Swiss roll

It was quite long time ago, when I first tried to do the Swiss roll, it was unbelievable difficult…especially when I rolled the cake, cracks everywhere and the cream inside the roll was melted, leaked everywhere…it was like a big mess! I gave up…till recently, I decided to give it a try when I created a new recipe for this roll cake.

001 — Swill roll filled with mascarpone and pineapple cream.

In France when making a cake we do different cake for base and one of my favorites is Joconde cake for Opéra. Based on exactly same recipe for Opéra, I make an almond cake, soft, moisture and flavorful…

Step 1 Preparation for Biscuit Joconde (almond sponge cake)

Eggs 200 gr.
Almond powder 100 gr.
Sugar 60 gr.
Pastry flour 40 gr.
White yolk 120 gr.
Sugar for white yolk 40 gr.

Mix almond powder together with flour, beat well the egg with sugar, then gently mix dry ingredients with the well-beaten egg, beat the white yolk, gradually add sugar. Add 1/3 of white yolk to the egg and dry ingredient mixture, mix well then add the rest of the beaten white yolk. The mixture is very fluffy, evenly overlay on the baking sheet (30 cm x 40 cm) and bake it at 180ºC-200ºC within 12-15 minutes.

Step 2 Preparation for the mascarpone cream

Mascarpone 400 gr.
Homemade pineapple jam 100 gr.

Simply gently mix all together, you can adjust either the mascarpone or pineapple jam according to your taste, you can even change the pineapple jam into either strawberry jam or some other jam that can go well with mascarpone. I prefer to do jam at home, as I’m able to adjust the sweetness, and the pineapple is very cheap here. I love the combination of these two: mascarpone and pineapple, strawberry should be also very good!

Spread the mixture of mascarpone and pineapple jam evenly on the almond cake.

Step 3 How to roll the cake

There is different techniques how to roll the cake, I use the simple one by using the same baking sheet that I baked the cake on it. After evenly spreading the cream, I start to roll, the top (exterior) becomes the inside and the bottom ( the side that sticks to the baking sheet becomes the “exterior”) You may wonder how come as it sticks to the paper, don’t worry the cake is easily removable from the paper if you handle gently! Use the same baking paper to wrap the cake, you still can wrap one more time with film, more tightly to create the best roll form. And now time for the fridge. Leave it there for 1-2 hours, unwrap the film, the baking paper you have a perfect roll! Enjoy!