When I was young we used to entertain visitors a lot in our house & I loved it! The main reason I loved this as a kid was that my parents always got something to treat them with. Sometimes it was cookies… You know the kind – the ones that come in a tin that is eventually re-purposed as a sewing supplies container! I wasn’t a big fan of these cookies so I always suggested cake… specifically chocolate cake!
If I am lucky, my mother would get the chocolate swiss roll from the supermarket which I loved eating (whatever was left once the visitors were gone, of course).
Now, I like making my own!
This is a great recipe for you to use! You can keep this in the freezer double wrapped in plastic wrap (or glad wrap as it’s called in NZ & Aus) and then foil. This recipe is for a cake that is 9x 11 inches, but the pictures will show a larger cake as I saved some for a separate recipe, that you will find out about soon! 🙂
The trick to making a Chocolate Swiss Roll (or any kind of swiss roll really) is rolling up the cake base while it is warm!
I learnt this the hard way because on my first attempt, I tried rolling up the cooled cake and ended up with broken fragments! Once you have rolled it up, keep it wrapped until it cools down!
What is special about this cake is the frosting! A beautiful creamy Salted Caramel frosting with a dark chocolate cake! You can easily omit the salt if you like, but to me the salt just makes the cake taste more decadent! The caramel is so good that you want to eat it on its own! I mean look at how amazing it looks… I usually let it go a little darker, & that might be a good idea for you to do if you try this too!
This frosting is something you want to save up for those special occasions! It is amazing in this cake, but would be amazing on cupcakes or any cake really. Once the cake has cooled, you can unwrap it and frost it with any frosting you like, but between you & me… this is my favourite! I left the cake to cool a bit too long which resulted in a few cracks as you may notice in the picture below but it still rolled up easily without crumbling (unlike on my first attempt).
Doesn’t it look amazing? The cake was soft and so chocolatey and the salt in the frosting just complimented the flavour perfectly! The best part of this swiss roll is that I can make it anytime & not only when visitors come around! 🙂
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Chocolate Swiss Roll
Ingredients:
- 3.5 ounces Cake Flour
- 1.5 ounces cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 large eggs
- 5.5 ounces of sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp of vegetable oil optional
Instructions:
- Line a 9 x 11 baking sheet pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350
- In a mixer, mix the eggs and sugar until combined. Set the pan over a saucepan of simmering water (bowl not touching the water). Heat the egg mixture while whisking constantly until warm to the touch (about 2 minutes)
- Remove from heat, add the vanilla and whisk the mix (in a mixer or with a handheld mixer) on medium heat until it is a very thick, foamy mix that has doubled in volume.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder together in a separate bowl. Gently fold in half of the flour/cocoa mix into the egg mixture. Add the rest of the flour and cocoa and fold it through the batter.
- PLEASE NOTE - handle the batter as little as possible so as to not deflate it - about 15-20 folds each time maximum.
- If you choose to add the oil, Gently mix the oil with about 1 cup of the batter separately. Introduce this back into the batter and fold into the batter (with as little handling as possible)
- Immediately transfer the batter into the prepared baking pan, gently pushing the batter to the corners and making sure it is spread evenly.
- Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
- When the cake is ready let it cool out of the oven for a few minutes.
- Turn it out on to a new/clean dish cloth and gently pull away the parchment paper it was baked in, but place it back on the cake.
- While it is warm, Roll the cake up using the cloth to secure it. Cover it with the cloth and leave it to cool.
- ASSEMBLY -
- When you're ready to ice it, gently unroll the cake and remove the parchment paper.
- Spread the icing on the cake surface and re-roll the cake.
- Transfer the cake onto a serving plate, seam side down and dust powdered sugar on top.
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Salted Caramel Frosting
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of white sugar
- 2.5 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 340 g softened butter
- 1 tsp of sea salt
- 1 cup of icing sugar
Instructions:
- In a small saucepan add the sugar and water and heat gently to melt sugar (DO NOT STIR).
- Allow the mix to boil further, without stirring until sugar caramelizes. Keep an eye on the sugar as once the sugar starts to change colour, it will burn very quickly.
- Allow the caramel to turn to a dark amber (slightly burnt caramel).
- Immediately add the cream while sauce pan is off the heat and stir until mix is smooth.
- Allow the caramel to cool to room temperature.
- In a mixer bowl add the butter, icing sugar and salt and mix on med high speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the caramel to the frosting and mix on med high for a few minutes until the caramel is mixed through.
- The Icing can be refrigerated. However whisk it before use.
- ASSEMBLY
- When you're ready to ice it, gently unroll the cake and remove the parchment paper.
- Spread the icing on the cake surface and re roll the cake.
- Transfer the cake onto a serving plate, seam side down and dust powdered sugar on top.
You know that this recipe is do-able! It’s easier than it looks! Plus it’s so good you’ll have visitors coming over just to have this cake! What’s your favourite Swiss roll cake & frosting combo?
I love hearing from you guys so do leave a comment below!
Now remember there’s more that I made with the chocolate cake… Keep checking in on facebook or twitter or instagram to find out what I did with the extra cake plus more sneak peaks on what’s happening in giramuk’s kitchen!
Till next time 🙂
Agatha says
Hi
When you said in the assembly ‘gently unroll the cake and remove the parchment paper’, do you mean that at this point the cake has no parchment paper at all? Like is it kept directly on a plate or something like that? And when you reroll it, do you roll it with bare hands or do you keep parchment paper at the bottom and reroll with it?
Dini says
Hi Agatha
Yes, after you unroll the cake and remove the parchment paper there will be no parchment paper on the cake from that point onwards. I used my hands to reroll the cake after spreading the frosting, because it will be easier to roll it up at this point. If you want you can either use a parchment paper or the cloth to assist you.
Once the cake has been rolled up, it can be kept on a serving platter with the seam side down and it’s ready to be served. Hope that helps Agatha! 🙂
Agatha says
Thank you so much!
Connie says
I would love to try this soon… looks yummy! By the way what sugar are you using, is that a refined? Thanks!!
Dini says
Thank you! Yes it is Connie 🙂 You can use granulated or Caster Sugar to make the caramel. Caster sugar does melt easily since it is finer in texture.
Sue says
Haven’t made a cake roll in years. This is my Christmas eve dessert. Looks and sounds so yummy!
Mark A Irwin says
Is this the salted caramel frosting recipe called on the chocolate peanut cake with caramel peanutbutter nougat filling recipe? How much frosting does this recipe yeild after made? Im making that cake for my wifes birthday with a few additions to it. Thsnk you so much for your time..
Dini says
Hi Mark!
Yes, I used the same frosting as the base for the caramel and peanut butter nougat filling. The Caramel-PB nougat filling was enough to ONLY FILL a 3 layered 8 inch cake. The caramel frosting on this post, is probably enough to fill a 2 layer 8 inch cake (I used it for the inside of a swiss roll here)
I quadrupled the batch of this Salted caramel frosting for the Mocha Genoise Cake to fill and cover a 3 layered 8 inch Cake – the difference is that I added coffee to the caramel, which balanced the sweetness for me too.
I hope that helps you to decide how much of the frosting you might need. What is the shape/how many layers is your cake?
Christie Campbell says
I have never made a Swiss roll. Now, I really want to make one. This looks scrumptious! Thanks for linking up with #FoodieFridays!
Christie
http://akitchenhoor.blogspot.com/
Dini says
Thank you Christie! I used to be intimidated too, but now I love making them! 🙂