Swiss Roll Cake

The lightness of a sponge cake comes from the whipped eggs. For best results, don’t skimp on the steps of fully whipping the yolks and the whites. Use a silicone or rubber spatula when folding ingredients into the batter and be gentle so that the delicate batter stays airy.

Separate egg whites and yolks being sure not to get any yolk into the whites.

Beat the yolks with a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whip attachment until lighter yellow in color and foamy. Slowly add 1/4 C of the granulated sugar, lemon juice and vanilla bean paste and continue to whip until thickened – about 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whip the whites (with a hand mixer or stand mixer with the whip attachment to soft peaks and then slowly add the remaining 1/2 C of sugar and whip to stiff peaks – about 5 minutes.

Fold the yolk mixture into the whites one third at a time, being sure to fold from the bottom.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool.

Sift the cake flour, baking soda (and spices) together.

Fold the flour mixture into the batter one third at a time and fold just until all of the flour is incorporated.

Add the butter to the batter and fold in.

See the next steps for coloring the batter and baking.

Coloring & Piping the Batter

Use a concentrated gel or paste color for this part. You cannot use the liquid colors, it will add too much moisture to the batter. To make it easier, print out your design so that you will have a template to work from.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Separate batter into bowl for each color. The piped batter goes a long way – so don’t take too much so that you won’t have enough base left to spread. Carefully incorporate the color – don’t mix too aggressively it will deflate the batter. Place colored batter into piping bags fitted with the proper tips for the design. I most commonly use a tip 2 and pipe outlines and then and fill-in areas also with that tip.

Prepare the 11” x 15” pan by placing the printed design on the pan, Spray with a little vegetable pan spray and then cover with parchment paper that is larger than the pan. Push the parchment into the pan and generously spray with vegetable pan spray.

Pipe the design. Slide out the printed paper. Carefully pour the base batter around the design and use an offset spatula to spread.

Bake for 10 minutes until the cake springs back.

Rolling the Cake

Immediately after removing the cake from the oven: Sprinkle a clean tea towel with powdered sugar and place it sugar side down on top of the cake. Turn the cake over onto a board, remove pan and carefully peel away the parchment paper. Sprinkle another towel with a little powdered sugar and place on top. Flip the whole cake over using the board to stabilize it. Position the short side of the cake towards the end of the towel and carefully roll.

Allow cake to cool to room temperature in the towel.

Ganache

Chop the chocolate into small chocolate chip sized pieces. Bring the cream to a boil. Pour over the chocolate. Allow to sit for 2 minutes. Stir the ganache from the bottom until glossy. Cover with plastic touching the ganache and set aside.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filling

Have the cream cheese and butter at room temperature. Cream the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla bean paste and beat until incorporated. Add the pumpkin puree and mix well.

ASSEMBLY

Unroll the cake. Evenly spread a very thin layer of ganache all the way to the edges using an offset spatula. Place in the refrigerator for 5 minutes to set the ganache.

Spread the pumpkin filling on top of the ganache layer leaving a inch from the end that is the end of the roll and ½ inch from each side.

Carefully roll the cake. Some of the filling may come out the side and accumulate at the end.

Place on platter seam side down and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Slice and serve!