This simple patterned Swiss roll is a simple vanilla fat-free sponge filled with strawberry jam with a simple dot effect pattern, that you can customise as you like for a simple birthday cake or just as an everyday cake.
Bake Off inspiration
Like many others I was thrilled that Great British Bake-Off came back to our screens this week! With the return of GBBO I am going to try to attempt one recipe from each episode each week, work and children and so on permitting of course. I did want to bake and blog along last year too but had only just started blogging and it seemed too much for me at the time. Not so this year, and I have just made my first Swiss roll inspired by this week’s instalment – a patterned Swiss roll!
I went for a colourful dotty theme, and simply used raspberry jam for the filling. This was delicious with a cup of tea and my children loved the multicoloured dots, which reminded them of Mr. Tumble.
How to make
I adapted a basic Swiss roll recipe by Rachel Allen as the basis of this recipe (source no longer online as of Jan 2021) and reduced it to a 3 egg mixture as my tin was smaller.
Once the flour was combined into the whisked eggs and caster sugar for the cake mixture, I took three dessertspoonfuls of the mixture and placed them in separate bowls, then coloured each bowl with my professional colouring pastes for red, green and blue.
Then each colour was spooned into a separate piping bag, and I piped dots onto the base of my lined tin.
Next, I put the dots in the fridge for about ten minutes, as I had no room in my freezer!
After the ten minutes I spooned the rest of the cake batter over the dots and smoothed the top.
I baked the sponge for 14 minutes at 180 degrees. When done I took the tin out of the oven, and turned the cake out onto another piece of baking paper with caster sugar sprinkled on top.
I peeled off the backing paper to reveal the dots, then turned the cake back over so the dots were underneath. Next I rolled the cake up and left it to cool, with the baking paper still on.
Once fully cooled, I unrolled the Swiss roll, spread with jam, then rolled it back up tightly and dusted with icing sugar.
Pattern variations
You can vary the pattern however you like – zig zags of colour, smaller dots, checked patterns, let your imagination go wild.
Use your preferred colours if your child has a special colour they like or to match a theme for a party.
Fillings
Swiss rolls can be filled with strawberry jam, or any other flavour jam. If you like you can add a layer of whipped cream as well as jam.
Alternatively you can fill a Swiss roll using lemon curd, strawberry curd, Nutella, Biscoff spread, or anything like this that you like.
I just love the simple look of this Swiss roll with its bright pattern. Kids will love it as part of a special tea-time!
Recipe
Patterned Swiss Roll
Ingredients
- 95 g caster sugar plus extra to sprinkle over
- 3 medium free-range eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 95 g plain flour
- ⅛ tsp gel colour paste I used three colours, using as much colour as needed to get the bright colours I wanted
- 5-6 tbsp strawberry jam to fill
- 20 g icing sugar for dusting the cake before serving
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line a shallow tin (20 x 30 cm) with baking paper, using a little butter to make sure the baking paper sticks to the tin.
- Whisk three eggs and 95 g caster sugar together using a hand mixer intil light and fluffy. Then add 2 tablespoons of warm water and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
- Sift in 95 g plain flour, a bit at a time. Fold it into the cake mixture.
- Take three dessertspoonfuls of the cake mixture and put each in a separate small bowl. Colour each bowl using professional cake colouring paste to the desired shade. I made red, green and blue.
- Spoon each colour into a separate small piping bag and pipe coloured dots onto the baking paper lining the tin, in the desired pattern.
- Put the tray with the dots in the fridge for ten minutes.
- After ten minutes spoon the rest of the cake batter over the dots and smooth the top.
- Bake the Swiss roll for 14 minutes. Look for the edges shrinking away from the sides of the tin to check when it is baked.
- Remove it from the oven, and turn the cake out onto another pieces of baking paper with caster sugar sprinkled on top.
- Peel off the backing paper to reveal the dots, then turn the cake back over so the dots are underneath.
- Next roll the cake up, with the short side towards you. Wrap it in a clean tea towel or piece of baking paper so it remains in the roll shape as it cools.
- Once fully cooled, unroll the tea towel or paper and the cake inside, spread jam over the inside, then roll the Swiss roll back up tightly and dust with icing sugar.
Notes
cat says
what a cute swiss roll!
I was going to do a recipe from each show but had a busy week last week so didn’t get round to it 🙁
I might have a lot of baking to do to catch up!
CaroleHeidi says
I love the bright dots – they made me think of Mr Tumble too!
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Wow the spots on it look great! 🙂 x
Cat (Yellow Days) says
Fab, the spots are such a simple but effective decoration.
Jenny Paulin says
this is such a clever idea and i love that it reminded your children of Mr Tumble 🙂 well done on making your 1st swiss roll – it looks really good.
thank you for linking up xx