Baking with Eileen – Lemon Swiss Roll

12.04.20 – Eileen Priestley

I never thought that I would be so obsessed with food. It probably stems from the fact that you can’t just nip out to the shops and get what you want. From one meal to the next I find that I’m planning out it my head what we can eat next. What makes the plate look full while you’re not really using much food. In the first week of lockdown I opened the salad draw of the fridge and in there besides the usual lettuce and tomatoes there was just one lone sprout and three green beans, probably left from a Sunday dinner. Darrell went to throw them out. ‘No don’t throw them in the bin, I’ll make something with them’, I vowed. But what can you make with one sprout and three green beans you’re thinking? Well, I made a casserole and put them in. All I knew was that food was hard to get hold of and there’s no way I’m I throwing anything away.

I went searching through the cupboard and found some walnuts so decided to make a walnut cake, with a butter-cream centre and icing on the top. It was well received. We got down to the last piece, when one day I had this craving for liquorice, I don’t know why because I’m not too bothered about liquorice. Probably because I couldn’t go to the shops and buy any. I wonder how many of you have had the craving for chocolate and it doesn’t matter what you eat, nothing takes the place of chocolate? Well I had the same problem with liquorice and I knew there wasn’t any in the house, so the only thing for it, I ate the last piece of walnut cake out of desperation. When I saw my sons face when he went into the cake tin and found it empty, I felt so….. guilty. ‘Never mind I’ll make a swiss roll’. Now I really had set myself a challenge, because the last time I attempted to make a swiss roll it turned out such a mess that I decided there and then that in future I will buy all the swiss rolls I want. I think I was about fourteen at the time. So I got out my old school cookery book, and there it was, a swiss roll recipe. There wasn’t enough jam in the fridge but there was plenty of lemon curd, and quite surprisingly, this time it turned out perfectly. Thank goodness for Mrs White, she did it again and came to the rescue.

Here’s the recipe, in case you would like a go:-

Lemon Swiss Roll

Ingredients

• 2 Large eggs
  
• 3oz of sugar
• 3oz of butter
• 3oz self raising flour

Preparation

1. Line a rectangular baking try with baking paper.
2. Put the oven on at 175
3. Put butter and sugar into a bowl and cream thoroughly with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.
4. Add egg a little at a time and beat well after each addition. If the eggs are not thoroughly beaten in, curdling may occur.
5. Gently fold in the flour DO NOT BEAT.
6. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake for 9-10 minutes until just firm to touch.
7. While the cake is in the oven put jam to warm in basin standing over hot water.
8. Prepare a piece of greaseproof paper approx 2” larger all round than the cake. Sprinkle with caster sugar. Turn the cake out onto the sugared paper. Remove lining paper.
9. Spread the cake with warmed jam leaving a 1” margin all round the edges with no jam.(As the cake is rolled jam spreads to the edges).
10. Using a knife, make a groove in the cake an inch in from the edges nearest to you. Tuck this grooved end in firmly to a firm start to the roll. Roll the cake up tightly with the aid of the paper.
11. Cool the cake on a wire tray. Trim ends when the cake is cold.

VOILA! – A beautiful homemade, probably never to be done again, swiss roll.