Valentines Roll Cake {Recipe & Tutorial}

Happy Valentines Day!!

This is the cake I made for my darling Valentine this year.

I saw a photo of a cake with vertical layers ages ago, and have been dying to give it a try. I used my trusty old Swiss Roll recipe and fed it some steroids!

I love how it looks so simple and unassuming from the outside.

Then BAM, you cut it open and this happens:

Vertical Layers Roll Cake     PRINT

Serves 20

Ingredients:

Swiss Roll:	)
3 large eggs	)
125g golden caster sugar	)
1 tsp vanilla	) x 4
125g all purpose flour	)
pinch salt	)
1 Tbsp warm water	)

Red food colour

Filling:

About 800g strawberry jam

Topping:

400ml double cream

2 Tbsp meringue powder (optional)

2 Tbsp castor sugar

Strawberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 200ºC.

Bake swiss rolls one at a time:

Grease and line the bottom of a swiss roll tin or baking tray.

Beat the eggs, castor sugar and vanilla together until it becomes very pale and thick and forms ribbons when dropped from the beater. Sift flour and salt in in two batches, folding it in gently until the batter is smooth. Fold in the warm water.

Spread batter evenly over the bottom of the baking tray. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of batter (from each batch) in a small bowl to be used later.

Bake for 10 minutes, until light golden brown and it springs back to the touch.

Remove from the oven, and working quickly, split the cake in half lengthwise, remove the first half onto a piece of parchment paper. Trim off all the edge crusts.

Spread thinly with some of the jam. Roll up from one end. Now move the second half to the parchment paper, trim and spread with jam. Butt the ends of the first rolled piece and the second piece, roll the second piece tightly around the first piece, increasing the size of the swiss roll, Choose one end to be the bottom of the cake, stand it up on the bottom up against a vertical surface to keep it upright and keep the flap in place.

Be sure to spread the jam very thin. You want a solid layer of colour, but keep it to a minimum or the cake will be very sweet!

Repeat with the second and third swiss rolls, adding each new piece to the big roll, keeping the bottom side level.

Mix red food colour into the reserved batter (there should be some from all three swiss rolls already made). Draw hearts onto the back of the parchment paper lining for the last swiss roll. Grease and line the baking tray with the parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper, then pipe the red batter onto the hearts. 

Bake for 2 minutes to set the hearts. Allow to cool.

Trim the flap on the rolled swiss roll to remove the hard edge.

Make up the last batch of swiss roll batter. Spread it carefully over the red hearts, covering the bottom of the baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes as before. Split, trim and spread with jam.

Roll the first piece of patterned cake around the swiss roll, covering the trimmed edge, ensuring the hearts are the right way up. Trim the second piece to fit between the edges of the first piece so that both edges butt up against each other. If you are careful not to get jam over the edges and butt the edges tightly, the join is hardly noticeable. Wrap tightly with parchment paper or and acetate collar and leave to set for a couple of hours.

Once set, trim the top of the cake so that it is level.

Add the meringue powder and caster sugar to the double cream and whip to stiff peaks.

Pipe on to the top of the cake and decorate with strawberries.

Twisted roses from my Valentine <3