Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Roll – chocolate sponge cake with raspberry whipped filling and chocolate ganache.
I don’t think I could have planned the timing of this cake and post any better! We just returned from a weekend at Bear Lake, Utah where all things raspberries are the talk of the town! We filled our bellies with as many raspberry shakes and chocolate covered raspberries we could find (and fit in our stomachs). I just wish we could go back for the raspberry festival in August!
Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Roll
And now here I am with my new Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Roll to share with you the day after we get home. Perfect timing!
Round 1
As many of you may have seen in my stories and on Instagram, this cake was not as easy as I thought. I originally tried a recipe for a chocolate sponge cake roll from one of my vintage cookbooks. I captured round 1 of my Swiss Roll attempt and saved it to IGTV. You can watch the whole thing HERE. I also saved video clips in stories that you can watch HERE too.
I had problems with the cake sticking to my towel, cracking, and flavor.
Round 2
For my second attempt, I decided to try my own chocolate cake recipe. The flavor was delicious but the texture didn’t allow for rolling the cake like a sponge cake does. It cracked and fell apart like crazy.
Time to try again.
Round 3
For round 3, I went back to the original recipe, made a few changes, and tried again. The flavor wasn’t as strong or rich as my chocolate cake, but it was definitely better than the first round and paired beautifully with the raspberry filling. Plus, my family devoured it! That’s a sign of a winner!
What you need to know for Swiss Roll success:
- Use a sponge cake recipe
- Use a damp towel and sprinkle with cocoa powder or powdered sugar
- Don’t roll the cake too tight
- Let cool at room temperature, not in the refrigerator or freezer
- Don’t re-roll too tight
Whipped Cream Filling
The whipped cream filling for this cake is truly something special. The recipe comes from Serious Sweets. The only change I made was adding more sugar!
Making this food processor stabilized whipped cream is so easy, but you definitely need the freeze-dried fruit and a food processor or blender. The reason the cream can get so thick is that the freeze-dried fruit, when pulverized, absorbs some of the moisture from the cream and helps to create a Greek yogurt-like texture.
If you don’t want a raspberry filling, you can sub any freeze-dried fruit for the raspberries. I’m dying to try it with mangoes!
So make sure to check out my Instagram videos for tutorials of the dos and don’ts and then head back here to grab the recipe and try this one for yourself. I think you’ll love the whole experience, especially digging in.
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Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Roll
Ingredients
FOR THE SPONGE CAKE
- 3/4 cup (84.75 g) cake flour
- 1/4 cup (25 g) dark cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp (1 g) baking powder
- 1/4 tsp (1.2 g) salt
- 5 eggs separated
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
FOR THE WHIPPED FILLING (adapted from Serious Sweets)
- 1/2 cup (15 g) freeze dried raspberries or other fruit
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 cups (455 g) heavy whipping cream
FOR THE GANACHE
- 3/4 cup (173 g) heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup (175 g) dark chocolate chips
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a half sheet pan with non-stick spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk or beat the egg yolks together until lighter in color and thicker in texture. This took about 10 minutes. Set aside.
- In another medium sized mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on high until stiff peaks form. Once you have peaks, fold in the granulated sugar.
- Once the sugar is folded into the egg whites, fold in the egg yolks.
- Next, you'll fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Make sure no streaks of eggs or dry ingredients remain.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Once baked, turn out onto a damp tea towel that has been sprinkled with cocoa powder. (You can also turn the cake onto another large sheet of parchment that has been sprayed with nonstick spray).
- Cut off any edges that look uneven or crusted.
- Gently roll the cake, making sure not to roll too tightly.
- Allow to cool at room temperature until the cake reaches room temperature. Do not place the roll in the fridge or freezer to cool faster. This will cause the cake to crack.
- Once the cake has cooled, gently unroll the cake and spread the filling (instructions below) on the cake.
- Reroll the cake, chill for about 15 minutes and then coat with the chocolate ganache.
FOR THE WHIPPED FILLING
- In a food processor, pulse the freeze dried raspberries until they resemble a powder.
- Add the sugar and the cream and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to incorporate the freeze dried fruit.
- Pulse the mixer for about 1 to 2 minutes. The texture should resemble Greek yogurt.
- Keep chilled until ready to use.
FOR THE GANACHE
- In a microwave safe bowl, heat the cream on high for about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Stir the chocolate and cream until smooth and silky. If the chocolate hasn't melted yet, heat the cream and chocolate in 30 second intervals.
- Pour warm ganache over chilled chocolate roll.
What mesh strainer do you use? Thank you!
where in the world do you buy freeze dried fruit?
At the store!
Never having made a Swiss roll this recipe is tasty. Ganache should be mixed with a whisk so it is smoother.
I’m glad you liked it!
Can I use this frosting on cupcakes? Is it thick enough to pipe??
Probably not thick enough to pipe.
Does this freeze well?
Yes
Could this whipped filling be used in between a tiered cake as well?
It’s not stable enough.
I’m a pretty experienced baker but love to learn new stuff – the food processor made whipped cream was a revelation! Cake came out perfectly, although I’ve had to freeze it due to a delay in the celebration it was made for. I even used up every bit the ingredients left over after trimming, filling and frosting, and created a wonderful deconstructive mess that was greatly appreciated by my family! thank you for this, I will be making it again!
I’m so glad!
What size pan. I tried to click on the video but it says something went wrong. Thanks.
I used a half sheet pan for this one.
Is there a way to make this a vanilla Swiss roll; cake? Just leave out chocolate?
Love all you do!
Do you have a favorite food processor that grinds small quantities of freeze dried berries and also large quantities for something like salsa?
I have a Cuisinart and really like it.