said...

some things never fail to impress!! i love swiss cakes, and often curb my cravings with those Little Debbie ones from walmart:)

your cake looks lovely Mansi!

-Angela

Kribha said...

Wow...You are an awesome baker. I love the way the swrills have turned out. Simply superb.

test it comm said...

Nice looking swiss roll! The red swirls look hypnotizing and the white frosting looks like snow.

yammylicious said...

fabulous rasberry jelly roll.. my mouth so watering rite now!! =) nice!! lovely cake!

Pooja V said...

Looks great and guess what? I too love 'em.

Rachel said...

ahhh the rolls look so delectable...I agree with you on refrigerating it before the filling...learnt this from my DB yule log challenge!

Namratha said...

I've said this before and can't stop myself from saying it again...u make everything look sooooo good that I have to try it!! will get to it for sure..someday! :)

sandhya said...

Mansi,
The swiss-rolls looks gorgeous!!!

Anonymous said...

I love the swirls on this cake and I've got a craving for it right now.

remya said...

ohhh!!!! mansi ur an excellent baker...swiss rolls looks awesome..simply perfect...i love these rolls from childhood...actually i was planning to make this for such a long time...but bit tensed about rolling process...now ur tempting me alot...this time i'm gonna try this very soon...thankz alot dear

Mansi said...

Thanks for the compliments guys:) actually I was a bit daunted about this thing too, but I had tried once earlier, and failed:), so I had learnt a few tricks this time:D

Dhivya said...

Hi

Nice photos..i like ur blog.I am a new blogger.plz do encourage me
http://dhivyaskitchen.blogspot.com/

Cynthia said...

I looooove swiss rolls! It is one of those things I plan to write a column on. Look at yours, absolute perfection! I envy you :)

Anonymous said...

that's one pretty-looking cake!

Mansi said...

Dhivya - welcome to the food-blogging world! I'm sure you'll find a lot of friends here:)

Cynthia - I envy all your fab creations, so this one's on me!!:)

Bee - thanks for the compliment gal:)

kellypea said...

This is totally gorgeous! Raspberry is such a perfect choice for this. Mmm...

DK said...

Thats a perfect roll! Am yet to master the rolling part without it breaking on me! will come up with one soon :)

Chef Jeena said...

Mansi this is so TASTY! I love swiss rolls too. All the jam is making me get a sweet tooth. :-)

Susan from Food Blogga said...

I have never made a swirled cake before, but this one could change my mind. Oh, so pretty and so sweet!

Mary said...

Your cake looks so pretty!

Anonymous said...

Niiice!!
It looks perfects. I'm impressed!
One of my childhood favorite. :-)

Rosie said...

A great bake mansil!! Love the combo and I bet it tasted gorgeous and SO in keeping with my sweet tooth ;)

Rosie x

Rajitha said...

looks great mansi..something u would get in a bakery!!

Reeta Skeeter said...

I ain't patient enough to make that lovely thing... :D I'd rather buy it and eat :D
Nice post!
Happy Blogging!

Kajal@aapplemint said...

I've tried making swiss roll on one occassion earlier and it didn't look half as neat as yours. Like your tip on chilling the sponge a bit before rolling it.
BTW i've added you on my blogroll :)

Mansi said...

Thanks folks...appreciate your encouraging comments:)

Mind you this came so good on the third rial:) That freezing trick really helps:)

Kate - thanks so much for the add! from someone like you it's an honor:)

Red Chillies said...

Mansi, you are killing me girl! What a beautiful looking cake.

Nirmala said...

Wow! This looks amazing. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.

Rina said...

Those rasberry swirls look gr8.. Love the flavlour of Rasberries.

Anonymous said...

This recipe looks great and you make it sound not too hard. I'm thinking maybe guava or passion fruit roll. :)

culinaryprincess said...

ur swiss roll looks so perfect!good job!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mansi! Finally got to visit your blog! Looks amazing, will take some time to explore it, is heavily packed :-)

I love jelly roll, so easy to prepare and delicious to eat!

/Zara

amna said...

i made this and blogged it :)

Anonymous said...

hi Mansi, tried your recipe, but failed. The cake stuck to the greaseproof paper and the cake feels wet. Don't know why. Can advise? Thks!

Mansi said...

Hi there! I really need more specific information on how you made the cake and where it failed...can't help you without that...

please use the Contact form and email me a few more details..Did you follow the recipe exactly? how about the "refrigeration part"? was the rolling part difficult, or the cake itself was wet right after you baked it? send me more details and I'll be glad to help you out:)

Never Mind!! said...

I tried this recipe too and had some problems. I think my cake was too think so rolling wasnt as easy. I rolled it like in two spirals and so it did not look as pretty. Also, how did you make the top part (the bottom of the cake in the oven) not crust or brown?

Mansi said...

Hi NeverMind - you can never prevent the browning of the cake bottom. And that's why I dusted the final roll with confectioners sugar, to hide the brown part:)

As for tips on how to perfect the roll, it is indeed a difficult thing, took me 3 trials too, but here's a video that might help

http://video.about.com/baking/Jelly-Roll.htm

Its important to use a wide and flat pan for baking the individual cakes, the thinner and softer they are, the easier it is to roll them, and the freezing step is also imp to produce clean rolls.

Never Mind!! said...

It came out much better this time. I still do not have as many "swirls" as you do. Also, I had a little trouble opening the cake after refrigerating it to apply the jelly. I wonder what happens if I apply jelly the first time when the cake is still warm.