I love the Asian swiss rolls that you can find at various Chinese bakeries in the Bay Area, but I feel like the flavor choices among of them are pretty standard. I decided to come up with a swiss roll that incorporates a classic Bay Area flavor and ended up creating a strawberry matcha swiss roll!
Swiss rolls are notorious for being fussy to make because you have to whip up the eggs properly in order for the cake to maintain a nice light spongey texture and you have to be careful to not overbake them or they’ll crack. This recipe is relatively easy to follow and will ensure that you can achieve a really nice roll out of it without worrying about any crackage!
The key to keeping the swiss roll from cracking is to take it out just as it feels a bit springy when touched from the top. We want to avoid overbaking it as much as we can because we don’t want to dry it out. Then immediately roll up the cake while its still hot so it retains some memory of that shape, making it easier to roll up once its filled with cream.
Ingredients
Matcha Swiss Roll
- 1 cup cake flour
- 2 tablespoons matcha powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 5 eggs
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- pinch of salt
Strawberry whipped cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
Instructions
Matcha Swiss Roll
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper
- Start off by separating the eggs and place the egg yolks in a large bowl the egg whites in a separate clean bowl
- Whip up the egg whites into stiff peaks and set aside
- In the large bowl with the egg yolks, pour in the sugar and milk and whisk together until the mixture is pale yellow
- In a small bowl mix together the dry ingredients (cake flour, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt)
- Add the dry ingredients from the small bowl into the egg yolk mixture from the large bowl and fold to combine (ensure to not over mix because we want to keep as much air in the egg yolk mixture as we can!)
- Then fold (in 1/3 increments) the whipped egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and fold until just combined (again we're trying to not overmix because we want to retain as much of the air bubbles we've created as possible)
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared sheet pan and bake for ~8 minutes until the cake just springs back once touched (we don't want the cake too firm or it'll crack when rolled)
- Once baked, invert the cake out of the sheet pan onto another piece of parchment paper and remove the piece of parchment paper that's now on top of the cake
- Immediately roll up the cake into that classic swiss roll shape and let it cool on a wire rack until room temperature (it would help if you place the rolled cake into a tube of a similar size so it retains it's shape while cooling)
- While that is cooling, prep the strawberry whipped cream
Strawberry whipped cream
- Pour the heavy whipping cream and strawberry extract into a bowl and, with a hand mixer, start to whip up the cream
- Slowly pour in the sugar into the whipping cream as you're whipping it up
- Continue to whip the cream until it is firm and can hold a peak
Assembly
- Once the swiss roll is cooled and the whipped cream is done whipping, we can start to assemble the cake!
- Unroll the cake and add a generous amount of strawberry whipped cream onto it
- Begin to spread out the whipped cream across the cake, and make sure to only place a small amount of whipped cream along the edge of the cake that is opposite of where you will start rolling (this ensures that the whipped cream won't spill out of that outer edge once it is done being rolled)
- Then start to roll together the cake and wrap the rolled cake in a layer of plastic wrap
- Leave the finished swiss roll in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before slicing into!
