apricot swiss roll

Swiss rolls are a little bit of a stunt, and as with any stunt, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got your ducks in a row if you’re going to attempt it. So much can go wrong, but if you know what you’re doing and have a good recipe, you’ll step out of the kitchen totally unscathed with a crowd full of dinner guests raising their eyebrows incredulously and cheering you on. And unlike tightrope walking or rodeo clowning, in the worst case swiss roll scenario, you’re still left with a pile of cake and frosting, which is not the worst way to end dinner.

When it comes to making a perfect swiss roll (AKA, jelly roll or roulade), it’s all about the sponge cake. I’ve made this particular recipe three times in the last few weeks to tinker with the flavors, but I’ve made the sponge cake component at least fifteen times in the last month, because it took some time to get just right.

I started with Mary Berry’s swiss roll sponge, which yields a reliably light, fluffy, and delicious cake. Her ratio is 100 grams each self-rising flour and caster sugar, and four large eggs. Berry, like many recipe-writers, asks you to beat the whole eggs and sugar together (as opposed to making meringue from the whites and then folding them into the batter). I too prefer this method—it’s super streamlined, since there’s no need to separate eggs or have two different bowls, and it results in a wonderfully fluffy cake.

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preventing the cake from crimping

While I very quickly settled on this all-in-one sponge cake method, I experimented a bit with adding more sugar, but I found that too much sugar led to crusty edges, which made the inside layer of the cake crimp and wrinkle when rolled up. I also experimented a lot with oven temperatures, and discovered that, while baking at the traditional 425°F results in a slightly fluffier cake, baking at a much lower temperature of 350°F goes a long way in preventing this crusty edge problem, and doesn’t affect the rise as much as you’d think.

In the end, a moderate bake temperature and a higher ratio of egg to other stuff went a long way in making the sponge cake flexible and soft. Oh, and I realized that it doesn’t really matter whether you use caster sugar or granulated sugar (as long as you’re going by weight), because they both dissolve fairly quickly into the eggs.

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preventing the cake from splitting

The cook time is really tricky, because it’s going to depend a bit on your oven, the color and density of your pan, and lots of other variables. The cake will split open upon rolling from either underbaking or overbaking, but luckily there are about 3 minutes when the cake is perfect, which gives you a decent amount of wiggle room. You just need to know how to test for doneness (which is specified in the recipe below). Whatever you do, don’t test it for doneness with a knife or toothpick, like you would for any other cake. I made that mistake once early on, and ended up with a huge split down the middle when I went to roll it—it was very much like the experience of accidentally unraveling a knit sweater from a tiny tear.

Rolling the cake up in a towel before it cools is another important step in making sure it doesn’t crack later on when you fill it and roll it. Think of this kind of like those spongey overnight hair rollers, except your hair is the sponge cake, and the spongey foam is the towel. Just make sure that you don’t squeeze the air out of the cake as you roll it. The goal here is snugness without compression.

But enough about sponge cake, and onto more exciting things, like frosting! Swiss rolls that are frosted both in- and outside are extra-beautiful, and they’re certainly the preferred cake of people who show up for the icing. Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi have a gorgeous recipe for a roulade with pistachio sponge cake, raspberry filling, and white chocolate frosting, and it works wonderfully as a bold celebration cake. And of course I like frosting—I mean, I’m not a monster! But I’m always very content with the amount that gets rolled into the cake, and so, unless I’m baking for someone’s birthday or graduation, I usually prefer naked or semi-naked swiss rolls.

But, frosting and whipped ganaches aside, I do like to pour on a light glaze, just to give the cake a more finished look, and to give the topping something to stick to. In this recipe, I’ve gone with white chocolate, but instead of a white chocolate frosting, I’ve opted for a barely-there white chocolate glaze, which (in this case) is basically a ganache that’s thinned out with a couple extra tablespoons of cream. The side of the cake that you peel the parchment from is much more porous than the brown caramelized side, and so I like to roll it up porous-side-out. This not only gives you a much more dramatic apricot swirl on the inside, but it also allows the outside to more readily soak up all the white chocolate glaze, which leaves you with a gorgeous visibly spongey texture. Once the outside of the cake is coated, it’s the perfect time to sprinkle on some ground pistachios for extra crunch and color.

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