Out of the blue my Daughter, G requested for a swiss roll cake. Peculiarly she dislikes cream filling in swiss rolls and insisted that the swiss roll I make is filled with strawberry jam. And mind you not any strawberry jam will do. It has to be ARTIFICIAL strawberry jam; you know, those cheapo bright red coloured jams with zero fruit content. Yes, my G is quirky sometimes. But I can see why she preferred the artificial strawberry jam. The cheapo jam does not contain any fruit pieces and hence, no seeds will get in the way, so to speak. The jam is just basically a strawberry flavoured jelly and it is also what I suspect most bakeries are using in their filled donuts and cakes. I've to admit I quite like it myself, reminds me of the donuts I used to eat by the bagful during my student days :P
Here it is, simple swiss roll recipe (adapted from Baking Library here) with artificial strawberry jam.
Ingredients:
80g egg yolks, room temperature
25g castor sugar
2tbs + 1 tsp corn oil
2tbs + 1 tsp water or milk
75g cake flour
160g egg whites
60g castor sugar
strawberry jam, or any jam or filling of your choice
Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 °C and line a 12 x 12 inch tin or 10 x 14 inch swiss roll tin with baking/parchment paper.
2) In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 25g castor sugar, vegetable oil and water until combined. Sift in cake flour and mix until smooth.
3) In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs whites starting with low speed. When the egg whites turn frothy, slowly increase the speed to high and wisk until egg whites reach soft peaks stage. Gradually add the 60g sugar and continue whisking until egg whites are stiff but still not dry. The egg whites should stay intact when the bowl is overturned.
4) Fold one third of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture to lighten the mixture. Then incorporate the rest of the egg whites one third at a time. Fold in gently and scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula until batter is well combined and uniformly coloured. Becareful not to deflate.
5) Pour batter into the prepared swiss roll tin. Level the batter and bake for 8 - 11 minutes. Cake is done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow sheet cake to cool.
6) Carefully turn the baked sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again, carefully. Now, peel of the top piece of baking/parchment paper. The skin would be stuck to the baking/parchment paper and would be removed.
7) With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), make a shallow slit across the breadth of the cake with a knife, one inch from the edge. Spread on the strawberry jam. Roll the cake up tightly and trim off the ugly ends. Serve.
