Strawberry vanilla swiss roll

Take 2

Recipe

• I used the same recipe as before for the sponge and the design batter.

• I made a simple strawberry jam for the filling, as before.

• I tried making a stabilized whipped cream using vanilla pudding mix instead of gelatin this time.

How it turned out

I think we have a winner!

• Design on the outside. Check!

• Fluffy and stable whipped cream. Check!

• Roll with no cracking. Check!

What I learned

Don't spread the filling all the way to the end of the sponge. Rather than have a nice clean and enclosed roll, it spilled out a bit where the sponge ends. Having a bit less filling would allow the sponge to close neatly on itself.

Vanilla instant pudding is the way to go for stabilized whipped cream. I found it far less finicky than gelatin, and it gives an extra punch of flavour and sweetness.

I'm ready to try new flavours and designs! This is a fairly easy cake to whip up (pun very much intended). The design felt intimidating at first, but it's really quite simple. I'm looking forward to trying new flavours now that I feel more comfortable making swiss rolls!

---

Take 1

Recipe

• Vanilla swiss roll recipe - Damn, Spicy!

• A simple strawberry jam for the filling

• Stabilized whipped cream

How it turned out

For a first kick at the can, I think it turned out pretty well. It was light and fluffy. I thought it would have been a lot trickier, but aside from a few minor hiccups, it was a quick recipe with a big payoff!

What I learned

Inside and outside matters. I thought making the design and having it come out correctly on the baked sponge would be one of the hardest parts of this recipe. It actually turned out to be quite simple to bake a beautiful design onto the sponge. However, when I pre-rolled the sponge, I wasn't thinking things all the way through and accidentally rolled the design-side inward. Whoops! At least it looked decorative on the inside :)

Temperature matters when it comes to gelatin. I followed the instructions for dissolving the gelatin. It required warm water. Things took a turn for the worse when I tried to incorporate that into the cold whipped cream. Instead of an even distribution of gelatin, the cold temperature formed tiny little rubber balls that you'd find as you made your way through the whipped filling. I'll have to read up a bit more on gelatin and temperature.

Temperature matters when it comes to pre-rolling the sponge. I pre-rolled the cake on a towel right out of the oven, just as instructed. The warmth was needed to hold it's shape and avoid cracking.