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Strawberry Swiss Roll
This strawberry Swiss roll cake recipe features a super light vanilla sponge filled with macerated strawberries and whipped mascarpone cream.
A Swiss roll is a simple but beautiful cake to serve to guests, and this easy recipe will show you how to make it step-by-step! This is the perfect cake for summer. It has the prettiest colors, with the bright red of the berries, the yellow of the cake, crisp white cream, and fresh green mint.
Swiss roll ingredients
The ingredients in a traditional Swiss roll are very simple.
- The eggs are heavily whipped. This creates a leavening effect in the sponge so there is no need for baking powder.
- The flour used in a light sponge should be low in protein such as cake flour. Cake flour isn’t readily available everywhere or in every country, so I make my own by combining an all-purpose flour (one with a low protein content of around 10%), with cornstarch to help soften it.
- Sugar brings sweetness, and there is an extra addition of a little vanilla paste (or extract) and a pinch of salt. I also include a little bit of oil for moisture.
Equipment
- For the sponge, you will ideally use a bench mixer with a whisk attachment. Alternatively, you can use a handheld electric mixer.
- You’ll also need a clean kitchen towel to roll the sponge in and a 39x26x2cm (15x10x1 inch pan) Swiss roll baking pan (otherwise known as a jelly roll pan)
Rolling a Swiss roll
To ensure your Swiss roll holds its shape without cracking, it is first rolled up in a powdered sugar-dusted tea towel and left to cool at room temperature.
The tea towel will allow the steam to escape, and the roll can cool down. Once cooled, unroll it and spread on the fillings. Then roll it back up (without the towel this time!)If you keep enough air in the batter of your sponge, it should feel super light, soft, and pliable when rolling it up.
Step by step instructions
- Finely chop up 250g strawberries, add them to a bowl and sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Set these to the side.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F regular oven with a rack in the center. Grease the Swiss roll baking tray, then line with a sheet of parchment paper. Greasing the tray first helps the parchment stick and keeps the bottom surface flat.
- Separate 4 large eggs. Add the egg yolks to a small bowl and set them aside. Add the egg whites to a large bowl of a stand mixer. Turn on the mixer and whisk on high speed until the mixture is foamy.
- Slowly pour in half the sugar and keep whisking until the egg whites hold medium peaks. The egg whites should hold their shape very well and not sink back into themselves, but if you lift the beater from the mixture the peaks will flop to the side.
- Scoop the egg whites out of the mixing bowl into a clean bowl and set them aside.
- Using the same bowl you just whipped the egg whites in, add in the egg yolks, remaining sugar, vanilla, and salt. There is no need to clean the bowl first.
- Whip the egg yolks for around 4 minutes on high speed until more than doubled in volume, thick and pale. If you lift the beater out of it, it should drop thick flowing ribbons back into the bowl.
Combine the eggs
- Fold a third of the egg whites into the beaten yolk mixture using a rubber spatula. Take extra care that you don’t deflate the egg whites.
- Bring your spatula through the middle of the mixture, up the side, and fold it over top. You can rotate the bowl as you do this. Repeat two more times with the remaining egg whites.
The flour
- If you’re making your own cake flour, use a hand whisk to whisk together the all-purpose flour and cornstarch in a bowl. Balance a sieve over the bowl of eggs and sieve in about half the flour mixture.
- Gently fold this into the egg mixture, taking care once again to not deflate it too much. Repeat once more times with the remaining flour. The end batter should be airy and thick.
Baking
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and use the rubber spatula to scoop it from the bowl. Use an offset spatula, dough scraper, or knife to carefully spread the batter out into an even layer in the tray.
- It’s a very thick and light batter so it won’t fill out by itself the way that wet cake batters do. Spread it out to reach the sides of the pan.
- Bake the sponge for around 10 minutes until golden on the top. While the cake is baking, prepare the tea towel to roll it in.
Rolling
- Lay a clean tea towel on a workbench, horizontally so the long edge is closest to you. Liberally dust it with powdered sugar (icing sugar).
- Once the sponge has finished baking, carefully tip it upside down with the long edge closest to you, onto the tea towel. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
- Dust the cake with more powdered sugar, then starting from the short side, roll the cake and the tea towel up together into a spiral. Leave it to cool on a wire rack at room temperature.
The mascarpone and whipped cream filling
- While the cake is cooling, make the cream filling. Using a hand mixer, start on low speed to whisk it up until combined.
- Turn up the speed to medium slowly stream in the heavy cream and keep whisking as you do until it is thick and holds stiff peaks.
Assembling the cake
- On a clean bench, carefully unroll the cooled cake. Spread over two-thirds of the cream mixture and use an offset spatula to spread it out, leaving a 1/2 cm border on all the sides.
- Take the bowl of strawberries and use a spoon to scoop the strawberries on top of the cream, holding back the extra liquid the strawberries have released. Carefully re-roll the strawberry cake roll, without the tea towel, back into a spiral.
- Some of the thin crust of the outside of the cake may stick to the towel as you roll but don’t worry, this can be covered with powdered sugar and cream. Wrap the tea towel around the rolled cake and let the cake chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the fridge and cut off the ends of the roll(about 1cm of each end) to neaten them up.
- Pipe or spread on the remaining whipped cream. Top with extra strawberries and shredded mint and dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Storing
Once assembled the cake is best eaten on the day it is made.
Freezing – Unfilled genoise sponge can be stored, rolled in the tea towel in an airtight container for a day. It can also be wrapped up and frozen for up to 3 months.
The macerated strawberries can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge. The excess liquid that comes from the strawberries makes a yummy syrup you can add to drinks to flavor them!
Other filling ideas
A simple genoise sponge can be filled with all sorts of delicious fillings! Try –
- Lemon curd
- Jam
- Strawberry coulis
- Fresh fruits (peaches, fresh blueberries, kiwifruit…)
- Whipped chocolate ganache
- Whipped cream and other berries
Strawberry Swiss Roll with Mascarpone Cream
Yield:
8-10 slices
Prep Time:
20 minutes
Cook Time:
10 minutes
Cooling Time:
40 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour 10 minutes
This strawberry Swiss roll features a super light vanilla sponge, filled with macerated strawberries and whipped mascarpone cream.
Ingredients
Sponge
- 4 large eggs
- 100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
- 28g (2 tablespoons) neutral vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
- pinch of salt
- 80g all-purpose flour
- 10g cornstarch*
Filling & topping
- 300g (2 cups) fresh strawberries
- 25g (2 Tbsp) granulated sugar
- 150g (5oz) mascarpone cheese
- 3-4 Tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
- 300g (1 1/4 cup) heavy cream
- Fresh mint leaves
Instructions
- Hull and finely chop 250g of the strawberries and add them to a bowl. Sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and stir together. Set the bowl aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F, with a rack in the center. Grease the Swiss roll baking tray, then line it with parchment paper. Greasing the tray first helps the parchment stick and keeps the bottom surface flat.
- Separate four large eggs. Add the egg yolks to a small bowl and set them aside. Add the egg whites to a clean bowl of a stand mixer. Turn on the mixer and whisk on high until the mixture is foamy.
- Slowly pour 50g (¼ cup) of the sugar and keep whisking until the egg whites hold medium-stiff peaks. The egg whites should hold their shape very well and not sink back into themselves, but if you lift the beater from the mixture, the peaks will flop to the side.
- Scoop the egg whites from the mixing bowl into a clean bowl and set them aside.
- Using the same bowl you just whipped the egg whites in, add the egg yolks, remaining sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt. There is no need to clean the bowl first.
- Whip the egg yolks for around 4 minutes on high until more than doubled in volume, thick and pale. If you lift the beater out, it should drop thick flowing ribbons back into the bowl. Fold a third of the egg whites into the beaten yolk mixture using a rubber spatula. Take extra care that you don't deflate the egg whites. Bring your spatula through the middle of the mixture, up the side, and fold it over top. You can rotate the bowl as you do this.
- Repeat two more times with the remaining egg whites.
- If you're making your own cake flour, use a hand whisk to whisk together the all-purpose flour and cornstarch in a separate bowl.
- Balance a sieve over the bowl of eggs and sieve in about half of the flour. Gently fold this into the mixture, taking care not to deflate it too much. Repeat once more with the remaining flour.
- The end batter should be airy and thick. Pour the batter into the prepared tray and use the rubber spatula to scoop it from the bowl.
- Use an offset spatula, dough scraper, or knife to spread the batter carefully into an even layer. It's a very thick and light batter, so it won't fill out the way wet cake batters do. Bake the sponge for around 10 minutes until golden on the top. While the cake is baking, prepare the tea towel to roll it in.
- Lay a clean kitchen towel on a workbench horizontally so the long edge is closest to you. Liberally dust it with powdered sugar.
- Once the sponge has finished baking, carefully tip it upside down onto the towel with the long edge closest to you. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
- Dust the cake with more powdered sugar, then, roll the cake and towel up together from the short side into a spiral. Leave to cool on a wire rack at room temperature.
The cream filling
- While the cake is cooling, make the cream filling.
- Add the mascarpone, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a bowl. Using a hand mixer, whisk it up until combined. Slowly stream in the heavy cream and keep whisking as you do until it is thick.
- This can happen quickly, so do not overmix it.
Assembling the cake
- On a clean bench, carefully unroll the cooled cake.
- Spread over two-thirds of the cream mixture and use an offset spatula to spread it out, leaving a 1 cm (1/2 inch) border on all sides.
- Take the bowl of strawberries and use a spoon to scoop the strawberries on top of the cream, holding back the extra liquid the strawberries have released.
- Carefully re-roll the cake, without the tea towel, back into a spiral. Some of the thin crust outside the cake may stick to the towel as you roll it, but don't worry; it can be covered with powdered sugar and cream.
- Wrap the tea towel around the rolled cake and let the cake chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the fridge and cut off about 1cm (1/2 inch) of each end to neaten them up—pipe or spread on the remaining whipped cream. Slice the remaining 50g strawberries. Top the cake with the extra strawberries and shredded mint, and dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
* If you have cake flour available, the 80g all-purpose flour and 10g cornstarch can be substituted for 90g cake flour.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 399Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 161mgSodium: 145mgCarbohydrates: 39gFiber: 1gSugar: 28gProtein: 6g
Looking forward to making this for my mum’s birthday tomorrow. You make it look easy so keeping fingers crossed!
The recipe was pretty easy & fast, which is great. Never made a sponge cake before. The cake was lovely & light. But it literally stuck to everything!!! Getting it off the tea towel was a show, haha. I’m not sure if I did something wrong or it’s just expected to lose some of it. Delicious though
Hey! I always loose like a very thin outer layer, but as long as I peel it carefully then no more than that. Perhaps a larger dusting of icing sugar next time may help a bit!
We traditionally spread strawberry jam before the cream layer. 🙂