Swiss Roll - recipe by Mary Berry

Today I decided to bake a swiss roll to have as our dessert after Sunday tea.  I wasn't sure how this would turn out, as this was my first attempt at a swiss roll, but fingers crossed it would all go ok!

My eldest little boy (Boy No.1) decided he wanted to help me bake.  My youngest little boy (Boy No. 2) was fast asleep in bed and husband had popped out to pick up a parcel, so we decided to get on with it whilst the going was good!

This is one of the first recipes in Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and I was keen to have a go at creating our very first swiss roll.

The first job was to retrieve the electric whisk from the new set of drawers in the garage which had been purchased to relieve the fit to bursting kitchen cupboards! 

The sugar and eggs were tipped into a large mixing bowl and we whisked continuously for at least 3 minutes until the mixture was nice and light, foamy and frothy.  I was impressed by how much the mixture increased in volume, it must have at least quadrupled in size!  I was glad I used my large mixing bowl!

We then added a modest quantity of sifted self raising flour and - very carefully - folded this in to the light foamy mixture using a large metal spoon.  This was easier said than done, as we kept finding little pockets of flour in the mixture!

Once we were happy that we had folded in the flour as best as we could, we carefully tipped this in to the pre-lined greased swiss roll tin and gently tipped the tin so that it spread out to all four corners.  This then went into the oven for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes I wasn't happy that the sponge was cooked through and it hadn't started to shrink away from the edges of the tin as Mary says it should, so I left it in for an extra couple of minutes.

The sponge was then removed from the oven and I gently tipped this onto some baking parchment which I had sprinkled with caster sugar.  I carefully removed the baking parchment which was actually quite difficult as the sponge was defiantly clinging on to the paper!  I eventually managed to coax it away from the paper and heaved a sigh of relief as it came away in one piece.

After the roll had cooled, and after I had trimmed one of the edges having decided that the other 3 edges didn't need a trim, Boy No. 1 had fun spreading strawberry jam all over the sponge and licking his sticky fingers at the end! I was then left with the unenviable task of rolling up the sponge but this was a lot easier and quicker than I anticipated.

We all enjoyed this swiss roll for our pudding.  Both boys quickly polished it off and husband said it was very good, even better than Marks and Spencers!  Praise indeed!

I was happy with the way it turned out - and tasted - and I'm looking forward to baking my next swiss roll - I think maybe one filled with coffee buttercream next!  I will definitely trim all four edges next time though to get a sharp finish - which of course means extra trimmings to polish off during the baking process!