Whether you call it a Roulade, Jelly Roll, or Swiss Roll, this cake is a quaint yet beautiful dessert. That being said it proved quite the learning experience.
You ready for a story? Let me explain.
You ready for a story? Let me explain.
Personally (this is Mary speaking by the way) I had wanted to bake a Swiss Roll for years because to me it seemed like one of those true tests of a good baker and I was up for the challenge {plus it looks really pretty when it’s finished}. So, Emma and I decided to make one of these cakes and with our recipe in hand we were ready. The directions seemed easy enough but we were a bit unsure of the consistency of the batter by the time it was meant to be poured into the pan; we were also taking a bit of a chance because the pan we decided to use was a few inches longer than what’s typically used for a swiss roll sponge cake. That being said we whacked it in the oven and hoped for a successful, albeit slightly thinner cake.
Well. Thin is certainly what we got
It turned out more like a hefty crepe rather than a sponge cake, but we kept on with assembly, confident that the raspberry jam and freshly-whipped cream would smooth things over. However after we rolled it all up and cut into it it was so obvious that the batter didn’t rise and to be honest I have no idea how we didn’t see it before; so we looked over the recipe again and compared it to others. We determined that it was a bad recipe because it seemed to rely solely on the use of eggs and didn’t call for any rising agent, unlike all the others we later looked at.
To be honest I was kinda ticked off at this cake because we were so close to having it right: we layered everything properly and it actually rolled up like it was supposed to, but it was still such a disaster. By this point it was 2:30 or so in the afternoon and Emma had to take off, so as soon as she left I pulled by ingredients back out and with a different recipe in hand, was bound and determined to get this cake to work.
To be honest I was kinda ticked off at this cake because we were so close to having it right: we layered everything properly and it actually rolled up like it was supposed to, but it was still such a disaster. By this point it was 2:30 or so in the afternoon and Emma had to take off, so as soon as she left I pulled by ingredients back out and with a different recipe in hand, was bound and determined to get this cake to work.
While the batter was quite a bit more labor intensive than the other one I could quickly tell that it seemed much more promising, as it had me whip up the egg yolks and egg whites separately into thick, fluffy consistencies. What I poured into the pan this time around was an airy, almost meringue-like batter that baked into a fluffy, golden yellow cake.
*jazz hands*
I then followed the protocol of rolling the still-warm cake up into a spiral with a tea towel so as to attain the desired shape without the cake cracking (which would have happened if this was done once it had cooled, and had been left out of the first recipe).
I went off to the gym thinking of my cooling cake while I was on the elliptical, anxious to get it assembled and ready to serve once I got back. Assembly was just as easy as the first time luckily, but this time around I was willing to share it with everyone!
It was sweet and fluffy and everything I had dreamt it would be. Moral of the story: if at first your cake doesn’t rise, try and try again.