Swiss Rolls

Here is the first entry in my kitchenside adventures! ... And already a day late, so we're off to a great start, aren't we?

Sunday the 27th was Advent Sunday, and the first candle was lit, it was time for a family "fika" (a concept so utterly Swedish, it has its own Wikipedia-entry, to explain it to you crazy foreginers) - and not content with eating only store-bought ginger biscuits with my glögg, I decided to go ahead and bake Swiss Rolls.

Because why take the easy way out? It's not like there's a million things that could go wrong.

Right?





According to the recipe I found, the ingredients of Swiss Rolls - or rulltårta (roll-cake) as it is known in my neck of the woods - are as follows:

3 eggs
2 dl sugar
2 dl wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 dl of cream or milk (I used cream).

And then a filling of your choice - I went with two different kinds, because I'm fancy like that.

The most important thing about Swiss Rolls (do I have to keep capitalising that? Nah, let's skip it from now on) is timing. Everything needs to be done fast, so prep-work is key. The first step is to turn your oven on, since you won't have time to wait for it to get warm. Set it to 250 C a little while before you start mixing your ingredients and let it warm up.

Now, for the fillings!

You can fill your swiss roll with pretty much anything, but I went with these two; apple-sauce-and-cinnamon-whipped-cream and chocolate-cream.

For the first filling, I simply whipped the cream until fluffy, then stirred in spoonfuls of apple sauce and a pinch of cinnamon to taste. And my word, did it ever turn out tasty! I'll have to think of something else to put it in, or else I'll be reduced to eating it by the spoonful right out of the bowl.

The chocolate cream turned into an unmitigated disaster, since I decided to follow a recipe I found on the web - instead of turning into a smooth and creamy chocolate-sauce thing, it turned into distressingly brown whipped cream with uneven lumps of chocolate in it. Since my recipe didn't exactly work out, I'll skip it.

With the fillings done, it's time to move on to the cake-y part of the swiss roll.


Line a 30x40 cm pan with parchment paper and make sure it goes all the way up the sides. This bit is important - according to the recipe I found, it's apparently possible to make this with only a greased tin, but I wouldn't risk it; your cake might get stuck in the pan, and then whoah, disaster.


Next, the batter. Start by mixing eggs and sugar until they start to get light and airy. Then, sift in the flour and baking powder (I mixed them beforehand, to make sure the baking powder was evenly distributed) and finally add the cream - and mix it only until the batter is even and without lumps. The aim is to not whip it for too long; if you do, it rises strangely in the oven.


Pour the batter into your papered pan and get it in the oven ASAP - set it in the middle of the oven, and bake for five minutes.

Yes, five minutes. That's it. Leave it any longer than that, and the vengeful demons of cake-baking will reward you with a burnt, cracking cake.

While it's baking get another parchment paper ready.

As soon as it's done, take it out of the oven and sprinkle a generous handful of sugar on top of it. Then, take the second parchment paper and put it on top of the cake - and then flip it over. (I used a second baking tray as a lid, to make it easier and steadier to flip).


If you've done it right, it'll look something like this. Now, immediately remove the parchment paper - if it refuses to part with the cake, brush cold water over the back of the paper.


Once you've removed the paper, spread your filling in an even layer over the cake - and do it as fast as possible; it doesn't really matter if the filling melts a bit. Work as fast as you can, to keep the cake hot.


Using your trusty parchment paper as an aid, carefully roll the cake up and then let it rest, seam-side down. Keep it steady, but work fast; the cake tends to crack and split if you let it cool down before you roll it. Extra filling will squeeze our as you go along, but aside from being a bit messy, that not actually a disaster.


Then, swiss-roll demons conquered and feeling accomplished and proud of yourself, cut a good slice of your glorious creation, and settle in for a proper Advent-fika.





This is not my first Sunday bake - it is the most recent. However, it felt appropriate to start with it. Up until Christmas, I will probably be updating with the recipe for the relevant Sunday - after that, I'll pick and mix with my backlog of stuff.