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Decorated Jelly Roll/Swiss Roll Tutorial

patterned swiss rolls by Junko, swiss roll art, deco roll cakes

Jelly roll/Swiss roll art has taken the baking world by storm, thanks to the creativity of Japanese baking blogger, JUNKO. With the publication of her book, Deco Roll Cakes, Junko shares with us the secrets of her eye-catching cake artistry, including her fantastic selection of patterned templates. Jelly rolls will never be the same again!

Strawberry Print Jelly Roll Tutorial:

The strawberry pattern above may look difficult to achieve but it is done just by piping some pink batter, baking it, and drawing the seeds and leaves on later — which is really easy to do!

Ingredients (for a 25cm/10inch square baking pan)

For the cake:

4 eggs (in separate bowls: 3 egg yolks, 1 egg white, 3 egg whites)

35 g + 30 g caster sugar

60 ml water

40 ml vegetable oil

½ tsp vanilla extract

80 g cake flour -for cake (Cake flour is a super light, low-protein flour popular in the US but isn’t widely available in the UK. To make your own cake flour, add three tablespoons of cornflour to a cup of plain flour, then meaure out as required for this recipe).

½ tsp cake flour for pattern

1/8 tsp red liquid colouring
(diluted with ¼ tsp water)

a pinch + 1 tsp cornflour

For the syrup:

10 g caster sugar

20 ml hot water

½ Tbsp Kirsch liqueur

For the filling:

14 g caster sugar

150 ml whipping cream

10 strawberries

To finish:

½ tsp cocoa powder (dissolved in 1 tsp hot water)

½ tsp matcha powder (dissolved in 1 tsp hot water)

Preparation

a. Weigh and measure all ingredients.

b. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Dip a paper towel in vegetable oil and lightly grease parchment paper.

c. Preheat oven to 170°C.

d. Make a parchment cone and have a fine-tipped brush at hand also.

For the egg yolk batter

1. Beat 3 egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Add 35 g caster sugar, and beat with an electric mixer until mixture is light. Mix in 60 ml water, 40 ml vegetable oil and ½ tsp vanilla extract. Sift in 80 g cake flour and continue to beat until batter is sticky.

 For the pattern

2. Take 1 tsp egg yolk batter from Step 1 and place into a bowl. Add ½ tsp cake flour and mix well.

3. Dilute 1/8tsp red liquid food colouring with ¼ tsp water. Add diluted colour, little by little, to bowl from Step 2 to make a pink batter.

4. In a clean bowl, beat 1 egg white with an electric mixer until glossy and stiff peaks are about to form. Add a pinch of cornflour and continue to beat until stiff.

5. Add 3 Tbsp meringue from Step 4 to batter from Step 3 and mix well. Pour into paper cone.

6. Cut tip of cone and pipe strawberry shapes onto parchment paper. Bake in preheated 170°C oven for 1 minute.

For the cake batter

7. In a clean bowl, beat 3 egg whites using an electric mixer. Once it thickens, mix in 30 g caster sugar until mixture is glossy and stiff peaks are about to form. Add 1 tsp cornflour and continue to beat until stiff.

8. Mix remaining meringue from Step 4 with meringue from Step 7. Add meringue mixture, one-third at a time, to remaining egg yolk batter from Step 1. Mix until smooth and no traces of meringue are left.

9. Pour batter onto baking pan with baked pattern (see below). Spread batter evenly with a scraper. Gently tap pan on table two to three times to remove any air pockets.

Swiss roll art deco roll by Junko, pouring batter on partially bake batter strawberries

To bake

10. Bake in preheated 170°C oven for 14 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and cover with a new sheet of parchment paper. Invert pan on a wire rack and unmould cake.

11. Peel off parchment paper from bottom of cake immediately and place it back on top of cake to allow latent heat to escape. Leave cake to cool.

Swiss roll art deco roll by Junko, just baked

To assemble

12. For syrup: Dissolve 10 g caster sugar in 20 ml hot water. Leave to cool, then add ½ Tbsp Kirsch liqueur.

13. For filling: Add 14 g caster sugar to 150 ml whipping cream in a bowl. Place bowl in an ice bath and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Cut strawberries into quarters.

14. Flip cake over, so pattern faces down on parchment paper. Trim two opposite ends of cake at a diagonal. Make shallow cuts 2-cm apart on surface of cake. Brush with syrup, then spread cream filling evenly, leaving a 3-cm space at the opposite end.

Swiss roll art deco roll by Junko, assembly

15. Place cut strawberries on cream filling. Starting from end closest to you, roll cake outwards using parchment paper to help keep cake level. Once strawberries are inside roll, hold firmly and finish rolling tightly. Wrap cake up with parchment paper and twist both ends to secure roll. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Using fine-tipped brush, draw strawberry seeds using ½ tsp cocoa powder dissolved in 1 tsp hot water, and stalks using ½ tsp matcha powder dissolved in 1 tsp hot water. Slice both ends off deco roll with a warm knife before serving.

Swiss roll art deco roll by Junko, adding extra detail

More Design Ideas

To create your own unique swiss roll art, take any pattern you fancy and trace over it with parchment paper. Line your baking tin with this patterned swiss roll polka dots and stripes by JUNKOpatterned paper (pencil side down, of course) and then pipe over the pattern with your coloured batter and follow the remainder of the instructions above.

Published by Marshall Cavendish, Deco Roll Cakes is available online and at all good bookshops.

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