Just as a wife takes after the surname of her spouse, a Swiss Roll takes its surname after its content. ‘Jelly Roll‘ sounds a little too far-fetched in the Asian context though, like a candy or some spare tires lying idle in somebody’s car boot.
I’ve never liked eating Swiss Rolls since young, mainly because a lot of bakeries slap a lot of cream onto the layers. But now that I’m making it myself, I could tear apart such sticky traditions and create my own very species.
Ingredients:
- Light cream: 120g
- Instant coffee (Nescafe): 1 packet + 2 tbsp water
- Eggs: 3
- Sugar: 75g
- Dr Oetker almond essence: 1 bottle
- Self-raising flour: 75g, sifted
- Baking powder: 1 tsp
- Roasted peanuts: 120g, slightly blended
- Icing sugar: for dusting
Method:
- Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
- Whisk cream and half the coffee mixture for 10min. Set aside
- Whisk eggs, sugar, almond essence and the remaining coffee mixture together for 10min till stiff and pale cream in colour. To introduce more air into the mixture, turn the bowl in 1 direction while whisking.
- Using ‘figure of 8’ method, fold flour and baking powder into egg mixture till no more pockets of flour appear.
- Lightly grease baking tray (33cm x 23cm) with oil before placing baking paper onto it. Grease the baking paper with oil as well.
- Bake for 7-10mins till golden brown.
- Remove cake by quickly inverting tray onto another baking paper (non-greased). Gently remove greased baking paper from cake without tearing the cake apart.
- Spread whisked cream mixture onto cake and sprinkle peanuts generously onto cream.
- Hold up the baking paper by its breadth and fold down the 1st 1cm of the cake onto itself.
- Roll the rest of the cake quickly in the same direction (away from yourself). At the end of the roll, tighten by holding the top of the roll and pulling the baking paper underneath it away from itself. (See Video)
- Dust icing sugar on top of cake (optional).
Tricks:
- Some would prefer to roll the cake with the other side facing up for a fluffier look. I personally prefer it this way so that there’s no need to invert the cake 2 times.
- The cream that I used here isn’t the type that’s creamy all over the place like those that are slapped onto birthday cakes. It’s light and seeps quite easily into the cake so that the roll absorbs the taste almost immediately. Don’t spread too much cream on the cake though; the cake will lose its fluff if it’s too dense.
Serving:
Makes 1 roll
