Make a Perfect Strawberry Swiss Roll
Ingredients
For strawberry purée:
250 g fresh strawberries sliced
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
For strawberry hearts sponge:
1 large egg
30 g caster sugar
30 g self-raising flour
1 tbsp strawberry purée
2 drops red colouring
For Swiss roll:
4 eggs
110 g caster sugar
110 g self-raising flour
For filling:
100 g mascarpone cheese
200 ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
150 g strawberries with a few whole to decorate
Instructions
Method
1. Place the sliced strawberries in a small pan and add lemon juice and icing sugar. Warm over a low heat for 3-4 minutes until juice is just released. Cool slightly, then blitz and sieve to remove seeds.
2. Line a 35cm x 25cm Swiss roll tin with baking paper and draw around a small heart cutter onto the paper to make a design. We rolled the short edge but for more servings roll lengthwise (think of this before making your design).
3. Whisk the single large egg with the sugar until thick, pale and creamy. Fold in the flour and 1 tbsp of strawberry purée, add a few drops of colouring to achieve a rich red colour.
4. Spoon mixture into a piping bag, make a small hole and fill the heart shapes on the Swiss roll tin paper liner to the depth of 1cm.
5. Place flat in the freezer to allow the heart shapes to set for 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, whisk the four eggs with the caster sugar until thick pale and creamy. Pause at this stage until it is time to remove heart shapes from the freezer.
7. Turn on oven to preheat to 160°C 4D hotAir. Whisk the eggs briefly then fold in the sieved flour.
8. Pour this mixture over the heart shapes carefully, tilting the tin to spread mixture to avoid disturbing the shapes.
9. Bake for 16 minutes, it should be golden and just firm to the touch, it may need the extra 2 minutes if too soft.
10. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a large rectangle of baking paper laid on a tea towel. Lightly dust the paper with caster sugar and remember to flip the baked cake so the hearts are on the outside. Trim 1cm off the crusty edge and roll up around the paper and tea towel to achieve the Swiss roll shape. Leave to cool completely in this roll to achieve the shape when filled.
11. For the filling, whisk the cream and mascarpone together adding 1 tbsp of icing sugar. Place 1/3 of the cream mixture into a piping bag with star nozzle, to be used for the final decoration on top.
12. Add the remaining strawberry puree to the remaining cream and mascarpone mixture and ripple throughout. Unroll the sponge and spread over the filling, top with most of the remaining strawberries roughly chopped for texture. Leave a few strawberries whole for decoration.
13. Re-roll the sponge and place on serving dish. Pipe the top with cream and decorate with whole strawberries.
