Orange Swiss Roll by Mary Berry

This was an unusual choice of cake for me, mostly because I prefer layered cakes and had also never made any type of rolled cake before. However, I had a dozen eggs to use in 2 days so I thought I would give this recipe a go, as it required nothing more than pantry ingredients.

Also unusual in this dish is the lack of fat in the sponge roll. While this is obviously a plus is you are limiting your fat intake, it did detract from the flavour of the sponge and I really felt it needed to be served with cream or ice cream.
Having said that, the sponge roll was very easy to make and I can certainly see myself making it again, but adjusting the filling next time.

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 100g Caster sugar
• rind of 1 orange
• 100g self-raising flour
• 4 tablespoons marmalade to fill

Pre heat your  oven to 200° and line a 33 x 23cm tin with baking paper.

Using an electric beater, whisk the eggs, sugar and zest in a large bowl until light and frothy and the batter leaves a trail when you lift the beaters out.
The mixture will double in volume and look almost meringue-like.

Now sift the flour into the mix and carefully fold it in using a spatula.

Pour the batter  into the tin and shake to find the level. Make sure it’s spread to the corners, using your spatula to help out if needed.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Watch the sponge, it cooks very quickly!

When done, turn onto a baking paper sprinkled with extra caster sugar (I only had white sugar, caster sugar would give a finer result).
Trim edges of sponge with bread knife/serrated knife and make a cut across the sponge 2.5cm in from the short edge to aid rolling. Do not cut right through.

Leave to cool slightly, then spread with warmed marmalade (I had some leftover orange icing from cupcakes so I put that in too).

Roll up the cake firmly from the cut end and rest on the end if possible, so the join is at the bottom.

I was surprised at how easily it rolled, as I was quite worried it would break. I followed Mel’s example in her jam and cream roulade so for a more complete tutorial, have a look at her post.

Cut into slices  to serve, with sweetened whipped cream if you like.

Mary Berry’s original recipe is actually a lemon swiss roll. She replaces orange zest with lemon zest and uses lemon curd in the middle instead of orange marmalade. You could make this with a whole variety of flavours. I’m personally eager to try a chocolate version (replace 25g of the flour with cocoa powder) and fill it with nutella. Keep an eye out for that update!