Swiss roll is a type sponge cake which is rolled up and filled with either whipped cream, cream cheese, jam, peanut butter, icing or any other fillings that you like. While most Swiss rolls are sweet there are savoury ones too. An example of a savoury one is that filled with meat floss. There are many types of Swiss Rolls that we can make - Chocolate Swiss Roll, Strawberry Swiss Roll, Vanilla Swiss Roll, Pandan Swiss Roll, etc. The list is endless.
Swiss rolls are light and fluffy and are perfect as snacks. The main ingredients used to make them are superfine flour, eggs, oil, sugar and any flavour of your liking. We can have plain Swiss rolls or two-tone (for example, my Pastel Blue and Pastel Green Swiss roll) or even rainbow-like ones. We can also draw patterns to make our Swiss rolls interesting and appealing to our eyes.
Ingredients for the Meringue:
- 3 egg whites, Grade A
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 60 g castor sugar (can be reduced or added on depending on taste)
Ingredients for the Batter:
- 3 egg yolks, Grade A
- 20 g castor sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 45 g corn oil
- 20 ml pandan juice
- 20 ml blue pea flower juice
- 65 g superfine or cake flour
- 1/2 tbsp milk powder
Ingredients for the Filling:
- 150 g cream cheese
- 30 g butter
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
- Line a rectangular pan (10 inch x 14 inch) with a good quality parchment paper. (This is to ensure that the cake will not stick to the parchment paper.)
- Put a tray of hot water (about 2 cm) into the oven.
- Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Centigrade. (Adjust according to your oven.)
- The Meringue:
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with a hand mixer over low speed. (Please ensure that your bowl and beaters are dry and have no traces of oil otherwise the egg white will not rise.
- Once large bubbles are formed, add the cream of tartar.
- Whisk till small bubbles are formed.
- Add sugar gradually in 3 batches.
- Whisk the egg white till stiff peak.
- Once stiff peak is achieved, set the meringue aside.
- The Batter:
- In another mixing bowl, add in the egg yolks, sugar and salt. Whisk until they are creamy.
- Add the oil and continue to mix until they are well combined.
- Sieve the cake flour and milk powder into the egg yolk mixture. Mix until well combined and the batter is smooth.
- Divide the batter equally into 2 bowls.
- Add the pandan juice into 1 of the bowls. Mix until well combined. (Note: Blend 10 pandan leaves with 20 ml of water to obtain 20 ml of pandan juice.)
- Add blue pea juice into the other bowl. Mix until well combined. (Note: Steep 20 blue pea flowers in 20 ml of hot water to obtain 20 ml blue pea juice.)
- Take 1/2 of the meringue and add to the pandan batter. Use the whisk to mix the meringue with the batter gently, taking care not to deflate the meringue. Finally, use a spatula to ensure the batter is well mixed.
- Take the remaining 1/2 of the meringue and add to the blue pea batter. Use the whisk to mix the meringue with the batter gently, taking care not to deflate the meringue. Finally, use a spatula to ensure the batter is well mixed.
- Take two piping bags and fill each with the pandan batter and the blue pea batter.
- Cut the tips of the piping bags.
- Pipe the pandan batter onto the tray, starting from one corner, followed by a row of blue pea batter. Continue with a row of pandan batter and alternate with blue pea batter. Repeat until both batters are used up.
- Drop the pan onto the counter-top from about 1 foot high to break out any large bubbles. Repeat this 2 to 3 times.
- Bake in the oven at 170 deg C for 20 minutes until the cake surface is golden brown. Do not over bake or the cake will crack when you roll it later.
- Once the cake has baked, remove the pan from the oven.
- Drop the pan from 1 foot high onto the counter-top to prevent shrinkage of the cake.
- Remove the cake from the pan onto a wire rack.
- Put another sheet of parchment paper on the cake and invert it to remove the parchment paper below.
- Invert the cake back on a parchment paper.
- Let the cake cool down completely on the wire rack.
- While waiting for the cake to cool down, whip the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar till they are well combined. (Test for sweetness. Add more sugar if the filling is not sweet enough for you.)
- Cut 3 shallow slits (about 1 foot apart) across the cake at the end from which you will start rolling the cake. (This is to aid in the rolling of the cake i.e. to ensure that it does not crack when you start rolling it.)
- Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly on the cake.
- Roll the cake and wrap it in the parchment paper. Put the roll into a plastic bag or cling wrap it to prevent dryness.
- Keep the roll in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, remove cake from the refrigerator.
- Remove the plastic bag or cling wrap and parchment paper and slice the roll for serving.