Swiss Roll - Roly Poly Cake

The Swiss Roll otherwise known in my household as Roly Poly Cake is a baking basic. This was one of the first things I was taught how to bake at high school (not ever I began baking way before the age of 11). It is also one of the things I haven't baked since school, I love Swiss roll so I'm not 100% sure why I haven't baked it for so long. Perhaps it's the temptation of buying it pre-rolled from the supermarket as it is the cheapest cake you can buy from the supermarket, and as a skint student I admit I bought that 12p chocolate Swiss roll from Tesco.

Most Swiss roll recipes are similar, as I hadn't baked it for such a long time I decided to use the recipe in Mary Berry's 100 cakes and bakes, this book is proving great in grasping the basics. Most other books I find want to show you new cakes and bakes or improved cakes and bakes or simply their take on traditional cakes and bakes, this is great but sometimes you just need to go back to basics. Anyway... I'm going off on a tangent.

I did a bit 'research' before I attempted this bake and looked at how other recipes deviate, and also watched some videos of people rolling their cake in order to get the best possible result.

The sponge is really simple to make and takes no time to bake. I tipped it on to a baking sheet cover in caster sugar and let it cool a bit. It was lovely and 'spongey' when it came out and I trimmed it down to make a neat rectangle. I then rolled the cake whilst it was still fairly warm using the baking paper as an aid and left it to cool further. Once cooled I carefully unrolled the cake and spread on the jam, once the jam was spread evenly I quickly rolled it back up again and left it for an hour before taking of the baking paper.

Once ready I placed it on my cake plate and sprinkled with more caster sugar.

Et Voila!

The cake was really tasteful with a good bite to it. The raspberry jam I used was a good choice, Marks and Spencers special. The other half wants me to make a chocolate and cream roly poly next.